Positive/Negative experiences interacting with players

[JohnnyNightrain]

I met Lance Stephenson at a Burger King. He didn't really say much other than "May I take your order?" and "Would you like a receipt?"

[Gus McCrae]

I don't have much to offer here and my only meaningful interactions were with football players:

Good:
Jared Allen
Donny Edwards (arm wrestled him, lost)
Tony Gonzales
Kobe (basically just a smile and a thumbs up at a preseason game)

Bad:
Dennis Rodman (completely trolls a restaurant I go to frequently but all the stories are from friends I've never met him or seen him)
Jose Guillen (ex baseball player for the Angels)

[memphissquad3]

I met Mike Conley and even had a small convo about basketball with him. He was a pretty cool guy and was very knowledgeable about the sport. I didn't get an autograph and a picture with him, but whatever, I at least got to talk with him.

I also saw Courtney Lee at a bar. I didn't talk to him though.

[willywazza]

Met D-Wade back in 2009 or something when he visited Sydney and met with fans for a few hours.

He was quite courteous in person and cracked a few jokes while he signed my basketball.

He was also a lot taller and buffer in real life than I expected.

Before, I honestly thought he was 6'4 in shoes and even then I thought it was rounded up.

In reality, he was a very legit 6'4 and towered over me (I'm just under 6'0). Definitely could have passed for a 6'5 dude.

[sixerswillrule]

I watched Terrell Suggs play craps at the cosmo in Vegas for about 10 minutes. When he threw the dice he yelled "Peja Stojakovic!".

[qm22]

A lot of autographs that didn't happen getting mentioned. For you guys that actually ask people for a random signature... what did you do with it when (if) you got it? Ebay? Forgot about it? Can't blame anyone for not wanting to do that. Why not ask them to draw a comic too?

[LLJ]

I saw Kris Humphries in the blu ray section of a Best Buy. He was alone. I didn't bother him.

That's all I got.

[LLJ]

He was also a lot taller and buffer in real life than I expected.

90% of it is his jaw anyway.

[LLJ]

Vince Carter: a real **** early in his career, first meet him after the NBA draft, he was already really full of himself and acted as if he had already achieved NBA stardom, as his career progressed he became even worse......I wear size 16 shoes, so in high school I was unable to get them at stores and they would cost about $400-500 to ship to Toronto, John Thomas was a raptor at the time and he used to give me shoes everytime I would need them....so one morning I went to Raptors practice, we would wait by the ramp for players driving out....John drove out, saw me, drove back in and got me a pair of Nike's.....I said thank you and started to walk towards the subway.....about 5 minutes later I hear a car horn, I look up and it is Vince Carter with Tracy McGrady in a SUV.....they are at a stop light and Vince gestures me to come to the car, I was 14 and these were my hero's, I ran to the car excited to meet Vince, as I reached the car Vince laughs at me, rolls up the window and speeds off....this is by far my worst experience because Vince went out of his way to be an **** to me.

Jason WIlliams: I was at the Sac Kings hotel before morning practice, Jason comes out, refuses to sign anything for anyone, I say to him "come on please Jason", at which point he physically attacked me, I was only about 15 at the time and he had to be restrained by several players and Sac King personal, to this day I do not understand what his problem was. The worst part of the incident was another autograph hound who witnessed the events, called the NBA and said it happened to him, he was "rewarded" with a package from the Kings that included game used jersey's from both Chris Webber and Jason Williams....It bugs me to this day.

.

These stories are friggin hilarious.

[King4Day]

Mugsy Bogus
Matt Carroll
Andre Drummond
Jose Calderón

All very fan friendly

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[Minnesotadrake]

I met KG at his basketball camp when I was around 15 years old. At the time he was in his early 20's but still very intense even at a relaxed camp atmosphere. In 1993, I went to the NBA Dunk Contest in Minneapolis and met George Karl and Shawn Kemp. Two great guys and were very approachable. I also walked up to Clyde Drexler in the stands for an autograph and him and his wife bitched me out for just approaching. I tore up his basketball card right in front of him too and I'm glad others have had the same experience with him! I've met Wiggins as well and he is super quiet and doesn't talk much at all. I guess his on court persona matches his real personality.

[bondom34]

A lot of autographs that didn't happen getting mentioned. For you guys that actually ask people for a random signature... what did you do with it when (if) you got it? Ebay? Forgot about it? Can't blame anyone for not wanting to do that. Why not ask them to draw a comic too?

