Crazy over Kobe!

It's the third time that Kobe Bryant visited here in the Philippines. And I didn't let the chance to see him pass. Hello, he's my basketball idol! Well that's besides Michael Jordan, which is already given haha!

Thank God for my job that I gained a lot of basketball-related contacts, and even contacts inside the Big Dome. We got 4 free Upper A tickets from our friend from Araneta Coliseum, but a few hours before the show, some of our bosses backed out and didn't use their tickets, and those tickets were given to us! We got 4 lower box tickets so we gave away our 4 Upper A tickets. It's indeed our day!

This "Take Every Advantage" Manila Tour 2011 of Kobe Bryant drew a huge crowd in Araneta Coliseum. The dome was filled with all of his fans, including us! Everytime the big screen focused Kobe, we were cheering for him. In fact, out of thousands of people there, me and 2 of my girl friends were captured by the camera and flashed in the big cube screen at the center of the dome! Wah! So fun! haha

Also, we're not only there for Kobe, but for our friends from the 2 competing teams: UAAP All Stars and the Smart Gilas Pilipinas. I must say that Nike was never wrong in getting Kobe as their endorser. This was actually the first and I think, the best Nike event I've ever attended.

Originally, the UAAP All Stars and Smart Gilas teams will only play for 10 mins; but when Kobe saw that Smart Gilas beat UAAP All Stars with a huge score gap, he decided to put 8 mins on the clock and play with the UAAP All Stars against Smart Gilas. Kobe wore an FEU jersey. He played so well that the lead was cut down to 2, which could've been a tie, not until Greg Slaughter messed up with that crucial shot from under the ring for the last few seconds. So the Smart Gilas won even if Kobe didn't make it easy for them.

After the game, before Kobe entered the dugout, he threw the jersey that he used to the crowd. Two girls were able to catch it at the same time and nobody was letting go. Security guards had to stop them.

 After the game, we went to the dugout to greet our player friends. Then we had dinner in Coffee Bean, Coliseum Circle; finally, we're off to Blue Onion, Eastwood.

I may not have gone too close to the Black Mamba ('coz we're too far from the court), I was still happy because we were able to have fun and experience this for free!:)

P.S.
A day after the game, we found out that Marcus Douthit of Smart Gilas is actually a friend of Kobe since their basketball days in the US. In fact, they partied together in Republiq Club, Resorts World after the game. Cool!:P