Athletes You Have Met

[maxREM]

My Aunt was friends with Manny Ramirez when I was a kid. The guy was my idol, when I met him I was in pure shock. I still own the t-shirt and baseball card he signed me for me on that day.

I sold Brandon Weeden an end table at my old job. He looks a lot big in person. Really nice guy to me and the rest of our staff.

Saw Ž at the food court once. Biggest man I've ever seen in person. I didn't want to bother him, though.

 

[FlatulenciaRoar]

Back in 1968 when I was at New Mexico State I met a girl named Gwen and we hit it off right away. Some friends approached me and warned me off her as she was Ruby's girl. Ruby being Ruby Jackson, a tackle drafted in the 1969 draft 4th round by the Oakland Raiders. This didn't scare me, I might have been half his weight (literally) but I should could run really fast ;o) .

I knew of him as he hung around around the small 'hippy' enclave at NMSU, we chatted and fortunately he said all was cool. Years later I ran into him a the Bancroft St courts in Berkeley and we chatted. He wasn't much a basketball player.

There is a very interesting story involving Ruby back at NMSU but unfortunately probably not something I should put out on the web.

 

[MattyFos.]

Manny has always been my favorite athlete. Never got a chance to meet him. I've probably seen him play idk... 40+ games in person. Canton Akron, Cleveland, Boston, LAD. I followed him as a fan for his entire career.

 

[Tlyons]

Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming in Dallas at a high end restaurant that I cannot remember the name of. They walked in while we were having lunch and a couple drinks and I cannot overstate the massiveness of Yao. He's so cartoonishly large that we were actually laughing. We did shots but Tmac left after the first round

Dirk and Nash were all over Dallas when I was in college and used to eat at this awesome restaurant Cafe Brazil late, late at night after games. They'd also show up to bars near my school to make out with hot college chicks.

Ray Nitzchke and Joe Frazier at a conference of some kind when I was a kid. Got a pic weang Ray's Super Bowl ring.

Latroy Hawkins, Torii Hunter, Michael Cuddyer and some other future Twins when they played minor league ball in Ft Wayne. Just basic kid shit, hanging out at the fence and asking stupid questions.

Bob Trumpy and Tom Watson at TPC Sawgrass when I was a kid. My dad disliked Trumpy and said he was always anti-Browns.

.



Ohhhhhhh!!!

 

[Frank Reynolds]

Randomly met LeBron James in a Sony store at Beachwood mall. I turned the corner towards the high end televisions and there he was sprawled out on this little couch, fresh crispy sweats and sneakers were the tell all. I stalked him for a minute then went up and just said whats up and he shook my hand. Very cold vibe from the guy. Kinda like I wasn't even there. I didn't want to bother him tho or ask for an autograph. Just to say I met someone famous.

His tattoos were much nicer looking in real life than on TV. Nice line work on the tats.

 

[The Voice]

I sold Mike Brown a pair of shoes at my old job. I don't remember if they were dress shoes or basketball shoes. He was nice and respectful. Never thought he was above me, called me sir and thanked me. I hear he doesn't mind talking basketball if you see him, wish I would have known that at the time.

Colt McCoy - came into my old job to see how many jersey's/t-shirts we had of his after we drafted Weeden. Needless to say we had a lot. His wife is banging hot though. :chuckles:

Braylon Edwards - Was with a group of my co-workers after work grabbing something at applebees. Braylon Edwards walks in and grabs some take out. Just said hi when he was at applebees and the dude ignored us. Came off as a douche, didn't tip the lady he grabbed food from and drove off in an SUV worth probably more then her house.

 

[Soda]

First, great thread.

I've met a handful or two of guys, but my favorite was Austin Carr. Anyone who likes Winking Lizard in Bedford knows that he's there quite often. My fiance didn't believe that it was him. He was just hanging out with a few buddies getting food. I pulled up and showed her this photo:

So, she's pretty bold. She walked up to him and said, "my fiance said that you were this guy and I didn't believe him!" He graciously said something along the lines of, "ya, that's me when I had some hair." He was as kind as can be and took pictures with them and I shook his hand. The guy seemed genuinely nice and appreciated our encounter. Crazy and hard to describe, but I took a picture of her with him and in the background, on a wall full of old license plates, only one plate was legible from the shine of the camera. It was a license plate that read "Box Carr". It was odd, but pretty cool.

 

[Lee]

I have met dozens of athletes, but these are the ones that stick out:


I did a mortgage for Chris Bosh when he was still on his rookie contract. (also did a mortgage for a pro BMX biker and skier)

I knew Drew Brees fairly well.

Friend from work is close friends since childhood with Jared Allen. They are partners in a bar and met him opening night.

And I used to get high fairly often with Brad Miller.....I was shocked when he was suspended

 

[TheNewEra]

Work at the Drugmart next to the Cavs practice facility and see a lot of the players. All of the players are very nice and respectful when I talk to them. Biggest idiot was Jon Leur, had like $200 worth of stuff and took it to the 12 items and less register lol.

