I hung out with the Phoenix Suns yesterday!

Honest to blog! Yesterday my mother-in-law asked me to come paint a Suns event with her. I have painted plenty of Suns games and figured we would be standing at the entrance painting little kids as they came in. But, when we got there it was a different story. They told us to take some stairs and they would lead us right to the court. So we get down there and the woman in charge told us to go sit on the bench. That's right, I sat on the bench-well it was actually luxurious black cushion chairs-where the Phoenix Suns sit during games.

I didn't know that there were actually going to be Suns players there until I saw Steve Nash waiting in line with kids that wanted to get their faces painted. He looked right at me so I smiled. He never made it to the front of the line because he was constantly being swarmed by people wanting his autograph. I asked a kid there what the event was for and they said that they were there with their halfway house. From what I gather, there was some kind of toy drive and some foster children and half-way homes were invited to come have lunch with some of the Suns players and practice basketball with them.

I am ashamed to say that I don't know many of the Phoenix Suns players anymore. I don't watch basketball. Here is a list of the following players that Mom and I got to rub shoulders (well not really shoulders because most of them are huge-except Steve Nash who was surprisingly shorter than I thought he would be).

Obviously I recognized Steve Nash. You don't have to watch basketball to know Steve Nash.
This is Robin Lopez #15. I had no clue who he was. In street clothes he just looked like a guy with huge hair.

This is Louis Admundson #17. He was walking onto the court at the same time we were. I honestly thought he was like a custodian there. Sure, he is tall like a baller, he just seemed so young and, well...normal.

This is Grant Hill #33. I recognized him right away, but I didn't know what his name was until I looked on the Suns website.

Dan Majerle was there. I didn't know he is an Assistant Coach. I did recognize him from way back in the Barkley days when I did watch some basketball with my family.

This is former Suns player, Cedric Ceballos. He DJ'd the event.

This is Assistant Coach Alvin Gentry. I painted his face! Each Suns "celebrity" was assigned a group of kids. We walked around to their tables to paint while they ate. He wanted to have each kid get their face painted and he did too. I had no idea while I was painting him who he was.

This is Alando Tucker #29. He talked to me and Alvin while I painted everyone at Alvin's table.

After it was over I was talking to my Mom about how these were just a bunch of guys to us, but they are stars to others. I wished I had my camera with me, but who takes their camera to a face painting gig? Crazy day, huh!?