I worked at a place Josh Jackson went to when he ditched a meet and greet. I had left by then, but I was texting old coworkers who were tickled about it. However, I did wait on several players bc my coworkers knew I was such a fan.

Shaq was hilarious, joked around and tried to valet one of those bicycle cart things that take people around old town. He was the only celebrity that ever drew a crowd around him (fine dining, most people “act like you’ve been there before”)

Marcin Gortat came in a lot, his wife or gf was Brazilian. First time I waited on him he asked for a double shot of whiskey with another double shot. He was joking, but I’d get that dude as many as he wants

Barbosa sadly was an asshole. Don’t meet your heroes type thing. He’d reserve a table an hour after we closed, so we’d have to throw away all the leftover steaks, wait around for an hour, and put ALL the steaks back on the grill before he came in, so everything was fresh and available. A lot of food was wasted when he’d leave. He basically acted like he owned the place and treated everyone like they were beneath him.

Vince Carter was awesome. I actually risked getting fired with them. Came in with his wife and sat away from everyone. I basically told him that I realized he was away from everyone for a reason, but I had to let him know I was a huge fan and really glad he was on the Suns. He was really chill and we talked about Gortat and the season. Yes this is cringe and unprofessional, I wouldn’t recommend someone else in my position to do that, but that was a risk I was willing to take lol.

Goran Dragic was awesome. He was in Houston at the time and came in during the offseason. He was still in the parking lot when I was leaving (so fair game unlike with VC lol), so me and a buddy got a pic with him. I told him we needed him and begged him back to Phoenix. I’d like to think I played a part in him coming back :P

I worked at the arena and on my first day security messed up and took me to the medical room where Book and Ayton were getting treated. Since I was in the wrong spot, no one came and got me (and frankly I wasn’t going to speak up lol) so I was standing around like an idiot. They offered me some power bars and Gatorade though lol. This was the year book hurt his wrist in the offseason so I got a little inside info before the news broke.

Miles Plumlee, he was an asshole. Just randomly ran into him with a friend at a car wash. My friend called out to him saying generic fan stuff, ‘hey it’s plumdog! Woohoo love you!’ He shot us a disgusted look and walked off without saying anything haha

Also waited on non suns, like ginobli and scola (pre-suns), and they were fine, nothing really to note with them. That’s all I remember! I was very grateful my coworkers would let me wait on the basketball players, most didn’t know who they were so if they were tall and looked rich, they’d look for me. Really fun time in my life.