Since this is the watercooler…and you brought up Jazz legend John Stockton…
I used to work for the Jazz back in the day when John Stockton was in his prime and the Jazz made it to the finals against the Bulls. Well, technically I worked at the Delta Center for “Marriott” which was contracted for many such things with food stuff…but I worked basically every Jazz game. I used to take food to the Jazz Dancers & Referees at Half time, and before the games started I would take food to the players’ locker rooms. I was surprised at some of it. Before every game, we’d take them 12-24 bud light to their locker room. Who knew the NBA pros were drinking alcohol before they played at the top of their game? It surprised me as a little high school kid (yeah, they probably shouldn’t have let me deliver alcohol at that age, but I wasn’t going to ruin it…how many high school kids get to see/meet big celebrities like that and make their high school peers jealous for it?). Rumor was that the alcohol was mostly for the “Rookies” to drink to loosen up and get used to such large crowds and TV viewers…but that never made sense to me since even the rookies generally came from big name universities and huge crowds and viewers on TV, especially during March Madness tournaments, etc. for so many years already…so who knows if that is accurate, it’s just what I was told when I asked.
Karl Malone (the guy John Stockton was famous for assisting, as they were a dominant duo) was insistent on getting soft pretzels and grapes before every game.
During the finals, Michael Jordan ordered “Apple Sauce” before the game, and we didn’t have any in the entire building…but nobody tells Michael no…so someone had to make a special run to Albertsons to buy Michael Jordan the Apple Sauce he needed to beat us…
Shaq is a really good man, but when I saw him on TV sponsoring some deodorant, I burst out laughing hard because he was infamously known in the building for having potent BO you could smell really, really far away, so it either meant that deodorant was completely worthless and didn’t work, or he’d finally found something that worked well, in which case that thing was probably the best deodorant on the market. I don’t know which was true, but it definitely said one or the other. Poor guy. Again, I think really highly of the man, and it’s not his fault he was known for BO, but it was noteworthy. The more I learn about Shaq now, the more impressed I am though.
That was a fun job…got to see some cool concerts, meet some interesting people, see some cool things…and as a high school kid, it was awesome. Those days are long gone now! I’m not nearly as cool as I used to be, just ask my teen daughter.