April 8th 2009: WNBA pre-draft meet and greet

eeee omg eeee omg eeee omg The Game Notes of Doom get the red carpet treatment at the pre-draft meet-and-greets omg omg omg, shoot on par with all-conference players, and enjoy trivia omg yay.


OMG, you guys. My train of thought just keeps turning into eee OMG eee OMG EEEE OMG OMG OMG, so I beg your indulgence if I lack my usual wit and eloquent turns of phrase.

Got to the NBA Store a bit before five in order to properly meet up with Petrel and get credentialed. The folks with the league were kind enough to also allow Happycappie to join the party. Unfortunately, I'm not good in mingling situations, so while the draftees-to-be were out there with hoity-toity hors d'oeuvres, I was hiding in a corner with my homies, wondering how exactly it's possible to lose a six-foot-three blonde. (Answer: you stick her behind a giant bobble-head of Allen Iverson.)

Sue Wicks was our MC, and while I've missed Sue being strange and random a lot, she, um... I think she hit the bar and the bar hit back. She was kinda rambling, and then there was the whole Chante McCants thing, which, um, of all the players to mix up, maybe the Dukie and the Tar Heel weren't the two you should mix up. My favorite bit of the intros might have been Angel McCoughtry, who just kinda wandered out while Sue was still reading her accolades, waved to everyone like someone hadn't missed a cue, and settled in. Sue was quite nonplussed.

Quote of the night, when the seniors were asked about players they were looking forward to playing with or against, from Courtney Paris: "Kara Lawson, because we're both point guards." Though if I'd had a view of whoever said that the thing she'd miss most about college was traveling on the private plane, I'd be able to attribute the quote and that might beat out Paris's line. Most of the questions were traditional pap, so you'll pardon me for not having written down answers. They did manage to, eventually, name the eight original teams. The fact that it took fourteen of them to come up with eight cities should bother me.

Being in with the in-crowd, we got to start collecting the autos early... going the wrong direction, of course. Points to Chante Black for being able to multitask, signing autographs and doing an interview at the same time. Managed to hit three reporters at once. Ashley Paris and Kia Vaughn are not quite as good at the multitasking. Said hi to Angel, but because she was sitting next to Marissa Coleman, I didn't say what I fully wanted to say ("Hi, I'm a St. John's fan, and I wanted to thank you for finishing the job we started in 2006 by knocking off Maryland- it would have been lovely if we'd done it all together, but I'm glad you landed on your feet and helped elevate the game in Louisville.") Points to Lindsey Wisdom-Hylton for actually being with it enough to notice that I was wearing my Final Four t-shirt.

Then we got to take the bus to ESPNZone with the players. Well, they were all gathered in the back and we were closer to the front near security, so it's not like we were interacting with them, but we were on the bus. The interaction happened later, when we were upstairs in the arcade playing Pop-a-Shot with and against some of the players- petrel and I were on a team with Wisdom-Hylton and Shavonte Zellous. I can say with great pride that we held our own against these all-conference draft prospects. I think petrel actually won the round.

Our league contact took us downstairs for dinner, and we joined the main mass for trivia hosted by NBHOFNL. All three of us took home prizes from that- 2008 Rittenhouse auto cards. Petrel got a Lieberman for his correct answer, I got a Tangela Smith for mine, and Happycappie snagged a Jennifer Lacy auto. (Which, come to think of it, we really should have swapped around somehow so the Dream fan got the card of the Dream player. We r smrt.) We couldn't make out most of what was being said at the main table, but I figure it wasn't much different from the softball lobs during the NBA Store portion of the event, so we kept chattering with our contact about our fan stories and Rebkell's.

Fashion notes on the day: damn, Kia Vaughn cleans up nice. She dresses well, and that big smile just totally transforms her face. Kinda like Taj- when she smiles, the whole world smiles. DeWanna Bonner really should not wear knee-length skirts. Go with the pants or the long skirts. She's got some chicken legs on her, and the shoe choice did not help. I liked the pale pink of Wisdom-Hylton's top. Courtney Paris might want to move up a size in the tops department. That shirt was a tad too tight, and I know exactly how unflattering a too-tight top can be on a big girl. Didn't get a close look at anyone else's outfit, so I don't think anyone had any OH DEAR GOD NO moments with their fashion other than Bonner.

Of course, I'll report on fashion from on-site tomorrow, along with other things. :D