So, some of you might know that one of my various jobs is as part of the Orlando Magic’s “Jet Blue Crew.” We’re basically the modern day clowns of the NBA arena. We launch t-shirt, help run marketing games on the court during time-outs etc.
Launching t-shirts is by far the thing the people recognize us for the most. Everyone wants a t-shirt. T-shirt t-shirt t-shirt. It’s amazing. There are six of us on the court, three CO2 guns and maybe twenty t-shirts in our bags, and yet we can get an entire arena on its feet and cheering just so they can get their chance that a t-shirt will be shot in their direction.
So last night, Magic get trounced by the Chicago Bulls. I mean it was horrid. I wish there was a mercy rule because it was just painful. During the final time-out of the fourth quarter we went out and did a t-shirt launch. While we were doing a t-shirt launch though the two team mascots were having a “fight” on court. It was all staged and planned and it ended with Benny the Bull laying on the court and we had been instructed to carry him off the floor.
So with our hands full of mascot, we’re working our way off court. Our exit route takes us right by the Chicago Bull’s bench. Over my shoulder I’ve got the t-shirt bag, now empty having finished the launch and gotten rid of all the shirts. As we pass by Ben Wallace he reaches into my bag and gropes to see if I have anything in there.
Had my hands been free and I hadn’t been on my way off the floor I might have stopped and let him look for something. But I was just mostly shocked at the idea that a guy getting millions of dollars would be trying to snag a free shirt from his old team.
My mind boggles at the idea. Though, I do indeed still have a story to tell about how I had Ben Wallace try to pick my pocket!
– IG
