Good:
I flew to Charleston SC to visit a friend around 2000. Got in on a Saturday evening, friend picked me up and we went straight to a bar in Mt. Pleasant. It was packed so I went upstairs where they had a couple of pool tables to see if there were any seats. Found a round table big enough for 4-5 people and sat down while my buddy went to the bar to get beers. Shortly after I sat down a guy came up the stairs that looked out of place in the bar. He was a little older than the crowd, black (bar was at least 95% white, if not 100%) and by himself. Without saying anything he parks himself at my table and turns away from me and looks over the rail down to the first floor. After a minute or so, buddy still not back with beers, I kept thinking I recognized him. Then it hit me. He looked my way and leaned over and said "Excuse me, are you Dwight Smith?" He smiled and said yes. He was the hitting coach for the Charleston Riverdogs of the South Atlantic League. We chatted and then finally my buddy shows up and I introduce him to my new friend and my friend, who was a die hard Cardinals fan, yelled "Oh My God, I hated you!" Smith laughed and we all hung out the rest of the night, drinking beers and grabbed some appetizers. The team was at home the next day so he left us tickets and will call and we went to the game. It was a weird chance meeting and the fact that I recognized him was lucky, but I was a Cubs fan and remembered the '89 Cub playoff team very well.
Bad:
Moses Malone & Julius Erving - The 76ers arrived at the Hyatt Regency in Indianapolis in town to play the Pacers. There was a large group of high school kids (me included) in the lobby. Some of us immediately recognized them and approached for autographs. Malone mumbled "I ain't signing no autographs" and kept walking. Dr. J was at least polite and said he wanted to go to his room, get settled in and he would come back down and sign for us. He never did. Other guys on that team were great. Andrew Toney was one, Marc Iavaroni, Mark McNamara and Mo Cheeks are ones I remember being cool. They sat down with us and hung out for a bit.
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