I was shuffling down the gangway in Atlanta to board the 8:00 flight to PDX, when the huge dude next to me said, "Man, it's hot"... I said "sure is"... then said "you play ball?". He said, "yeah", and I asked "Portland?", and he leaned down and quietly said "Memphis". I said "Zach?" and he said yeah...

He said he was heading to PDX to see some friends (I said "Hoop Family"!), and he said "yeah, and I gotta do some business there..." I said, "Man's it's gonna be a fun year, everybody has improved - I bet you wish Memphis was in the East"... and he laughed and said "it is... but yeah the West is stacked... you guys should have a good year this year"...

He then turned left and went to first class, of course... I then saw him again in PDX, right behind me going down the escalator, and before I could say anything HE said "how was your flight", "I said, same as yours", and he said "long"... I then said "hey man, you lose some weight, lookin good",, and he said "yeah, thanks".. He then met his buddy, I'm guessing he was a 6'6 small forward.... and I hit the bus..

But I was pretty surprised how cool and friendly Zach was. The other thing I noticed was, he isn't THAT huge... I mean, sure he had to duck his head to get on the plane, but he didn't have the wide upper body of a 7 footer... sure, he's strong, but he wasn't NFL Lineman big.... (saw those guys up at a Seahawks practice a few weeks ago, and holy crap THOSE guys are freakin HUGE!) Which just made me respect his ability to get rebounds and play inside even more... Dude is Barkley-like...

But Zach really did look slim... And he didn't have a perpetual scowl, either! I hope you enjoy your visit Z-BO!