Growing up, my neighbor down the street handled a deal of the real estate sales for some of the new and leaving Kings player. She would have a Christmas party every year, and a couple would stop by. I have a picture of me in the usual 7-year old's Christmas sweater, all of 4 feet or something, red eyes, standing next to / below a 6''9 Wayman Tisdale.

Walt Williams, Michael Smith and Yogi Stewart were other guests down the years.

When Michael Smith got traded from the team, I drove over in his car--first time I ever saw a TV inside a ride--with my neighbor to pick up a bunch of his suits at his house to send him.

Yogi, in his one year here, hooked me up with a tickets to all the King's home games and a tunnel pass. That meant that every halftime, my little middle school self would get to walk "backstage", to what was essentially the wife's area, for some dinner. Good ass chicken. And Yogi was going out with this one beautiful woman at the time, worked at Vibe, I think, so she was my usually in the seat next to me. Free tickets, free food, attractive woman, yup, I was a fan.

Eddie Pickney had lunch at my house once, but I'm not exactly sure why. lol One day I came home from school and he was just in my backyard having a sandwich or something. My dad was a Celtics fan, so I think that was that deal.

Where I first lived, KJ had a house about two blocks over. Well, his grandma supposedly lived there. I never saw anyone go in or out actually. Hmm . . . ha . . . We'd try to leave cards under the door for him to sign, but he had a gate, which was really out of place given the area, so you really couldn't get that close. And there was a court in the park right across the street that I'd hear people say he'd show up at randomly back in the days, but that was just rumors to me.

And then Mr. Olivier Michael Saint-Jean, er Tariq Abdul-Wahad, lived near my my best friend's house, but I never saw dude. Wasn't mad about that.

Unfortunately, we moved and my connection died right around the time the Kings started getting good.