Charles Oakley rocking some Nike Command Forces (aka David Robinson pumps)
Four years ago my friend Alex and I were meeting some friends in Vegas for a weekend trip. He was planning on flying Air Tran X-Fares (now called Air Tran U which I mentioned recently on here). He had gotten there in the morning, tried getting on every flight that day and by the second to last one of the day, he was still in the Atlanta airport. On that last flight there were no seats. This is the email he sent me, detailing his shenanigans, after he managed to get on the plane.

—–Original Message—–
From: Alex <***@tmail.com>
To: ddubs@tmail.com
Subject: Wow, dude, wow
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 09:57:59 -0400

I can’t believe that I just did this. Isomehow, thru my anger and exhaustion, I just worked perhaps one of the greatest hustles of my life. I was waiting, dejected, as they were boarding and this like 30 yr old guy with a brooklyn accent walks up and asks if they’re still boarding. And they said yes and took his ticket, and I’m so delirious that I just blurted out the first thing that came to mind. On tues night, charles oakley came in to VIP at eleven50, which he does every so often, and I just happen to be bartending in VIP everytime, and I always talk to him and he likes being recognized so on tues night he gave me his number and asked me to call him next time there’s an all black party at eleven50. anyway, so i say to the guy “hey man, do you know who charles oakley is?” and he was like “yeah, I’m from new york, of course I know who he is, why?” and I was like “well I’m his personal assisstant,and he’s going to vegas on the next flight, but I need to get there ahead of him to take care of all his accomodations. So if there’s any possibility that you might be able to take the next flight and give me your seat on this flight, I can make sure that you sit with charles oakley in business class on the next flight and he’ll even pay for your ticket” and the dude was like “man, I don’t know” and I was like “dude, its charles oakley – mr.new york” and he said “how do I know you’re not bullshittin me?” and I was like “cmon man, here, look at my call list, there’s charles oakley (who I did call last night just to see if he gave me his real number) and there’s his lawyer (you, who called me 20 times this morning) I was like “dude, I wouldn’t bullshit you, and I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t really need your seat” and he was like alright man, you pay for my ticket right now and I’ll do it” and I was like “well all I got on me is my personal credit card, but I’ll call charles right now and give him your name and info, and you can just hang out and you’ll see him at the gate” and he was real hesitant, but saw the genuineness in my eyes and laughed and said “man, that big motherfucker better be a good conversationalist, cause I’m not gonna leave him alone till he talks to me about his knick years.” And I was like “man, he loves it when people outside new york recognize him, you’ll have fun” and the ticket girl didn’t say a peep and allowed the switch, and I called my friend alfred and put my volume on loudest, so it was evident that I was talking to a an older black guy, and I pretended to be talking to charles oakley and then told him that “charles was fine with it and that I was really grateful for his flexibility and to take it easy on charles cause he just had back surgery.” And I walked on board. I am in disbelief right now. This is a hell of a way to start a trip dude. I’ll see you in vegas!
–Alex
Daniel M. Weisman

Sent wirelessly from my Sidekick 3