Waaaay back in the 90's the Jazz's opponents used to use the big gyms at the FranklinCovey campus in West Valley City. It was pretty common to see a team bus pull up and players get out. One time the Atlanta Hawks were in town. My co-worker and I ran and we saw the entire team. Steve Smith was staying after to get more shots in and my friend actually went and rebounded the ball for him. Afterwards Steve Smith said thank you and gave him 2 tickets behind the Hawks bench for the game.

There was a vending machine in the hallway and I was standing next to Dikembe Mutombo. He put a dollar in the machine....and it ripped him off. He was very mad. "My Dollar Bill....my dollar bill....this stupid machine just stole my dollar bill...can you believe that?" He was looking right at me saying it....as if I could somehow remedy the situation. I sheepishly shrugged my shoulders not sure how to react. He actually hit the machine a couple of times with his open palm trying to get the item he wanted to fall down. He did this to no avail. He finally went to the gal at the front desk..."This machine just stole my dollar bill!" She couldn't help him either.

Anyway, that's my Dikembe Mutombo story.

During the summer the summer league teams used to practice there as well. Dr. J was a part of the Orlando Magic front office at the time and that's how I got him to autograph one of my basketball cards. I still have that card in a hard plastic.