2011 NBA Jam Session

Jam Session was crazy fun.  I went two days and met plenty of players, got autographs, and did all the picture taking booths with my friends. 

Started off with a 10 minute wait for an autograph from Eric Gordon of the Clippers.

Met former Duke Blue Devil and Marina High grad Cherokee Parks. 

LA High School phenom, Jason Hart of Inglewood High and Syracuse University. 

Stopped by Center Court and watched the Laker Girls give a dance clinic to the kids. 

It was cute.  The little girls were having so much fun.  When they announced that the Laker Girls would imitate whatever dance they did, one little five year old black girl was stunned and shocked and just froze up with that jaw drop face that said, “OMG… OMG… OMG!!!”

Learned that that step and clap that the Laker Girls do during timeouts is called the Pony Step and Cross.  So educational!

Half of me…

Vinyl Spin Art.  It’s like what you did when you were a little kid with cardboard, paint, and a spinning machine, except it was with a record. 

If you ever go to one of these, Saturday is the day to go.  So many of the players are there signing or making appearances!  Just from my short walk around the facility, I saw signings or appearances by Dwyane Wade at the T-Mobile booth, Dwight Howard at Farmers Insurance, Kevin Love, Craig Sager at the Time Warner, Tony Parker and Rajon Rondo signing at the Kia Motors exhibit, not to mention seeing Darryl Dawkins and Dikembe Mutumbo just walking around.  Also, Blake Griffin was giving out free autographs on Sunday. 

Even though everyone was promoting Blake Griffin in all their photo giveaways, all the all stars were still in the shadow of Kobe. 

We got there early, at 9:15, waited 15 minutes and got a pic and autograph from Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors!  He wasn’t an All Star this year, but just wait a couple of years, he’s going to be an All Star for years. 

We turned a corner and there he was… Lebron James of 1994… Felipe Lopez.  It’s sort of sad.  He was the baddest cat and projected guaranteed lottery pick.  He was MVP of the McDonald’s All American game and went to St. John’s University.  He was in the show for a few years but his NBA career never really took off. 

“Throw up them dueces!!!”  That’s what Craig Hodges was telling me when I saw him walking the floor.  Him and Larry Bird are the only three time 3 Point Shootout champions.  Not to mention winning a few titles with the Chicago Bulls and now a coach with my Lakers. 

At the Jam Session, one of the booths let us make our own basketball cards.  My friend Annie told me she was going to own me on the court, but it sort of looks like it’s the other way around.  As my boy Snoop Dogg once said, “The West Coast is the Breast Coast!!!”

Next up… pics from the All Star Practice!

This is what they call a tease…

I’m really behind on pics, but I’ve actually been out and about.  I owe you the My Chemical Romance ones, but that’s not all.  Last week I ended up at a tiny pre-grammy party with Lady Antebellum and so many others (holy crap what a show!), and this week I’ll be at the NBA All-Star practice.  I had tickets to the dunk contest but it was too pricey for the seats I had (do you know face was $630 for a pair of the worst upper level seats?) so I sold those off.  I could’ve been in NY, VIP floor for Lady Gaga @ MSG next week but decided to pass on road tripping out there.  I’ve also been lucky, getting floor tickets for the Strokes @ MSG and pit for Katy Perry @ Nassau Coliseum.

Have you seen all the new music that’s releasing?  Oooo… I’m excited.  New albums from Adele, Cut Copy, the Strokes, and Radiohead drops this weekend.  AHHHHHH!!!! 

Tip of the week from All Star Weekend… Blake Griffin will be signing free autographs at NBA Jam Session on Sunday… if he wins the dunk contest and shows up… Jam Session is going to be, OMG, I couldn’t even imagine the madness.

Everything has been hectic except for online dating.  Nothing going on there.  Hahaha.  Oh well, can’t have everything at once…

I was at South Coast Plaza for a Lunar New Year party on Friday, moseyed on into the Adidas store and stumbled upon these. 

I was sort of speechless.  I’m a sneakerhead, but haven’t bought anything major for four years, other than pairs I can actually wear.  I gave up on it because I already have all the first run retro Jordans and all the re-releases of those are shoddy quality.  I bought them because I loved the shoes, not necessarily to make a buck.  My all time fave is the Jordan XI’s, at one point I had 20 pairs of my size in various colors.  I still hold quite a bit of those.  Of all those colors, my heart melts for the all white highs with tinge of columbia blue XI “whites” or back in 1996 they were known as the “all star game” edition. 

Anyhow, the Adidas clerk was clearly excited, telling me how they were already going for gobs of money on ebay and that they only received one pair of each size, how a girl from China was there in the morning and she was a women’s size 6 but they only had men’s 7 1/2 in pink so she bought those.  At 8:30 p.m., they had 5 pairs left and they had my size.  I tried them on and they fit perfectly.  What the hey, I got them in brown.

They also have some glow-in-the-dark wings shoes that make your feet look like Hermes, messenger for Zeus.  Those are pretty dope.  They are sneakers with a wing flap that you can flip up.  The whole sneaker glows in the dark, other than the sole. 

Adidas Jeremy Scott ObyO JS Bears 

I know, they are pretty crazy.  I saw them and my first thought was, “Who the hell would buy those?”  But seconds later the fun side of me was thinking, “They are pretty sweet… why am I still looking and touching them?”   Man… they are sort of growing on me.  They are so crazy that I’m starting to think they’re cool.  The only place I could ever wear them to would be a bad ass Hollywood house party, but I’ve never been invited to one of those, so that means I’d never get to sport them.  I imagine it’s the type of shoe that if I wore them to the mall, all the guys would give me lame looks and all the girls would stop me and comment on them… “Soooo cute!!!” 

What do you think, should I keep or sell them?   Are they rad or stupid?  Be honest.   I hear they are releasing pandas next month!