My Hall of Fame Trip

[kevin02]

I decided to give this its own thread because I have so much to say. For my 16th birthday my dad and I decided to go to the basketball hall of fame. My birthday was actually a few months ago but we went now so that I we could go to the enshrinement.

Wednesday

Our first stop was Buffalo where we ate at the Anchor Bar. Then we stopped in Canastota, New York to see the Boxing Hall of Fame. It was cool even though I know very little about boxing. They had the original ring from Madison Square Garden there that was replaced a few years ago.

Thursday
On Thursday we left for Springfield and arrived around ten. When we got there we met up with some people who told us they were being inducted. We thought they were just messing with us but than we saw them later at the press conference. They were the All American Redheads who I had never heard of until this trip. The Hall of Fame itself was a little disappointing. The building was really nice but things could have been labeled better. Also I thought it was stupid that the MAAC Conference had a bigger display than Micheal Jordan did. I actually live near the football hall of fame and it's really nice so that probably gave me higher expectations. After we finished exploring we waited for the press conference to begin at two. The press conference was cool because we were so close but it was basically each person's enshrinement speech in ten seconds.

Friday

Friday was the busiest day. We started the day by heading to North Hampton and looking around up there and then later went and visited the armory which was very interesting. On our way back from the hotel we drove by some people standing outside a hotel looking for autographs and decided to join them. While we were waiting a guy from CBS came up to us and asked to interview us. After the interview we started talking and he told us that the day before he gave Charles Barkley a ride in his car. I didn't believe him but he had pictures on his cell phone. He said Barkley just ran up to him and got in the car. (I assume he was avoiding the media.) After the guy left Phil Knight (Co-Founder of Nike) came out and I got his autograph.

We arrived for the Enshrinement at six, an hour and a half early, hoping to see some of the guys arrive. We waited write inside the door where they would be coming in. I was expecting to see a few guys like Barkley who would be standing with Reggie but I was amazed with everyone who showed up. There are too many people to talk about individually so here's a list. Magic Johnson, Julius Erving, Larry Bird, David Stern, Steve Kerr, Kareem, Craig Sager, Jim Boeheim, Barkley, and Bill Walton. (These are just the people that I saw at the entrance. I saw even more after but I'll get to that in a minute.) Craig Sager actually took a picture with me. We called out his name and he immediately came over and talked to us. My dad actually ran into him again right before the enshrinement started and talked about Kevin Garnett making fun of his outfit a few years ago. He said Kevin Garnett was a good guy but that when he (Garnett) gets enshrined he's going to wear that same suit.

The enshrinement itself was neat it just took a long time. The All American Redheads talked forever. Lebron and Jordan were there. (they must have came in another way) They sat in the second row two seats away from each other but it didn't look like they talked at all.

After the enshrinement we were going to leave but the doors to the floor seats were open (our seats were on the balcony level) so we walked in. There were a few other people like us there but mostly celebrities. Besides the people I already listed, I saw: Coach K, Grant Hill, Chris Mullin, Isiah Thomas, and a bunch of others who I can't think of. I got a picture with Steve Kerr who was surprised we remembered he played for Cleveland. I also got a picture with Chris Mullin but my memory was full on my camera. I wanted a picture with Coach K but he talked to Grant Hill the whole time so I didn't get the chance. On our way out my dad told Isiah Thomas that he should of been on the dream team and he said, "That's okay.""

Saturday
Saturday was much less busy. We stopped at Syracuse for lunch and then drove the nine hours it took to get home.

So that's it. Sorry if some of this stuff seems like pointless information but it was hard to put all of this into text. It was a really fun trip though and I would have never imagined I would get to meet all the people I did.

Pictures

Boxing Hall of Fame

Basketball Hall of Fame

Press Conference

Magic Johnson

Larry Bird

Craig Sager (walking towards us)

Charles Barkley

Coach K and Grant Hill

Reggie Miller

Isiah Thomas

Kareem (entering door)

David Stern

[formx]

That's pretty awesome I gotta say.

[JaoSming]

Its weird to hear about people visiting my neck of the woods, especially Northampton, but sounds like you had fun. If you thought the HoF was a bit disappointing, you should have seen the old one, bleh. The "new" one is nicer, but they pretty much just took the old one's stuff and threw it in a cool looking building.

Did you get to shoot around at all in the center court? Or was it closed off for the ceremony?

[kevin02]

Did you get to shoot around at all in the center court? Or was it closed off for the ceremony?

It was closed for the press conference and the dinner. The actual ceremony was at Symphony Hall.

Its weird to hear about people visiting my neck of the woods, especially Northampton, but sounds like you had fun. If you thought the HoF was a bit disappointing, you should have seen the old one, bleh. The "new" one is nicer, but they pretty much just took the old one's stuff and threw it in a cool looking building.

I know what you mean. Like I said I live near the football hall of fame in Canton so it's always weird to see people travel 100's of miles to visit the area where I live.

[Andrew]

Very cool, sounds like an awesome trip. Thanks for sharing!

I heard they had a huge exhibit for MJ set up the year he was being inducted, maybe they've scaled it back a bit since?

[Murat]

Looks like a great trip and a great birthday gift!