Bill Russell at Sports Authority, James Worthy/AC Green NBA Nation 5-14-11

If you read the title, the Bill Russell I am referring to is former Dodger Bill Russell and not the Celtic great who bears the same name. May 14, 2011 was another day full of signings at two different locations. First stop was the Bill Russell signing at Sports Authority in Sherman Oaks. Bill was a special guest to commemorate their grand opening. The second stop was NBA Nation which was an event held at Universal City Walk.

Bill Russell Signing Recap:
I decided to drive out to Sherman Oaks with my buddy Nick who was nice enough to graph with me today. He only graphs basketball but he followed me along for the ride and we ended up heading out to Sports Authority for Bill Russell's autograph. Russell is known for being a member of the record setting Dodger infield that includes Steve Garvey, Ron Cey and Davey Lopes. He is also a 3X WS Champ and 3X All Star. Surprisingly there weren't that many fans at this signing. I'd say about 50-75 people showed up.

Bill was kind enough to sign my ROMLB on the SS and also added the 3X World Series Champ and 3X All Star inscription for me. Sports Authority also had two photos/cards available for Bill to sign for fans and he was nice enough to sign those for me as well.

As we were leaving Sports Authority the Clippers Spirit had a table of their own signing autographs.

NBA Nation James Worthy and AC Green signing Recap:
As soon we got the autographs from Sports Authority we headed out to Universal City walk to get in line for the James Worthy signing. NBA Nation made a stop at Universal City Walk and the scheduled players at the event were James Worthy, Brian Cook, and AC Green. When we arrived there were about 10 people already standing in line. As the time got closer to the James Worthy signing about 150-200 fans showed up. During the downtime I took some pictures of the event.

 My goal was to get James Worthy today. It was my first time getting his autograph and I was very excited to meet one of my heroes growing up. James signed my Official NBA Basketball and also added the HOF 2003 and 3X NBA Champion inscriptions. Due to the large crowd they enforced a strict one item per person autograph rule with no photo ops. They wanted the lines to move as fast as possible.

After getting Worthy's autograph I decided to check out the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest which was being judged by the one and only AC Green.

After the Slam Dunk Contest was over I went over to AC and asked him to sign my Lakers Great Western Forum Floor Piece. AC was nice enough to sign the floor piece for me and also took a photo with me.

If you look closely at the photo of me and AC you can see two signatures, one of AC and the other one being Michael Cooper (from a Metro PCS signing). The last picture shows that James Worthy signed this piece for me as well. The James Worthy autograph came at a later date at an in store signing at Staples in Pico Rivera a few weeks later. That day also involved me getting autographs at two different locations in the same day. Stay tuned for that upcoming post.