It’s been five years since I’ve commuted from the Beverly Wilshire Hotel to Universal City Walk via Coldwater Canyon - either getting dizzy on the switchbacks or fighting the damn traffic – and it brought back great memories. And they’re even better this time around.
The games have begun.
We started filming Slamball games on Saturday and the high-flying, hard-hitting, slam-dunking action is better than ever. It’s been a 5-year hiatus with a cadre of players doing a European tour in the interim. And now after a couple of months at IMG Sports Academies in Bradenton, Florida, the 48 athletes (pared down from over a hundred invitees) comprising the six teams are in great shape and have held absolutely nothing back in the launch of the Slamball Championship Series 2008.
I don’t want to spoil the games when you watch them on www.slamball.net and possibly on Versus prior to the Championship Finals scheduled for November 2nd on CBS, but I must share a glimpse of the game I witnessed on Sunday.
It was the third game for both teams. The undefeated Rumblers under Coach Carter (the man who inspired the movie) met the 0-2 Maulers, who have the league’s premier talent in “Shakes” Fletcher and are coached by former NY Knicks star point guard John Starks. The game was Slamball at its best. There were bone crushing hits against the glass, outrageous play by both teams’ stoppers, and outrageous ball movement by the gunners interspersed with Shakes and the Rumbler’s “The Sheriff” Janisse trading artistic versus power slam dunks throughout the competition.
Luckily, I wasn’t doing color commentary for this game, because I caught myself saying “Holy Shit!” out loud about a dozen times throughout the contest. I happened to be watching the game with former NBA star Mitch Richmond and his three sons. We were screaming and slapping high fives as if we were both back in the NBA watching our teams try to massacre each other.
And to the delight of everyone else in the packed outdoor arena Shakes flew in the air and slammed home the game winner at the buzzer. It was unbelievable!
On a different note: I was scheduled to meet a friend, Roy Bank (CEO of Merv Griffin Entertainment), for lunch a day earlier at Barney Greengrass - a cool little restaurant at the top of Barney’s with an outdoor café. He emails me to inform me that he’ll be a little late due to a previous meeting and why don’t I drop down to my hotel’s restaurant where he would like me to meet someone.
Sure. Any meeting with Roy’s peeps is sure to be interesting.
I walk into the restaurant to see him sitting in the corner with Frank Gifford and Kathie Lee. After brief hellos and some craziness about them appearing on Family Feud against Dog and his family, Frank asked if we had heard the news about Jim McKay’s death. Here I was getting a news report from my favorite Monday Night Football announcer about the guy who introduced me - and probably you – to the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” on ABC’s Wild World of Sports.
Only in Hollywood.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 1:47 am by Pat Croce
