Last night we were lucky enough to be able to attend the Hornets annual Top Hats and High Tops gala to benefit the George Shinn Foundation. We had never been before, and we had a lot of fun. It was at the Roosevelt Hotel. Didn’t take too many pics, or really stalk the players, but here’s a short recap, bullet-style.
Emeka Okafor pulled up and handed his car to the valet just as we arrived. It was a black Benz. Surprise, surprise (if you’ve ever gone to the airport to greet the team after a road trip, you know that this is THE official NBA player car or something).- Everyone was there, even Sean Marks, Ike Diogu, and Peja. Marks had his arm in one of those huge immobilizing casts that looks like a box. Ike looked fine, but Peja had a bit of a limp. I would not expect him back on the floor just yet.
- Julian Wright sang a John Legend song on stage. He was pretty good!
- Emeka’s date bid on his signed Mardi Gras jersey and photo at the silent auction. And I am pretty sure I saw them walking out with it at the end of the evening too. LOL!
- I didn’t really stare at any of the players’ wives/girlfriends/dates, so don’t even ask for details on them or what they wore.
- We got a player at our table, and they pulled names out of hats to see who. It turned out to be Aaron Gray. He and his date were super nice and put up with everyone at the table talking nonstop about Twitter. Aaron (as George Shinn gives a speech about his cancer): Are you all twittering right now? … We were. We are all horrible people. Haha.
- Aaron Gray ate two dinner plates.
- The event was 1920s themed. Turns out that’s what the ’20s photoshoot the Hornets players did last month was for. They had big, sepia versions of all the players on the wall and in the silent auction.
- One of the coolest silent auction items was the entire team’s signed shoes. It took up like a whole table. I’m not sure what you would do with it.
- I only saw James Posey from afar. Sigh. For those of you who remember, last year Posey was in a bad shooting slump, and the day after I took a picture with him at an appearance, he came out and went off like crazy from three. I took credit, and the joke was, any Hornet who touches me will have a great game the next night. Unfortunately, I forgot about this until late in the evening. The only players who touched Lucky Ticktock6 were Marcus Thornton, Darren Collison, and David West, and let’s face it, they were all going to have good games anyway. Wasted opportunity…
- My goal for the evening was a pic with Buckets. I ended up getting both rookies, because they were sitting beside each other talking when I walked up, and I didn’t want to leave Lil Dimes out. I did not explain to Thornton that I am responsible for him getting stuck with being called “Lil Buckets.” (Niall at Hornets 247 recently told me it says Lil Buckets on his sheet that the Hornets hand around to the media.) Maybe another time…
- The ladies love Peja. I don’t get it. Haha.
- Chris Paul was wearing a velvet blazer and gray and white (I think) Dunks. And glasses. Stylin.
Our table (except mW, who's taking the picture)with Aaron Gray. His date is sitting. I'm on the right. He was popular with the ladies, as you can see.
And… wait for it… wait for it… the highlight of my night:
ROOKIE SANDWICH!!
Well dressed
The event definitely was fun. This was high-fallutin’ hob-knobbin’ at its best. And there we were, center stage, as it was. Don’t forget TT6, that you touched Aaron Gray when you shook his hand at the end of the night. So he’s primed for a good game tonight, too.
Some additional notes: Jeremy Davenport was the musical entertainment, and was fantastic. Jeff Bower, around basketball all the time, was more interested in the autographed baseball and football memorabilia. Randomly, they also had the complete Rambo and Rocky DVD box sets, signed by Sly Stallone, up for auction.
One last note, as I Twittered last night, when I went to the men’s room at one point, and was waiting in line, David West was washing his hands. Two old guys at the urinals were ripping farts and making weird jokes about it. D-West and I just looked at each other and cracked up. It was classic comedy.
Wow. Sounds like you guys had a blast! I’d like to maybe attend one of these at least once in my lifetime. They must’ve gotten that Sly autograph when he was down in NOLA filming Expendables. And that’s really funny about the two old guys in the urinals.
How does Peja get all the ladies (including, allegedly, a porn star?!) while Emeka has to bid on his OWN stuff???? Will the sun rise in the west tomorrow too?
mW – you’re a total trooper/rockstar for taking all the pics. And that David West story….classic!
Nice pic, Ticktock! I love it! =)