Boost Mobile Elite 24 Game 8-27-11

The Boost Mobile Elite 24 Game took place in Venice Beach on 8-27-11 and it featured the top high school players in the nation. The game was televised live on ESPN U. I went out there to check out Shabazz Muhammad the nation's #1 prospect and is supposedly the next big thing in basketball along with featured NBA players such as Tyreke Evans, John Wall, Brandon Jennings, Jrue Holiday, Kemba Walker, Jason Williams and Kevin Love who were coaching the event. There was also a rumor that Kevin Durant was going to be there since he showed up to the event a day earlier to judge the dunk contest. While I was watching the players warm up I ended up getting Shabazz Muhammad and Justin Anderson to sign my program

During warmups Mitch Mcgary ended up breaking the backboard while dunking. Therefore there was about a 45 minute delay before tipoff since they had to clean up the broken glass and install a new basketball court. During that time the NBA players strolled in along with suprise guests Derrick Williams, Bobbito Garcia, Kenneth Faried, Matt Barnes, Jamie Fox and Kevin Durant.

During the event Kevin Love, Jrue Holiday, Tyreke Evans and Brandon Jennings were nice enough to sign a basketball for me.

I had Tyreke and Brandon on the same ball since they were part of the same draft class.

And finally for the first time I ended up getting Kevin Durant to sign my basketball. I was stoked. I found a video footage of KD signing by basketball on his website. It shows me and my buddy James getting his autograph at 3:46 in the video. James are I are the two asian guys with sunglasses on. Check it out.

The autograph came out clean and I was happy with the results. All I can say is that KD is one of the most fan friendly elite NBA players out there. A player his caliber would never take the time to sign for fans but so far i've never had a bad experience with him. Kobe can learn a lesson or two from Durant.

At the end of the event I tried getting John Wall to sign but he ran with a dead black sharpie. He seemed grumpy and wasn't in the mood to sign trying to avoid the fans. He signed for a few people and left. I was a little bummed by that but ended up getting him later at the Drew vs Goodman Game and Long Beach State a few months later.