...And the journey continues.

Since our last update via TASTIC, not all that much has happened in terms of confirmed activities. The last two members of the group, KPCB34 & nevetsov have now fully paid up on their flights. Further concreting our itinerary, leaving only accommodation, car hire and most importantly (as far as 5 Suns fans are concerned) game tickets to be purchased.

Once the above has been completed the wait will seem like forever and an eternity, as well as excruciating, with nothing left to do other than such. Having said that, for me, the wait will seem minuscule in comparison to what I have personally endured as a Grant Hill fan.

With that in mind I thought it’d be time to give you an insight into The Man, The Myth, The Mav-e-rick (Mighty Boosh fans will relate) that is Never Fear 33 Is Here (NF33IH).

Rewind to a time where everything in the world seemed to be so much larger than to what it actually was in reality (with perhaps the exception of Shaq). You see, growing up in a less than middle class family in Australia, my chances of seeing the rest, or for that matter any other part of the world and to a larger extent (for me) the NBA was extremely low.

Fast forward to the year 2000. Grant Hill was to wear #15 for the team formerly known as the Dream Team. A group of friends, myself included, were set to travel the 800 plus km’s to witness an exhibition match, prior to the Sydney Olympics, between Team USA and Australia. Whilst the trip went ahead and it was an unbelievable experience for everyone, I was left with a bit of an empty feeling as the ankle injuries that were to take away Grant Hill’s prime had just begun to surface.

Once again fast forwarding, this time through the six seasons of the “Ankle” and various other injuries/infections. My support never waning in the hope that Grant Hill would one day run the floor pain free as he once did. A couple of failed attempts to make the journey to the U.S. with my wife followed. Then came “THE BLESSING”, my wife (the beautiful person that she is), never one for the travel bug said to me, “If you can find someone to go with, then go for it”.

That was all I needed. Almost immediately I was on the blower (phone) to SDU (sunsdownunder) to put the feelers out. Nope, no go there (He had just enjoyed the birth of his first born, so it was completely understandable). Back to the drawing board I went. With no other Suns fan in my immediate circle of friends that could afford to go I dropped an e-mail to nevetsov.

Keep in mind that to this day the only members of this entourage that have actually met in person are sunsdownunder, KPCB34, rodrizzle and myself (KPCB34 & rodrizzle have never met, if you can follow that, you get an A ;-) ). With that being declared, nevetsov and I (having never met, in case you missed that point) began serious talks to make the trip over for last seasons’ playoffs. At the end of the day, we were lucky we pulled the pin due to the fact that our beloved Suns were bundled out in the first round and we had in actual fact planned to get over for the second round.

Well that brings us to now, the dream is now getting closer and there are only 119 days until “The Journey” begins. But who is counting……….right? Tee Hee.

Stay tuned for the next installment and don’t forget to check out our profiles should you want to know more about us as crazy individuals.

Later much,

D (Never Fear 33 Is Here)