Just something cool to have. I got a picture with Steven Adams I mentioned, just have it as my facebook/twitter picture. Have some autographs I bought, just have them as memorabilia.

[alabamawolf]

I've met Boogie and Bledsoe at local gyms and both are nice guys. They played AAU with some of my high school teammates as well

[matt3254]

Only ran into MJ at a sports bar, bitch ass dude wouldn't give me an autograph and was an **** in general to us pitiful peasants. Ozzie hooked me up though

[Sakkreth]

Arvydas Sabonis with his blunt humor, caught me of guard first time now I know what to expect. He was trolling before there was a word trolling.
Pau Gasol very friendly and won't mind spending time with fans for photos and even short conversations. Very professional in that way.
Marc Gasol - idiot and a prick.
Jose Calderon - once was very friendly and cool, the other time was angry with something so did not speak to anyone.
Ricky Rubio - chilled as ****, will do stuff like catching pokemons after practice and hang out for hours. Playful and interested in all sorts of stuff in the way little kids are.

Met those spanish players for at least 2 times each (pau gasol like 4 times), and Sabonis idk how many times, but probably around 20.

[DK-All Day]

We need more negative experiences stories. It's okay, you can tell us

[JazzMan_OS]

I met Tyronn Lue when I was like 3 or 4. It was at my cousin's wedding. My cousin's husband had a brother who was on the Nebraska basketball team, and the team showed up at the wedding. Just imagine a little 3 or 4 year old white kid riding on the shoulders of 7 footers. Don't remember it but there are pictures.

Shavon Shields (Nebraska player, played in Summer League for Orlando this year) is a really chill dude. Son of Will Shields, the NFL lineman. He's a humble dude.

Didn't get to meet Terran Petteway but I've heard the same about him.

Went to a T-Wolves/Jazz game in Minneapolis a couple years ago. Didn't get to officially meet him but Ricky Rubio is a really nice guy. Was signing a ton of autographs for some Wolves fans, he didn't play though.

Got to meet Joe Ingles and Dante Exum the next day at Mall of America. Really funny and cool guys. They saw I had Jazz gear on and they complimented me on it and threw shade at my buddy who had a Bulls cap on. Really nice guys, Ingles in particular.

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[miamiheat319]

One of my dad's old friends (who also used to hang out and help me train for basketball) was the head of security at Oracle Arena a few years back and I won a couple tickets to a Warriors-Spurs game, so I wanted to see if he could do anything for me at the game since he had previously gotten me merchandise and stuff from the Warriors. To my happiness, he got me to see Steph Curry, and this was back when I used to be a Warriors fan and Steph wasn't big yet (I think it was like 2010, 2011), and I met him after the game handed him my picture to sign and got his autograph. But the whole time he didn't even make eye contact with me. He grabbed the pic, signed it, and walked off. Just a very arrogant ***hole thing to do IMO and I've never really liked him ever since.

Also, my dad used to work at a Copeland's Sporting Good in the Sacramento area when Anthony Bonner (yea remember him lol) was playing for the Kings and came in and his check immediately got declined. Now, he was probably making league minimum at the time, but you'd think he could pay for some stuff in a sporting goods store.

[JulesWinnfield]

Since we are throwing in guys outside of the NBA... I feel compelled to state that Mariano Rivera was really unbelievable. Amazing guy. As nice as he seems from a distance. I used to live a few blocks away from him (he actually lived in a very middle class neighborhood for much of his career despite his fame) and not only was he always amazingly nice, I've never heard a bad story about him from anybody. Ever. He's like mr. perfect

This is really obscure but perhaps the coolest athlete I've ever met in my life was former mid 90s NY met Bernard Gilkey. I once had about a 30 minute conversation with him before a game (no exaggeration) about the NBA, this was around like 1996 after shaq had just joined the lakers. He's a big laker fan. Then I went to another game a few weeks later and he recognized me and we picked up the convo again, talking lakers future...

Broadcaster curt menefee of fox nfl pre game fame was unbelievably nice when I met him in the late 90s back when he was just a local sports reporter here for FOX 5 in New York.

[GSWFan1994]

Just wanted to say I really, really appreciated reading all the posts here.

One of the greatest threads I've ever seen in all these years in this vital industry.

The Vince Carter story is amazing, a true classic.