OK that makes sense... looking at ET address in Orlando and the J.Alexander's restaurant just down the street . I spend a lot of time in the Sarasota/Bradenton area and travel in and out of Tampa Int.
That must have been a surreal experience. If I may ask, how did you approach Shaq in the first place? Had I been in your position, I would have asked him about his recent decision to retire and would have probably ended it with a request for an autograph on a napkin.
It wasn't as surreal as you might think because I see a lot of the older NBA players and other celebrities here on a weekly basis. Last week I was sitting near Patrick Ewing at Macaroni Grill. I've seen Charles Barkley around quite a bit as well. I used to see Tiger all the time because he used to work out at my gym, but I haven't seen him recently. I still see his ex-wife all the time though. In terms of how I approached Shaq, I just asked him if he was going to stay in Orlando or if he was gonna move somewhere else. He said he was going to move to a place called Treasure Island, which he said is on the gulf coast of Florida. I don't know anything about the place, but I'm sure it's beautiful with a name like that. I find that all celebrities are approachable and pretty cool as long as you follow one simple rule: Never ask them questions about what they do for a living. They get questions like that all the time from the media, so the last thing they want to do is go through the same routine with some guy at a bar. However, if you ask them off the wall questions, even if they are really personal like, "Hey, where do you get your tatoos done at?", that's usually all it takes to get them to open up about themselves in ways you never thought possible.
The girl is hot, but seriously... I'd never touch, much less kiss, anything that's come in contact with Flavor Flav. Blech.