basketball and Ipanema

Yesterday afternoon, we took Mac to the NBA FanZone set up on Ipanema Beach.  It's a free event, open all weekend, to celebrate the NBA in Brazil. 

They have all sorts of fun activities hosted by various sponsors.  For instance, Mac shot baskets "around the world" and received a little drawstring sports bag for his efforts, compliments of Marriott.

Another event was the basketball slingshot game, where this girl shot the ball totally over the basket and outside the event into the sand.

Mac ran into one of his basketball friends from school, so Jimmy and I left them together in the FanZone to go sit on the beach.  It was nearly 712 degrees by then so I was a hot, sweaty mess and there was little breeze coming off the water, but at least we were near the water.  

I'd just gotten nice and comfortable in my chair when Mac found us to say that he was going to shoot baskets with the Orlando Magic but one of us needed to sign the permission slip.  I went back up to the FanZone, signed the form and stuck around to watch the action.  They'd chosen 32 people, ranging in age from about 7 all the way up to young adults.  They divided the 32 into two groups of 16.  The 16-member teams had 30 seconds to shoot as many free throws as they could.  Each team had two Magic players under the basket, throwing the balls back to the players.  Mac's team got the most baskets so then they divided the 16-person winning team into two teams of eight.  Mac's team lost that round so he was out after that, but after that round, the winning team of 8 was divided into teams of 4 and that winning team received Magic jerseys.

Mac hanging with the Magic

He shoots, but alas, he doesn't score.

We went back out to the beach and were sitting in our chairs for a bit when Jimmy noticed that the players from the Magic were walking out on the beach right beside us. Naturally I snapped pics.  

I feel like I hear the theme to Baywatch in my head when I see the picture.

They stopped to talk to someone right behind us, so I grabbed Mac - against his free will - and ran over to accost one of the players to ask if we could take a photo.  Mac was fairly mortified and told me later that I'd "molested" the player.  Whatever.  If you're a famous American basketball player who is about 6'11" and you choose to walk down Ipanema Beach, well then you need to prepare to be "molested".  And besides, the guy's smiling in the photo, right? (Kudos to Mac on his use of "molested", which means "annoyed, bothered" in Spanish.  Great foreign language skills!)

This is not the face of someone who's being "molested".

Last night Jimmy and I went to a very gorgeous landmark in the city for a cocktail party for the NBA.  The party was hosted by Amway, and we had special access to a lounge sponsored by Cisco.  The co-founder of Amway also owns the Orlando Magic, hence the connection.  Some of the players were also there and it was super cool to meet them.  We also kept running into the same two cheerleaders who were cute and fun and very chatty and seemed happy to talk to normal people instead of people glomming onto them to take lecherous photos.

Notice that Jimmy is hands-off.  He's not one of those lecherous glommers.

Hanging with a very dapper Victor Oladipo

Catching up with Jimmy (who'd already met all three of these people at earlier events), I got to meet retired NBA legends Muggsy Bogues and Detlef Schrempf and WNBA superstar Chiney Ogwumike (who, for the record, has shoulder and bicep muscles made of steel.)

Nice not to be the shortest one in the (pink) room.

The Orlando Magic is playing the Flamengo Basketball team tonight.  There are two Americans on the Flamengo team and I met them last night (but I forgot to take photos).  Jerome Meyinsse is a UVA grad with the Flamengo team for the last two years, during both of which the team has won the Brazilian national championship.  The other, Jason Robinson, is at the end of his professional career (his words), and has been here for just a few months.  His pregnant wife and their 7 year-old daughter live in Texas where his wife has a great job with the state of Texas, which she doesn't want to leave because of stability, health insurance, etc.  Super nice guy who just loves the game of basketball and wants to play as long as he can.  We will be cheering for them personally but rooting for the Magic tonight.

Jimmy and me with the NBA Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy