Karla and I took a buddy of ours, Don, to the rookie orientation Monday. It is for first year season ticket holders. Don went last year, but wasn't invited by the Blazers this year because obviously this was his second year as a season ticket holder.
It started with a dinner in the Garden restaurant at the Rose Quarter. It was more of a sandwich type of thing than a dinner, but was pretty good.
Wheeler talk as did Pritchard. Pritchard had a funny story about Sergio not having a driver license until he got over here and him driving his first car, a Pontiac I believe he said. He road with him to the airport and was a little concern because he hadn't drove very long. He said Sergio got on the freeway and only went 45 mph! Everyone was passing them. He ask Sergio if he notice anything and he said ya, everyone is passing us. Pritchard said thankfully he's a lot faster on the basketball court.
We split up into groups to check out the Rose Quarter and to hit stations where the rookies were to autograph pictures they were handing out. Each group was determine by the name of the table. There were Power Forwards, Guards and so forth. Our table was Trainers. At least we weren't the Ref group!
Althena took us on our tour.
First stop was Brandon Roy.
Donald(Duck) took off his sweatshirt to harass Brandon about his Duck shirt.
We headed for the Locker Room next.
On the way in was Aldridge. In this pic you can see me holding the pic Brandon signed and then gave to us to have Aldridge and Sergio sign later.
Aldridge didn't smile in my pic but sure did with Karla, what's up with that?!?
He's smiling with Don too, guess I'm just not his type.
As it turned out I wasn't able to get into the Locker Room but Karla and Don went in and got pics.
Karla at Brandon's locker.
Don at the workout board.
I had the same problem getting to the location that Sergio was at but Karla and Don got our pics signed and Sergio was nice enough to come and have a pic taken with me. He said he remembered me from the BBQ and I got to do what I forgot to do at the BBQ, congratulate him on his gold medal. That seem to embarrass him a little. This is outside by Will call.
Don and Sergio.
We went back in the main building and I was surprise to see Ime! He was autographing a pic of himself. While the pic of Aldridge, Roy, and Sergio was on nice photo paper, Ime's was on more regular paper but considering they probably didn't know he was going to be with the team when this was plan it was pretty good. We hadn't met him before so I didn't know what to expect but he was really nice. Very personable.
We all had a great time and I found out that more people than I thought seen my thread about the BBQ for season ticket holders. Althena said she had seen the pics. I had sent the URL to my ticket rep and he sent back a email saying great pics but I didn't know he sent it on. She said she was at the front showing people in so she wasn't able to see much of the BBQ except through the pics I posted. I guess a lot of people at the Blazers check out the thread or my blog as she called it. I thought that was neat.
My camera died after two pics so I have Don to thank for saving the day and taking all the pics. Don's nick on here is nutforsports.
__________________
Michael
"Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling."
-Margaret Lee Runbeck
"Science is built with facts as a house is with stones--but a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house."
-Jules Henri Poincare (1854-1912)
"When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion."
-Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)