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So... here's the full story (finally). Kyle and I were invited to a Phoenix Suns banquet with one of Kyle's good friends Curtis. We weren't sure what to expect other than we were hoping to get an autograph or maybe stand in line for a picture with whichever player was around. But as it turns out, all of the players were there. (This story will be better when I have all the pictures to go with- Curtis was the only one with the camera.) When we first got there there weren't any celebs out, but quickly they just started filling the room. Most of them I didn't know (famous sports announcers, ex-players, team owners...etc.) Then SHAQ walks in. He didn't stop to talk to anyone so we totally thought that was it- and even that was pretty cool to just have him walk right by us. But after a few minutes all of the players started coming out. We saw Boris Diaw next- I need the picture to explain how nervous we were to approach him (it took us like 20 minutes to ask for a picture and then we ended up cutting his head out of it), but after that we totally got the hang of it. So after taking some less important pictures (at least to me), we went into the banquet room and saw Shaq just hanging out at his table. We were thinking of going over when this random lady (the one in the photo) grabbed on to me and my friend Emily and shoved us straight into him, insisting on a photo with "the pretty girls". We got the photo but didn't say anything to him, but because of that Kyle was able to go over and shake his hand and get a picture with him also. Nash was next, and that took a little more stalking. He was pretty much bombarded with people all night but as soon as he was free our friend Curtis (who seriously was hilarious) went up to him and got our perfect photo. Each of us said our token "Your awesome, man." type of comment and that's about the extent of a conversation but even that you could tell he was a really cool guy. After Nash we lost a little bit of drive. The banquet was really fun. They had this painter come- I can't think of who but he is this amazing artist who only uses his hands and one paint brush, paints really quick while rotating his huge canvas and somehow comes up this amazing painting- this one was of Shaq. They auctioned it off and started the biding at $10,000. With the help of Shaq- who was hilarious, the bidding got all the way up to $41,000 and would have kept going but they decided to do two more of that painting (since it literally took 10 minutes to do) and sell all 3 of them for $41,000. (WOW!) Queen Latifah was there and sang which was really cool because it was such a small venue and she invited everyone up close so we (Emily and I) went right up there next to the stage and danced. Things pretty much came to a end after that, but when every one had kind of left we saw the coach, D'antoni. He was super nice and even made small talk with us for a minute. Kyle was so stoked! He was seriously like a kid in a candy store. I've never seen him blush so much- that was probably my favorite part of the whole night! Wow, what a blast. I will definitely add more pictures when I get them.
