DEC 20 | vs Houston Rockets – Greg K

Warriors 112 – Rockets 121

Greg’s always been good about staying in touch. I first met him back when we were working at The Bay Area’s NBC as interns a long time ago and from the very beginning he was a facilitator. He was the guy that connected people, people to ideas and people to the bigger picture.

I barely knew the guy and he was already trying to figure out how to get me out of a hole of an ‘intern’ office and out working for Lance, the guy that would eventually help guide a lot of my career.

And because of that, indirectly, Greg was a guy that helped shaped my career.

It’s rare to find a person that gives you that much trust, respect and loyalty before even getting to know you. Yet greg’s that type of guy.

He’s old school in that sense. And in the same vein, if you do mishandle that privilege he gives you, then you pretty much lost it for good.

We worked together for a year at NBC before he went on to land a killer job at a travel site that has him jet setting all over the world. It’s been years since then, yet we’ve some how managed to keep in touch.

I’m terrible at it, so like I mentioned it’s all thanks to Greg.

Which explains how we ended up at tonights game.

I had to figure out a fill in, because my original guest for tonight’s game had to drop due to holiday travel plans. When I finally got a moment to figure out who to find as a replacement, Greg sends me a text to say hi, reminding me that it’s been too long and we need to catch up soon.

There you go folks. Sometimes life presents you with answers and like that it was fated that Greg and I were to catch up over the Warriors.

The Commute

Greg works in SoMa so meeting at the Montgomery BART is actually easier for him than it is for me.

The tricky thing about meeting someone at BART is that with 4 entrances for each stop it’s easy not to meet someone at the right place.

That’s what happened to me and Greg. We were waiting for each other at opposite ends of the terminal.

So after we sorted that out thanks to resourceful usage of our cell phones, we finally reunited.

I had forgotten how long it’s been since I’ve last seen Greg until seeing him again tonight. If my count is right, it’s been a little over a year and half.

There’s something to be said about reconnecting with someone you had a solid friendship with. It’s easy. There’s no small talk needed and no uncomfortable silences because you hopefully have been through enough to remember what matters to them and what makes them tick.

And in the best cases like tonight you can pick up right were you left off.

BART is a time machine of sorts allowing me and Greg to reminisce on our days as interns and get caught up on the fundamentals of what has been going on in each others life.

In the short 15 minute ride under the bay we are somehow able to catch up throughly on our careers, relationships and families. And somehow we continue to circle back to memories of our internship.

Why? Because that defined our friendship.

The crap we had to deal with as unpaid interns at a local news station was pretty low. In fact, I have a permanent bruise on my finger from it to remind me.

However, it definitely could have been worse, but we’ve definitely paid our dues and learned a lot.

One big thing I learned from Greg that summer was the ‘Journeyman’ mentality to never stop hustling.

He was always coming up with ideas. He always had a plan or a better way of doing something, or doing something in a way for it to mean something… anything. Everything had purpose an that was awesome.

Everything was an opportunity and a blessing and he always had fun with it and tried to make the most of it, no matter the assignment/outcome.

I was an intern trying to forge my way and this was exactly the attitude I needed to feel off of at the time. I needed to not be afraid to try things and I needed to know that everything was an opportunity.

He was also always looking to get people connected.

And if Greg had never connected me as an intern to my post intern boss, Lance. I wouldn’t have continued my time at NBC and may have ended up regretting my time there.

Greg is a leader and he steered me down the road he knew I had to go back then. I owe him for that.

The Game

We both got to the arena pretty hungry and we ended up at Ribs and Things. I’m beginning to think I should start tracking how much BBQ I’ve been consuming over the course of the season. It can’t be good for me.

As we were chowing on some R&T at the Club 200 Lounge it’s always without fail that people either stare with envy at your meal or straight up ask you where they can get some of it.

Tonight a group of 4 men did and as soon as I said right by the escalator they were off running and back in 5 minutes posted up right next to us licking BBQ sauce off their fingers.

Greg was born in the South, but for the most part grew up here in the Bay, so he knows the unfortunate history of the Warriors. He hasn’t been to a game in a long while so there was a touch of knowledge I had to drop on him, but at least he knew who a couple of the key players were (Steph and Monta); every Bay Area local should I think.

The Warriors played well, just not great. The offensive game wasn’t the issue either, it was our defense and rebounding that really struggled.

We couldn’t contain Scola and they were dropping dimes in the backdoor all game long.

Thankfully we had a halftime show of two middle school teams competing against each other to ease the tension of the close game.

Boys vs Girls, from the same school. The girls dominated…

The game was close the entire time and it’s fair to say that the both fan bases were pretty nervous. We were frustrated and anxious because it always hurts more when you lose at home. As for the Rockets fans, it’s tough when the team loses and you’re on enemy territory. I know from first hand experience in Portland. The looks and comments you get after a game are not fun to deal with.

But they didn’t have to worry about that tonight. The Rockets pulled out the W and we were the ones that had to deal with the loss at home.

Greg and I stayed until the very end and as the crowds were filing out we were able to shift our attention back catching up and how we weren’t going to let another year and a half fly by.

A large part of that is my fault. A lot has happened this past year and a half… a lot of good… a lot of bad… a lot of regret… and a lot of moments to be proud of.

One of the proudest moments of the past year an a half has been getting these season tickets. Because even though I let a year and a half slip between us, going to a Warriors game with Greg is different than any time we grabbed drinks or dinner after work.

There’s more that we shared tonight than we ever did at any bar or restaurant. We laughed, we high fived, we cheered, we booed, we made fun of those boys for losing to the girls, then we felt bad about it…. then we laughed about feeling bad about it… being at the Warriors game allowed us to be the versions of ourselves that we were when we were interning together all those years ago.

And the next time we do have drinks or have that dinner we’re planning with us and our ladies, we’ll now have more than just our internship to look back on. We’ll also now have this time at the game. Because for as long as I’ve known Greg, all of our quick catching up has been just that. Quick.

Tonight’s game was a huge wake up call that we need to do more things like this…

Take less ’20 second time outs’ and more full ones.

Because why wait and be surprised that we have the ability to ‘pick up where we left off’; we should have the confidence we can. Because, it should be only a week and a half or at most a month and half since we’ve connected, not a year and half.

If it does ever get to that point again, thankfully baseball’s coming quickly around the corner.

Go Warriors!

-Nam

More photos from tonight:

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Monday, December 20th, 2010 at 1:15 pm. It is filed under And 1 and tagged with BART, Greg, Houston, intern, internship, NBC, Ribs and Things, Rockets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.