Keely's Brilliance

Halloween came and went without too much excitement. Normally at Root we dress up, so I decided to keep the tradition alive. No one was here to appreciate it, so I made sure to give myself plenty of attention. Not all positive, cause truth be told it wouldn't have been that way at Root and I wanted to keep the experience authentic. After work, I headed over to Debbie & Steve's house in Lehi to see Shawn & Lisa who are in town with my by beautiful niece Keely and nephew Benji.

When I walked in the house, Keely (she's brilliant too) looked at me, paused and then said, "Hey...you're Shauri!" I swear I can't pull anything over on that one. She also insisted I take my wig off. When I refused she pulled a sneak play and suddenly flew at me from behind tearing it off as she ran. I could have been upset, but I had to recognize the brilliance of the plan and the tenacity.

As you can see in the picture to the right, Keely pretty much loved the Flash Draft Party the next night. And she kept the face painting table pretty busy. She would have them paint something on her face, then come show her mom, and march back for a new piece of art. By the end of the evening she had stuff on both cheeks, her forehead and up and down both arms. I'm sure the dancers NEVER tired of painting this girl. I would suggest to Lisa and Shawn that they never introduce her to tattoo parlors.

Overall, I think the draft party went really well. I had a couple guys there filming the event and I think we got some good footage. It's interesting to see the process from the inside, which was the idea - to let the fans see how an NBA draft would work. The Flash ended up getting both of the guys that they wanted for their first two picks. Shawn was disappointed that they didn't go with Air Georgia of Michigan fame, but apparently they weren't looking for high flying thrills, just solid performance and a good attitude. Crazy. :)

At the end of the evening I was talking to the younger brother of one of the assistant coaches (Kevin), and he said something I thought was cool. He talked about how he and Kevin used to play at being coaches and picking teams when they were little, and how cool it was that Kevin was actually doing it for real. I thought this was another simple, but great illustration of what the film is all about - dreams - and the different ways that people realize them. And how exciting it is to reach them. What a great moment to sit at that draft table and be picking players for a real semi-pro team just like you imagined when you were a kid. I really love hearing these stories, and it's interesting that now I notice them and find them even when I'm not looking.