A great read, but the question above is meant to be taken seriously.

On a flight with GP? Get to pick his brain for an entire flight? I’m pissed.

Cool stuff.

don’t tell the enemies what gp is thinking!

GP doesn’t let ANYONE know what he’s really thinking.

well done, and thanks for passing it along.

We all know that he’s not the most forthcoming with his opinions, but I thought you covered all of the major questions we would want to hear about. Certainly tough not to try to read into this, but nicely done.

By the way, I think I need your job. Sounds like you’ve spent about 3 days at home this whole month.

soo did he seem like if Blake Griffin had a good size he would be the pick? Chad Ford had a piece about him yesterday and said he was noticably taller than kenny thomas n he thought he was a 6’9, if you havnt read it u really should. its on espn.com

I had a much less exciting experience with far less insight, but i think it worthy of sharing. In the summer of 2004 I was home from college and delivering pizza (‘flying pies’ as we called it in the biz) for Round Table is Granite Bay.

On my second most memorable night flying pie (the first being when a guy that most likely was a drug dealer tipped me a benjamin ), I was listening to KHTK and it was announced that the kings signed Greg Ostertag. I’m sure you all remember the feeling I when you first heard we signed Ostertag, but to say the least I was confused. So I’m out on a delivery in a nice, but slightly modest neighborhood of Granite Bay. I ring the doorbell and who comes to the door? Just Rick Adelman. I freeze a little, very excited, but still wanting to give the guy the ability to order a pizza without having to get harassed by a fan. Yet I wanted to say something to the guy. I stumbled a bit and all that came out was “Ostertag ehh?”. He shrugged his shoulders seemingly as excited about the pickup as I was. 8 seconds later I was walking away from his doorstep with my $6 tip which is obviously not as awesome at the hundo i got from the dealer, but still generous.

To this day I remain conflicted on my feelings about this story. While just mumbling something about Ostertag is kind of funny, it would have been nice to pick the guy’s brain a little bit.

Lastly I’d like to point out that i should have expected myself to direct dumb questions at members of my favorite squad. When I was about six or seven I ran into massive man in Kings gear at Raley’s. It was obvious he was a player. I went to get his autograph. While he was signing my mom’s receipt with her bic pen in the soup aisle i asked (and this is a quote) “which one are you?”.

He hesitated a second and then responded, “I’m Mitch. Mitch Richmond.”

Pretty amazing story… I grew up in Lodi, live in San Luis now. I was in a speech class in college once and this guy in my class gave a speech about working on a golf course in Sac and having a ball hit by Keon Clark almost end his life lol.. He had something about Webber also but I only remember the Keon part.
On a side note.. when I was 18 I had the fortune to be working in the sports section of the Lodi News-Sentinel and got a press pass to Game 5 (2002). That’s the game where Bibby hit a shot w/ 10 seconds left…Kobe missed at the buzzer. I “interviewed” B-jax in the lockerroom after and after asking him about his last second defense on Kobe his first response was “Man! how old are you? Do they just let anyone in this locker room now?” Although he then politely answered my question haa. I was also asking Hedo some questions after that before Peaches rudely interrupted me and stole him away.

So in college I went to UCSB and was a security guy for the Thunder Dome (Basketball Arena) and Magic came to town with his traveling all star team (before his return to the NBA) and he held a press conference after the game to discuss the possibilities of coming back and his donation to the school. I and one of the body guards moved the Range Rovers around the buildings so he and his Wife Cookie and his body guards could escape the media when the event was over. I was hanging out with her for about 1/2 hour and escorted her to the locker room so she could try to nudge him along. She was gracious but bored and anxious to go get some dinner. He asked her where she wanted to go and she said where ever my new boyfriend is taking me. She was kidding of course but was referring to me. He just smiled and asked if I would like to join them for dinner. Like a dumbass I said, I appreciate the offer, but I am sure Cookie would like a night with you where basketball is not a topic of discussion. A kiss and a hug from Cookie followed by a $100 tip from the Man and I bid my adieu and start walking away.

The only problem is I forgot to give the keys back, so about 30 seconds later, I hear Magic yell, hey man are you forgetting something? Embarrased I high tossed ’em to one of his body guards and left.

Years later I was invited to go to the 2000 NBA Playoffs Banquet in San Francisco (yeah I know some peeps). Magic was there and came by to say hi to Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson who I was sharing the table with. When I asked how is my girlfriend Cookie doin’ he smiled gave me the man hug and said thanks for not stealing his car Magic had a memory like that with everyone seemed like and even though he was out of the league he still was the most popular guy there.

So Kenny Smith and I are walking to the bar to get a drink and while in line Shaq—who is telling a story to a bunch other players steps back and steps on my foot while bumping me back. Because he is so HUGE he didn’t even notice the contact (er foul)—meanwhile Kenny Smith is laughing at me as I try to push Shaq back off my foot. I am 5’10" so his hips are at my shoulders basically so I’ve got my forearm on his ass trying to move him. After 3 attempts to shove him back he turns around and looks down to me and says, “What are you doing?” I go, “Man I was trying to box you out so you won’t step on my leather, but I couldn’t get off the low block.” Without missing a beat Shaq says, “You pretty funny lil white man” and turns back around to his buddies.

