After stepping out of the Araneta Coliseum right after the NBA-PBA game, Papa, Jr, Bolet, Popop and I immediately headed to Gateway Mall to meet up with JJ and Lloyd, when a sight of sizeable number of people piling up near the entrance caught our eyes. At first, we thought those people were flocking to an NBA player, but as we got nearer, we saw it was just some fans taking their pictures with PBA cagers Kelly Williams, Ali Peek, and Harvey Carey who probably went to watch the game too. We did not bother to add to this horde of people and continued our way to the entrance of the mall.
Not long after that, we heard people screaming. Curious that we were, we rushed to that spot. They were shouting "Harden Harden! and "Fear the Beard" chant in front of passing heavily-tinted SUV's. We realized that these SUV's were the services of the NBA stars. One SUV for each of them. Inside a black Expedition, which just passed by in front of me, I saw the silhouette of James Harden. Upon seeing Harden, I quickly called the attention of Jr to raise our placard containing the words "DRose, can I have your shoes?", for DRose might be inside one of those SUV's, and if he reads our placard he would be kind enough to give us his shoes. Another two or three SUV's passed by where Jr and I were standing but no sign of DRose, only Fisher whose silhouette I saw this time in a white SUV.
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| Message for MVP Derrick Rose |
Jr and I were persistent in our efforts, waving the placard like members of a labor group staging a strike. We did not anymore mind if we were acting like a fool that time. All of a sudden, we heard someone, not far from us, screaming to the top of his lungs. When we looked from where the voice was coming from, we were surprised it was Bolet. He was screaming not because a snatcher took his cellphone away, but because of what was happening in front of him. Chris Paul himself, who was inside a black SUV, was handing to Popop one of his game-worn shoes. Bolet toled us later that CP3 handpicked Popop because he saw him wearing his jersey.
The sight was like a 5000 volts of electricity shot through our bodies. We joined in Bolet's shouting and rushed to the scene. Jr grab the shoe from Popop and raised it with his hand as if he was Dirk Nowitzki who just won the Larry O'brien trophy, while I peeked on the closing car window to thank CP3 for the shoe! CP3 responded by nodding his head. Imagine all these happened in a split second.
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| That's our shoe! |
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| The luckiest boy that night! |
We left the scene as if we just won the lotto. We were screaming and screaming until we were burnt out. It took us few minutes before we got mesmerized from that unusual experience. Really, it is not a daily occurrence to see an NBA player, how much more to receive personally from him a memorabilia, a game-worn shoe for that matter? And he is not just an ordinary NBA player but one of the best in world today! Truly that made our first NBA-players game experience even more special. One word could perfectly sum up that experience - SURREAL!
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| Jordan Brand CP3 IV - our reward for being NBA fanatics for as long as we could all remember |
There was no DRose, but CP3 came to the rescue. Thanks so much to CP3 for the shoe! We will surely treasure it for until we would all be too old for it - which I'm sure will never come. Thanks also to all the NBA stars who showcased their talents in front of the basketball-loving Filipinos - us included. It was truly a wonderful experience. We hope to see more from you again in the future! Mabuhay!