Met Gloria when I was a kid getting autographs after the Cavs game and she was very nice to my brother and I. But then some older guy said"Gloria, can I get an autograph" and she just flipped out on the guy saying"Don't call me that, it's Ms. James" the guy and her went back and forth yelling at each other until security escorted the guy out. Whole time they were yelling, LeBron James Jr was crying.

 

[Mac]

First time I ever met Austin Carr in person was in the Lifetime fitness locker room and he was baby powdering his dick and balls right next to me, needless to say it was a moment I would have rather not have had. But he works out in the morning if anybody would like to confirm my story.

 

[kidduck]

Jumping into the wayback machine(no Mr. Peabody), I caddied for Arnold Palmer during an exhibition at Auburn Springs Country Club. Caddy fee for 18 holes at that time was $5.

Palmer gave me $100 and was a very nice man.

 

[3 Ball...GOT IT]

I actually have met tons of players. My friends and I get autographs during the NBA season in certain places on game days.

Lots of players are complete dicks.

Overall I've met hundreds of NBA players including LeBron, KD, Dirk, Nash, CP3, Rondo, DRose, Pierce... ton of guys

I'd say Garnett, LeBron, and Kobe are the least friendly. Durant and Kyrie are two of the nicest. Actually got 24 autographs from Kyrie last season :chuckles: ....

I could probably go through the whole Cavs roster on who is nice and who isn't lol. Jarrett Jack and CJ Miles are both really nice. Bynum really hasn't been, but now that he's here he might be easier. Zeller is a dick. Luke Walton is sometimes a dick lol




Only other guys outside of that I can think of was seeing Cribbs at a Longhorn a few years ago. Real nice dude

 

[Steve_424]

Indians - Bob Feller, Sandy Alomar, Omar Vizquel, Roberto Alomar, Travis Fryman, Kenny Lofton, Charles Nagy, Rocky Colavito, Gaylord Perry, and anyone on the active roster since 2007 (I'm a season ticket holder and they do an annual meet and greet)

Cavs - Ron Harper, LeBron James, Brevin Knight, Boobie Gibson, Austin Carr, Larry Nance, Kyrie Irving (extremely nice), Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Z used to come in to a mini-amusement park I worked at and play NBA Showtime in the arcade. He would be the Cavaliers and play as himself - not kidding - it was great.

Browns - Bernie Kosar, Eric Metcalf, Colt McCoy, Charlie Frye (Jerk)

Other Athletes - Eddie George, Don Mattingly, Patrick Ewing

My coolest experience was standing 3 feet away from Michael Jordan. Got a media pass to a Cavs-Wizards game when I was working in radio and stayed for his post-game with the media. I'm not even an MJ fan and I was freaking out a little...dude is larger than life.

Most random celebrity meeting - Bone Thugs and Harmony came and rode go-carts the the mini-amusement park I spoke of earlier. Nice guys, but man that was random lol.

 

[Selby]

There are so many players that I have "met" and just said hey and gotten an autograph from at training camp or organized appearances. But there are a few athletes I've met that I got to meet in a more memorable way.

Ray Allen: From my hometown, he is around there often. I went to high school with his daughter for a while actually. When I was in second grade (he was still on the Bucks) I went to a basketball camp. It was one of those $5 camps where you get a shirt and the high school team just plays pick-up games with you. Ray just randomly showed up and said he wanted to take all of our teams on. He gave us some free throw tips, signed a few autographs for us, then left after about two hours.

Sheldon Brown: Went to Browns training camp two years ago and I was wearing a SC shirt. Sheldon was signing autographs and when he got to me we talked about Gamecock football and where we grew up in SC for a good 10 minutes. Not even joking about the 10 minutes part either, everyone else was getting pretty pissed at us since he basically stopped signing autographs, haha.

Marcus Lattimore: My high school football team went to the state championship game my junior year. There was a big debate at the time about who was the best running back in the state, my high schools running back Roderick McDowell (who now plays for Clemson) or Marcus. Marcus tore us apart. After the game I got on the field and went up to him. Told him he played a good game, shook his hand, and said "Hope you wear garnet and black one day."

Steve Smith: The Panthers had a Play 60 thing at my middle school one year, and Steve Smith was the player that showed up for it. Didn't really get to talk to him much, but he was holding a trivia game at the end of the day where he'd give out t-shirts and other items. He asked us the name of the Panthers owner, and I was the first one with the correct answer, so I won a pair of game-used gloves that he signed for me.

Greg Biffle: He came to our Ford dealer during his rookie year in the NASCAR Busch Series. Only a few people showed up, so after he signed a few things he sat there by himself for a little. My dad and I went up and made some small talk with him. Told him how we saw him win a truck race the year before, and that sparked a half hour conversation. He was a real cool guy, and I've been a fan of his since.

 

[Ohdang]

My mom worked at a video store in Fairlawn called Video Towne when I was pretty young, I used to go to work with her and watch movies when she couldn't get a sitter. I remember being afraid of Tyrone Hill because he was the tallest, scariest looking dude I'd ever seen and he came into that store all the time.

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