This was my first trip out to Washington Park to check out the Drew League. Due to the NBA lockout a lot of local pros were playing in this summer pro am to work out. I heard through Derrick Williams' twitter page that he would be playing that day so I had to check it out. My goal was to get Derrick Williams' autograph since he is a local product from La Mirada and the #2 pick in the NBA draft. As soon as I arrived I noticed that there weren't that many graphers and the gym that the players played in was smaller than a high school gym. It looked more like a rec league gym which was great since every seat in the house was great. As soon as I parked I ran into Nick Young (Wizards) and Austin Daye (Pistons) in the parking lot.
Nick rolled up in his Maseratti. I ended up getting both of them to sign my basketball before they left.
The next scheduled team to play was GO HAM which is a team comprised of a lot of NBA players. A week prior to this both Kevin Durant and Michael Beasley played for the GO HAM team. Today featured players included DeMar Derozan, Derrick Williams, Terrence Williams and the rapper The Game. I ran into both DeMar Derozan and The Game in the bench/picnic area between the players locker room and the gym.
I had Demar sign by basketball (add on to my Nick Young and Austin Daye basketball) and I had The Game sign a SS ROMLB since I had nothing prepared for him to sign.
As soon as I got these graphs I went back to my car to unload the signed items and brought back a brand new basketball to get it signed by Derrick Williams and also another basketball which was initially signed by Tayshaun Prince. The Tayshaun Prince auto was obtained at the Baron Davis Charity kickball event at Crossroads High School in Santa Monica. Tayshaun has the worst signature so I figured i'd add more signatures to this ball. His sig looks like the letter "L." (pictured in the Lower Right side)
The signatures shown above are Matt Barnes and Marcus Williams. Matt came out to the Drew League as a spectator with his sons. Marcus Williams was playing for team LA Unified.
Here are some photos of the game itself. Note how close everyone is sitting near the court.
At the end of the game I ended up getting Derrick Williams to sign by basketball and he was nice enough to take a photo with me as well.
At the bench/picnic area between the players locker room and the gym I was able to get Terrence Williams, Demar Derozan, and Derrick Williams to sign for me before they left.
Overall it was a fantastic event. Stay tuned for part 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment