...So,
I ended up showing up the to the open run @ the Pavillion a few days ago to meet our local hero's, Demar and Sonny ...
few notables:
~ I got there around 630..sonny's twitter mentioned they were stuck in traffic so I started to clean my rims and kill some time while i waited.
~ there were probably 20 ppl MAX waiting for their arrival at the front doors
~ soon enough, up rolls a silver Range Rover with Demar Driving, Sonny riding shotty and their camera man
~ I see them pull up and park in the 'handicap' parking spot (which i found to be hilarious) ... there were like 4 open so no real big deal but interesting nonetheless
~ so as I'm walking up towards the entrance in the direction of their vehicle, the two pop out and look as if they're waiting or something..someone..
~ noticeably, NO ONE is saying anything, so i yell out .. 'WHATUP DEMAR?' and he turns and greets me with a 'whats going on' and takes a good 6-7 strides towards me (opposite the entrance) to greet me
~ I jokingly ask 'you ready?' he laughs and says 'yea man, ain't nothing else to do, might as well come out and ball with you guys'
~ at that point Sonny pops around the corner and is almost waiting for his queue to be greeted, so I yell over, 'MONEY weems, what's good?'...and he walks over to greet me
~ at this point, It almost feels as if I'm part of their entourage..
~ they, probably thought i was the guy who was supposed to usher them into the gym
~ anyway, a few guys yell out ' GO RAPTORS' .. which was sooo cheesy and almost on queue of ' i dont know what to say so i'll just go with ...'GO RAPTORS??'
~ sonny/demar take a few pics outside with a few kids and walk on in..
~ not being a member at the club, it cost $10 to enter as a guest... i did so
~ As they made their way to the change room, I went up to the court to get a feel for how things would be and to see how many ppl i'd have to fight for playing time
~ turns out the place is relatively packed with one game going on and guys shooting all over on other rims; reeks of sweat and BO btw
~ Two guys walk by me (acting as if they own the place) making fun of a bunch of ppl saying 'Those idiots ACTUALLY think DEMAR DEROZAN's coming here'
~ They end up walking in about 5 minutes later much to the pleasure of many ppl there
~ Tho it was obviously a pick up game and just for fun a few things did stand out ..
~ Demar... REALLY CONFIDENT and an all around NICE GUY
~ he'd proactively start (and continue) conversations
~ Sonny often looked to Demar to start things before he'd come in and steal the show
~ Sonny is a character. First two plays of game 1, opposition bomb 2 3's (worth 2pts) for a 4-0 lead... then the Ygunz started to play
~ After a few back and forths a guy goes up for what looks to be a simply layup and SONNy comes in sky high and SENDS IT! .. then another and another ..
~ The best part is, after he blocks the guy, the guys trying to get back on D and sonny's riding him yelling ' NO LAYUPS, WHAT DO U THINK THIS IS?? NO FREE LAYUPSS!' taunting him, jokingly but as serious as it gets on the ball court.. hilarious
~ Throughout the run, Sonny'd start taunting players with 'you aint' sh*t'; 'got nothing'...haha, I thoroughly enjoyed the trash talking
~ After a few Demar smooth buckets, you'd catch sonny dancing on the other end in applause of his boy
~ Sonny's RANGE has improved, thats FOR SURE. He was nailing some shots from distance (yea, it was pickup and no real competition) but you can see the fluidity and confidence in the shot..
~ Demar's handles...tried alot of fancy moves and tho it was a bit sloppy he seems to have added a few moves to his arsenal alongside a FADEAWAY. Now, that being said, i think he hit 1 of 10 of them but it looks like it's a shot he's been working on and has is comfortable with the mechanics..
~ DUNKS?? The best had to have been a SONNY through the legs at the beginning of the so called 'dunk off''. He had on NASTY one in the lane too (not caught on tape)...
~ They had a fastbreak where demar through it off the glass and sonny took it home
~ The ABSOLUTE BEST, Long rebound and pass up court from Sonny to Demar... Open Lane.. DD takes off from FAR for a thunderous WINDMILL .. and gets REJECTED BY THE RIM!! haha amazing just the way it worked out and got a loud pop from the people there... (check the video)
~ I ended up leaving after about an hour or so, maybe at 8pm ... don't know if anything else noteworthy happened from there
~ all in all tho, you gotta love that these guys just showed up to have some fun.
~ here's a highlight video of some of what I got ....
Enjoy ...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhf4Bx8TcSg[/youtube]
