michael’s posterous

Here is a speech Allen Iverson gave this summer for his scholarship program. Still think of him the same?

Loading mentions Retweet

Today was the big day. I took off from work to compete in the “Battle on Broad Street” at the Wachovia Center. Every year my friend Adam calls me up and asks me to play but I never could make it down. This year he called me this past Sunday to ask me to play and I told him put my name down, I’m in. I was pretty pumped up as the winning team for the competition gets a free airline ticket. Couple years ago Adam went to Hawaii for winning the competition. His team has won it the past 4 years, so I was confident we would capture another title and some free airline tickets.

To get ready Adam and I went to LA Fitness to get warmed up. I needed to because I haven’t shot a basketball since the summertime. I know I am getting old, playing sports in months intervals. We had a nice run at the gym shot a few practice jumpers played a 2 on 2 (we won). Since Villanova was playing that night so we had to get back to watch the game.

On Friday we got down to the Wachovia Center pretty early. After looking at the booklets they handed out, the competition was supposed start at 12.30. We got there around 11. Adam told Bruce our other teammate to get there by 10.30 as he was late last year. Sadly enough Bruce was on time and was waiting longer than us. I got a laugh when I explained to him why Adam told him to get here early. Bruce smiled and assured Adam he would remember this for next year. I'm guessing Bruce will be late on purpose next year. There was some rock band practicing on the court so most of us just played on our phones while trying to kill some time. I played some UNO on my iPhone while Bruce played Pacman on his G1 (peep Jack our other team member relaxing in the background).

The rock band cleaned up and it was time to play. The objective of the game was to score the most points within 2 minutes.

• 1 point = a shot made in the paint
• 3 points = a shot made outside the paint extending to the three point line
• 5 points = a three point shot made

Each team had four players. Two players shot while two players rebounded and would switch at the minute mark so everybody got a chance to shoot. It got kind of crazy when two players shot at the same exact time as the balls would hit each other. Rebounding made you sweat, all the bricks would fly all over the court. The advantage we had over the other 27 teams was quickness. Every other team had a slow and methodical approach. As watching the other teams I felt we had a good shot to win just along as we kept it at a fast pace.

The competition was a double elimination bracket. We won our first three games but then lost our fourth game. The team scored 198 points. Yea we were kinda bummed out because we had our best score so far at 174 but the other team had the competition high for the day. We won the next few games before the “playoffs”. In our first playoff game we won and the next game we tied. To break a tie we had to “shoot for it”. Adam drained his shot from the top of the key and we advanced to the championship round. In the final round we lost, the score was 180 something to 132. I didn’t expect us to lose by that much. The winning team members received $250 airline ticket vouchers (not sure what airline) and club box seats for the Sixers game vs. Bobcats. Even though we finished in second place we received a $50 Best Buy gift card (James Bond Quantum of Solace Blu Ray???).

It really did hurt to lose because coming into the competition everybody knew about Adam’s team, Break Through Consulting. As the only winning team in the history of the competition everybody was giving them their props. As the new kid on the block all I could do was sit back and watch. The past prizes were a $1200 airline ticket voucher on Southwest, this was two years ago. Last year it was reduced to $500 on US Airways and this year it was cut in half to $250. Talk about feeling short changed. $1200 got Adam to Hawaii and now $250 would have gotten us to Miami, I think. I clearly attributed this to the economy as Junior Achievement and Accenture cut back on the prizes. Everyone received two tickets a piece for tonight's game which were located in section 217. By us losing Bruce was highly upset that we missed out on the airline tickets and upgraded club box seats. He bounced quickly and did not stay for the free food. He did not take losing well.

Since I did not eat anything all day except for a chocolate chip cookie, I absolutely killed the buffet they had set up. I had about 3 steak sandwiches and a crap load of chicken fingers. I sat at my table for a good hour just checking my Twitter feed and watching ESPN. I heard the Kentucky coach got fired and I voted “YES” that he had enough time to prove himself on a ESPN.com poll question. Adam and Jack talked for a good while about God knows what but they seemed to be having a good time.

About an hour before tip off is when we ran into Betsy and Kelly, two awesome ladies who work for Accenture. They were volunteers for the day and kept score during the competition. Talk about friendly and cool people to hang out with that knew their Philly sports! We got our section 217 tickets upgraded to tickets in section 105. Their friend hooked us up (I’m sorry, I forgot your name already!). My cousin Kevin came down and we chilled with Adam, his friend and the rest of the Accenture crew as the Sixers lost to the Bobcats.

Break Through Consulting will be back next year and expect us to bring home the gold. I hope the economy is better in 2010 so the amounts on the ticket vouchers can get us on a flight to the west coast!

Loading mentions Retweet

For all my Phillies fans out there getting ready to see our World Series champs take the field for the 2009 season, here's a couple of clips to get you ready. Hopefully we can have another celebration down Broad Street next October! Their first game is Sunday April 5th @ 8.00p on ESPN against the Braves. 

Loading mentions Retweet