Kenny thought it was funny enough to buy me a drink. Too bad the drinks were free.

Of course my toes said damn that D-Bag is heavy! And Furious.D Gauchos are definitely in the House!!

is the thing that pro athletes hate hearing most during an encounter with a fan? I’m going with, “You know, you’re on my fantasy team.”

I almost said that when I walked up to Donald Driver in a Champs in S.F. during last year’s NFL preseason and later thought about how dumb i would have sounded. I’m pretty sure that he wasn’t looking to begin a conversation with me about my fantasy team (though i certainly was willing).

One night last fall I was at my job and one of my co workers asked me if I have ever seen the seinfeld where George wants to drape himself completely in velvet. I said yes of course, and then he directed me to a guy in the store with hius back to me. He was covered from head to toe in blue velvet. we both had a laugh, at his expense, but the story did not truely become funny until I saw who it was. Our favorite PG Beno…From that day on I refer to him as Blue velvet.

My only other brush with the pro’s was on my honeymoon laster summer in Kuaii. My wife and I were standing about 20 feet out in the water having just come back from snorlkeling. Then this lanky older man comes swimming towards the shore, and as the water gets shallower he stands up, and keeps going up and up. His mask comes off and I’m like WTF he looks familiar. Then I realize it Kareem Abdul Jabbar. I didn’t say anything to him but I will never forget how silly that skinny, seven foot old man looked with flippers, and snorkel gear on his head.

about the certainty (lack of) of the draft. He talked for a while about how dissappointing some high picks have been since Duncan while exempting Kobe and LaBron.

He mentioned dissappointments by some players, two of them big men #1s (one VERY recent) and a certain recently enriched #10 and expressed some skepticism about hier futures. I gave him my tirade on paying kids millions to learn basketball basics then 10s of millions as soon as they start showing some sign of being good, how I’d like them to be older, more tested.

So, I went to see the movie “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” in 2000 at the Downtown Plaza movie theaters with some friends. A few rows up from us on the left side of the theater, was none other than “Big Country” Bryant Reeves. The Vancouver Grizzlies were in town, but they weren’t playing the Kings until the following night.

I figured I’d say something to him to acknowledge who he was; but it’s not like I belong to the Duane Causwell Underacheiving Centers Fan Club or anything, so I wasn’t going to turn into a blathering fool. You know, just wanted to say something nice to show some respect.

After the movie was over, when we head to the aisle, I just turned to him and said, “I was hoping you could hold off on bringing your A game tomorrow night.” He may have misunderstood my intent. He got this really angry look on his face and said, “Oh, I’m bringing it tomorrow.”

If my memory serves me correctly, he sat out the game the following night with flu-like symptoms.

I was about 13? That sounds about right. 13 or 14. Year the Kings got swept by the Lakers in the second round. I saw Hedo the day before at Greek Village Inn (great food by the way). My dad told me to go up to him and say something, so as we were leaving I just go up to him and was like “Hey Hedo you have a great game tomorrow.” He said he would and then I remember the next game he was on fire.

Just looked the game up. It was game 4 of that series, do or die. We obviously lost but Hedo had 22 points on 8-10 shooting, 4/4 from 3. http://www.nba.com/games/20010513/LALSAC/boxscore.html?nav=ArticleList. I need to talk to C-Webb before Tuesday! GET HIM ON THE PHONE!

About 12-13 years ago I think, Greece and Serbia were playing a friendly match here in Athens. The arena was more or less empty and all the kids (me among them) were close to the base line. As soon as the match ended we rushed on the court to take some autographs. I approached Divac first of all, gave him my pen and paper and heard his words “sorry man the pen is out of ink” (or something like that). I was so disappointed at first but hey, at least I got him to say a sentence :P

Troy_Hanson replied to your comment on Geoff Petrie Comments On Eddie Jordan Interview / Full Court Press:

lietothegirls-
You did great. We love passionate Kings fans and you are certainly one of them. And thanks for your continued readership of our new blog here.
Troy
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I hope he didn’t mind. I tried to be careful to leave out anything he’d ‘hear’ about , left out some of the more personal observations he shared (not that there was a lot that he hadn’t said publically before) and just do an ‘I ran into Geoff Petrie’ post. As for the journalism aspect, I could/should have tried harder to tell the story, but I wrote it late at night after a lot of indecision about whether to even say anything or not. I did enjoy talking with him – good guy.

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Hey lietothegirls-
I loved your Q&A blog with Geoff Petrie on Sactown Royalty. I told Geoff about it and he says he remembers you and got a good chuckle out of it. One thing with Geoff is that he loves to talk Kings basketball and the NBA in general. Basically, his entire adult life has been wrapped up by the NBA so he loves to talk hoops. It has been written that he is introverted, shy, or quiet. That really isn’t the case at all. He loves engaging with the fans. I have worked under him his entire time with the Kings and have been so fortunate to discuss and strategize Kings basketball for all these years.
My question to you is … when are you going into the basketball journalism business? :)

Troy