at Staples Center playing the Lakers the previous night.
As it was once so eloquently stated in Animal House: “Roadtrip!”
We attempted to contact the other six NBA teams we’d be seeing – the Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Detroit Pistons, Dallas Mavericks, Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks – to see if they’d do anything special for Niels.
I enlisted a great guy named Terry Lyons (a former NBA VP), several other executives in the league and a handful of media friends I know who had links to these organizations. Much like my baseball tour, the results were spotty.
The Detroit Pistons were incredibly kind as the visitors in Los Angeles. I’m still waiting for a reply from the Clippers.
The Golden State Warriors treated Niels like a king – big thanks to Sporting News columnist David Steele for the assist and Matt de Nesnera and Raymond Ridder of the soon-to-be 2017 champions – but the arrogant Lakers refused to help or acknowledge us in any way.
The Cleveland Cavaliers were equally silent about all requests and help – and I had a handful of media friends from the Cuyahoga region who tried to get some assistance from the world champs. If you’ve listened to my show over the years, you know that I’m not a Lebron James fan. I’m even less of one now…
World champions on the court, losers in the game of kindness and returning emails, apparently.
The Wizards gave us a swabbing table, Niels got early access to watch warm ups and our seats were phenomenal. We’re working hard to kick off a D.C.-based wing of our charity on Dec. 10th called “March For Marrow.” Please support them if you’re near Washington next month!
The New York Knicks were very early responders and made it clear they’d do all they could to make it a memorable night in the most famous arena in the world – Madison Square Garden. We had glass bridge seats and early access for shoot around on the floor thanks to Tiffany Reaves, Jonathan Supranowitz and their team.
And as magnanimous as several of these team executives were during Niels’ tour, no one was as kind and accommodating as the Dallas Mavericks.
I had been trying through various sources to solidify a way for Dirk Nowitzki to take a picture and say hi to Niels for three months. Four days before he arrived in America – at the behest of David Katz from The Postgame – I wrote a blind letter to Mark Cuban.
I wrote it at 4:42 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 2nd. At 6:03 p.m. he replied in the affirmative and had Mavs VP Sarah Melton set it up for the west coast leg of the Mavs trip. Four days later – literally as Niels was in the air over the Atlantic Ocean – I saw that Nowitzki was skipping the west coast trip due to an Achilles injury.
Having dealt with two cancer battles over the last 30 months, we’ve learned to have a sense of humor about detours in the journey.
After all of the work I put in for Niels to see Dirk Nowitzki play, he got injured the week our hero arrived. Niels was in Los Angeles but Dirk wasn’t. Niels was in Oakland but Dirk wasn’t.
Just a roadblock, a detour.
Honestly, I never believed he wouldn’t meet Dirk Nowitzki. I had faith. If it was meant to be, it would happen.
***
Niels had no idea what we had planned in America. He knew Washington, D.C. and New York were easy drives from Baltimore and he tossed us a list of some things he wanted to see – the usual, White House, Capital, etc. plus he made it clear he wanted to visit the hospital and meet the doctors and nurses who cared for Jenn and kept her alive during the 155 nights she spent at Johns Hopkins.
The Ravens gave Niels a field pass for pre-game (with major thanks to Kevin Byrne, Dick Cass and Steve Bisciotti) and most of the players were alerted to say hi. For guys like John Harbaugh, Joe Flacco, Steve Smith, Dennis Pitta, Brandon Williams and others we’ve swabbed over the past few years, they were as thrilled to meet him as he was to be in America watching an NFL game.
After the win over Pittsburgh – and Niels was undefeated at Ravens games during his stay in America – we told him later on Sunday night to pack a bag because we were leaving Baltimore for a few days. It wasn’t until we snuck him through the TSA line at BWI that he figured out that the plane was headed to Los Angeles. (He didn’t even know we were going to the airport when we left the condo at 5 a.m.)
It was in the upper 80s both days we were in Los Angeles and we did all of the usual Hollywood things – beaches, hills, signs, stars, walks and Ins and Outs all in a convertible – Cali style!
On the first night, walking into the Clippers-Pistons game, Niels was relieved that he wasn’t seeing the other NBA team at Staples Center. “It’s good this is the Clippers because if it were the Lakers, my relationship with my brother would be over.” Jenn smiled and elbowed me. Twenty four hours later, as we stood in line to get our tickets for the Lakers-Mavericks game, Niels sullenly said: “Oh, no! This is the end of my relationship with my brother!”
He chose the Griffith Observatory over …
