Year 3: My First Final Four

Atlanta, Georgia....my favorite city!

Back in April, I decided to make the trek down to Georgia to take part in the NCAA Final Four festivities. As a coach, being at the final four is a big deal socially and professionally. The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) holds their annual meetings during the weekend of the final four, so that comes with all kinds of meetings, seminars, and social events tailored to coaches. The biggest part in landing a job in the coaching field is your connections with your peers. These connections go a long way toward getting your foot in the door all the way to landing the job outright. With over 3,000 coaches in town for the festivities, the weekend is a must for those serious about advancing in the business.

The events begin on Thursday, and conclude with the national championship game the following Monday. I arrived Thursday evening with a "Young Coaches Social" at a local bar set to begin at 6:30. The weekend didn't start off as planned, as it was 6:15 and I was still sitting in traffic, a couple exits away from my hotel. I decided to call a cab service to have them meet me at my hotel and take me to the event.

Months prior to the event, my fellow assistant at Emory & Henry made the reservations for the hotel I would be staying in for the weekend. I had no clue what to expect, other than knowing it wasn't in the best of regions within the city. I arrived at the hotel at 6:35, parked my car and ran inside to check in. My plan was to throw my things in my room and meet the cab in the parking lot. The cab was already in the lot by the time I arrived and I asked him to wait for me for 10 minutes as I checked in.

I walk in the door, and a ragged-looking lady and a guy wearing all Jordan gear from head to toe are standing in line in front of me. The Jordan-clad man was growing restless with how long the clerk was taking to service them, so he started demanding his ID. Confused, I looked at the sign above the (assumingly bullet-proof) window that read "if you are a guest of a tenant, please leave your ID at the front desk." At this point, I knew I was in trouble.

A lady, who I can assure you wasn't in any danger of winning beauty pageants, stumbles out from behind a metal door, passing between myself and the mystery couple, almost falling out of the hotel front door. I don't have many options at this point, changing hotels certainly isn't one. It's final four weekend and every hotel has been booked solid for months. I'm also growing later for the social event I was scheduled to attend. Begrudgingly, I tell myself I won't be in the room much anyway, check in, throw my things in my room (smallest, most run-down room I've ever come across), and head out. On my way out, I'm walking down the halls and notice many of the doors on the hall are cracked enough to take a good look inside. I notice that in each of them there is either a woman, or a couple, laying on the bed, looking straight at the door. Only some of the rooms had the small, box television turned on, others just waited for "clients."

I finally get out of Hotel California only to find my cabbie has left me. Not wanting to go back into Hotel Rwanda, I decide to walk to the street corner to call the cab service again. While I'm on the phone, a dark red lowrider drives up beside me. The window rolls down and a guy with long dreadlocks starts to yell to me...

"Hey Buddy!!"

I don't acknowledge the guy, I'm clearly on the phone bro...

"Hey BUDDY!!"

I turn turn to him, give him a heads up, then go back to my phone conversation...

"Hey Buddy, you got a minute?!"

I finally ask him what's up, his response was "Ay man, where's your truck at? I got your stuff." I assure him I'm not who he thinks I am and go back to my conversation yet again. He drives off and I hang up, another cab on the way in 7 minutes. It's 6:48 and I'm very late.

Not 2 minutes after I hang up, another ragged lady comes by and asks me if I'm trying to buy. Not a fan of her sales pitch, I tell her no thanks. She leaves, making way for a couple walking in the opposite direction to approach me. The woman talks to her "man," and says "I bet THIS guy would like some." Now while they may fall for that pitch on the tv show Shark Tank, I wasn't intrigued.

7 minutes and I'm propositioned for drugs/sex 3 times...

Lowrider pulls back up, now with a passenger..."hey buddy! you sure you ain't want his stuff anyway?"

"I'm good..."

Make that 4 times...

The cab finally comes, drives me to the event, I have some much-needed drinks and an hour later I grab my things out of the hotel and beg my cousin to stay at her place (DURING the week of her wedding). Fortunately she's a saint and didn't mind to take me in, without even offering me a bump of cocaine.

I head back out downtown, determined to network and have a good time. I head to a couple bars with coaching friends and wind up having a good time. Despite the rough start, the rest of the weekend goes great.

Some highlights:

Attending some seminars/panels with many interesting coaches and new technology to help coaches

Dinner with alumni of coaching staff of Emory & Henry years past who have moved on to other schools

Concerts in the park (Zac Brown Band, Dave Matthews, Flo-Rida, Ludacris, Macklemore, Muse)

Division II and Division III final four

All of this while catching up with friends in and out of the coaching business, making some new contacts and having a great time. Unlike everyone else, on Monday as they were leaving to return home, I was staying in town for my cousin/concierge's wedding the following weekend. It was during this time that I got a chance to go play golf in Peachtree City, Georgia with my cousin's fiancee and his friends. By "play golf" I mean that we played best-ball and we used like 3 of my putts. Otherwise I spent 4 hours hitting boomerangs disguised as golf balls.

But easily the highlight of my time in Atlanta came when a college friend of mine caught up with me and asked me if I wanted to go to an Atlanta Hawks event. He is a season ticket holder, and they were having a function for the ticket holders at the arena. I got to shoot around on the court and take part in some skills events. I won the contests for Knockout and Free Throws, and came in second during the skills challenge. For my effort, they gave me two signed basketballs by Al Horford and Zaza Pachulia. Afterwards we got a free dinner in the clubhouse and some party gifts, a good time was had by all.

For the sake of my family, I should probably say the highlight was my cousin's wedding (it was actually fun)...so yeah, it was my cousin's wedding...

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Not bad for my first final four. Next year is in Dallas, Texas and I plan on being a little more prepared (and booking my OWN hotel). It's a great event, even if you aren't a basketball fan. If you can get tickets, I would highly recommend attending one. And if you can't get tickets, just become a college coach and get them for free!