The Best Day of My Life

So I played with the BYU Basketball team last week. No kidding, I was straight up crashin' boards with  the likes of Jimmer Fredette and Noah Hartsock. I felt like a kid in a candy shop, no joke! I was as excited as this kid, who looks like he's in a candy shop!

Or this kid (in an organic candy shop)...

... or  maybe even this kid (not in a candy shop).

Yes I was that excited, yes I made that face.

Anyway, Tuesday afternoon I decided to shoot around in the RB because the NBA Playoffs are going on right now and they got me wanting to re-live my glory days.

I had been shooting around for maybe an hour (nobody else was even in the gym) when a few guys in byu basketball gear walk in! I didn't recognize the first few, but they looked pretty typical for BYU. Then something interesting happened. 

A black guy walked in, and I was like, "wait a minute these guys look pretty legit". And then Noah Hartsock walked in.

Yup, legit.

It was at this point the lightbulb went off in my head. This was the basketball team.

"Yo are ya'll going to practice in here or something?" I said, indicating with my thumb that I could leave to a different gym.

"Oh nah, your good. We're just going to mess around,"said one of the friendly guys that I didn't recognize.

I'm tweeting about this right now.

So I kept shooting around as the team trickled on the court.

Side note, I was so nervous my first few shots with them in the gym I bricked the first three. Badly. The players mere presence caused me to literally tremble! My arms felt shaky as I was shooting. Is that sad? Nay I say, I stood in the presence of giants (literally) that day and I did not fall! The day may come when my courage fails me, but it was not that day! So what if I was a little shaky at first. I eventually got comfortable and started sinking my shots like a boat with a leak.

As the rest of the team arrived I saw Noah counting heads when all of a sudden the door started to glow. I looked over just in time to see the door creak open and The Jimmer walked in.

I noticed this at the same time that Noah Hartsock called over to me "Hey, you want to play? We need one to even the teams out."

I literally laughed out loud at him and had to apologize because I didn't want him to think he had said something wrong, or I was a jerk or something.

I'm totally posting this on facebook.

 I finally realized what had just happened and said yes as I watched The Jimmer dribble around on the sideline.

"Cool, whats your name?'

Noah Hartsock now knows my name. He knows my name!

So I was on a team with Rogers, Hartsock, Carlino and some other guy that I don't know against Davies, Martineau, Zylstra and two guys that I didn't know. The Jimmer didn't play because he has some draft thing coming for some National Basketball Association and had to be healthy or something.

So the game started and here's how it went down.

(except I'm darker than this guy, but it was the most accurate representation I could find).

The game was actually pretty standard, I held my own, my guy didn't score any points and I got a few rebounds, layups and a steal off Zylstra!

When that game ended I sat down to watch the next game. The Jimmer was dribbling up and down the sidelines watching and I tried to figure out how to start a conversation with him. I carefully analyzed his every step to see if there was anyway I could get a few words with him when I noticed he was wearing Oklahoma City Thunder shorts.

First thought: The Thunder are a classy team, I kind of like them. Kevin Durant is a great guy.

Second thought: OH dang! The thunder are on a collision course to play my Mavs in the next round.

Third Thought: Too bad my Mavs are going to wipe the floor with them.

Fourth Thought: Why am I not talking to him about this?! Think of something witty... some trash talk or something...

"So uh...your a thunder fan, huh?" Seriously, you want to write witty stuff for a living and thats the best you got?

"What?" I point to his shorts. "oh, well I like them." The Jimmer said.

"Well they're going down against my Mavs."  Strike two. I mean seriously, this is like middle school material your spitting out here.

"They got to get past the grizzlies first! Actually I have the mavs winning the western conference and losing to the heat."

 Me to mind: Come on mind, think of something clever!

 Mind to me:                   ...

"Oh, well, thats cool. hehe, I think we will win!" wow. 

So we ended up just talking a bit about the play offs but I utterly failed to prove to Jimmer that I'm a really witty guy and he should want to be best friends with me. Oh well. At least I talked to him!

Not wanting to have an awkward moment I got up to leave when there was a lull in the conversation and so ends the story of the greatest half hour of my life.

Leave a comment, let me know what you think, seriously! Comments are like one of my reasons to live, so lets make sure I have plenty of them!

The Perfect Pitch

Okay, so this entry is not actually about that kind of a pitch. Its not even remotely as exciting as Chewbacca or baseball. But at least it now has a cool picture.

So we have a really cool new campaign that we are working on in the BYU adlab, for a really cool semi-new client that shall not be named for legal reasons. Anyway our fearless leader Jeff Sheets decided to put all of the new creatives in charge of coming up with ideas for a platform to launch this cool new campaign for a cool semi-new client that shall not be named.

The deal was this. We were to split into groups of two, (or parternships, I don't know how to phrase that. Apparently not partnerships because spell check is telling me that isn't a word. Scratch that, partnerships is a word, I actually misspelled it. Thanks spellcheck, sorry I doubted you) and come up with an idea which was to be submitted by friday by email. Vague I know, but this is about all I can share. I can say this, the platform is supposed to help certain peers connect and support each other.

 Anyway, my friend Niles and I decided to work on it since he does art and I do copy (or write for all you none advertisers out there). An unstoppable indestructible, infallible, unfailing team right? We came up with our idea, (a cool new campaign involving youtube) and felt like we had a solid shot at scoring this one.

While writing our pitch I was feeling all smug about our unstoppable, indestructible, infallible, unfailing teams creative genius when in walks two of the other creatives. Mmmmm, competitors. Ready to bask in the glory of our groups awesomeness I ask them how the project is going for them. I had just finished typing up the pitch and felt like we had nailed it, nay screw driven it and then bolted it to the wall. Not only was our idea solid, my pitch showed how it was going to accomplish our goals and why it was so awesome!

I mean what can compete with our unstoppable, indestructible, infallible unfailing creative awesomeness?

God can.

Yup, the other team sat down and said, "I think this was like direct revelation and inspiration man."

Oh crap.

"I mean we just sat down and said, 'this is what it needs to be'. Then the idea just flowed out of us, seriously it was like straight up".

Well there goes my pitch.

I mean it doesn't matter how good a pitch is, you can't really beat, "this idea came from a higher power".

So they go on talking as my haughty "I'm the best" feeling dwindles inside of me when a thought occurs. A good thought! A light in the darkness saving all else! A single ray bursting forth, casting out the darkness and filling my world with light, wonder, prideful light again!

But we've still got a shot, what if there idea is horrible and they just thought it was inspiration? Yeah, I bet their idea isn't that amazing, it probably isn't even good. In fact its probably hideous! It will probably make Jeff recoil in horror at what his students have created! Wohoo!

Nope. Their idea was amazing. It was simple, and it hit the problem right at the main source. It unraveled before me presenting solutions to problems that we hadn't even considered! It was like watching a tree grow in fast motion. This, this was creativity at its finest. This metaphorical  tree flourished until, until...until it blocked out all the light that had been bursting forth from my one good (but actually really bad) ray of hope before. Well, how am I supposed to respond to that?

"oh cool. Ours is coming along too."

Next time I'm definitely going with the inspiration pitch.



Note: If there is one thing I've learned so far in advertising, its that you should always go with the best idea and that best idea isn't always yours. I actually really liked their idea and kind of hope it gets picked so that we can all work on it. So don't worry, I'm not bitter. I didn't cry myself to sleep and eat a gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream that night from Smiths grocery store.