Hornets forward Ryan Anderson is providing periodic blog updates on Hornets.com, delving into many of his experiences as a new resident of New Orleans and other topics. In his second update, Anderson discusses his trip to All-Star weekend for the NBA three-point contest.
ALL-STAR WEEKEND
The trip to Houston was kind of like a big family get-together for me, which was great. In addition to getting to compete in the three-point contest – a tremendous honor for any shooter – my family was in town, as well as my girlfriend Gia and my best friend. I didn’t do anything wild or crazy while I was in Houston, but of course I went out to eat Friday with my family and the whole group. We went to an amazing restaurant in Houston that I’ve always wanted to go to called Uchi – it’s a Japanese fusion type of restaurant. We had a great time together, and that’s what it’s all about to me, enjoying time with family, because obviously I don’t get to do a lot of that during the season. After the three-point competition the next night on Saturday, we all went to another great restaurant, a steakhouse. It was great to relax and kick back while having a great meal.
My dad actually works out of Houston for Chevron during parts of the year. He commutes there quite a bit from California and works out of this amazing office in Houston. He got a chance to show us this office that he designed, which was really cool. He’s actually based out of San Ramon, California, and has to commute to there all the time from Sacramento, about an hour away. He used to work for Intel out of Folsom, California, which is 10 minutes away from Sacramento, but then he got a great opportunity to work for Chevron.
WEST WINS ALL-STAR SATURDAY
The NBA changed the format for All-Star Saturday a little bit this year, making it more of a team competition where it was the East vs. the West in all of the different events. That made it a lot of fun. The group of shooters we had from the West this year were all great guys, including Stephen Curry of Golden State and Matt Bonner of San Antonio. We really had fun and hung out with each other that day, doing an NBA Cares event together. It was fun getting to know those guys more. But it was also fun when Matt made it to the second round of the contest, because Steph and I were really into it, cheering for Matt. Obviously we’re all opponents who go against each other during the NBA regular season, and those are guys I want to beat when we play them, but being able to cheer someone not even on our team was fun.
Matt Bonner is just a normal guy, a good guy. He has this perspective of living in this weird NBA world that he’s a part of. I feel the same way all the time. We’re very similar in our perspective, and I think that’s why we get along so well. Steph’s just a really nice guy. He sticks with his family and is a good person. It was a fun opportunity and I had a great time with the entire experience.
FAN INTERACTION
Editor’s note: Do you have a New Orleans restaurant recommendation for Ryan? Perhaps a movie you think he should see… or avoid? Want to ask him a question? Send in your thoughts on Twitter to @Jim_Eichenhofer using the hashtag of #rynoblog and we’ll help Ryan become even more acclimated to the Crescent City.