Two weeks ago was the first time this year that the entire 2007 AND 1 team got together under one roof. We were all out in LA for some meetings and a big photo shoot to promote the tour. The theme for this year’s tour is ‘United Streets of America.’ The campaign has to do with the fact that our 10 city US tour this year has every game scheduled to be played outside. AND 1 is going for a new look this year on the ESPN show ‘Streetball.’ Consider the tour to be somewhat reinvented. It is going to be different from the last 4 years where every city looked the same due to the fact that filming inside arenas makes for a consistently familiar feel. This time around the games are gonna be hott because you’ll be able to identify where we’re at for each game. For example, the game in NYC is going to be played in Coney Island, which is definitely easy to identify. Similar to the 2002 tour where we had an outdoor game at Venice Beach and it was so apparent that we were in Cali with the beach and palm trees.

All us players are hyped for this upcoming tour. During our time together everyone was enthusiastic and excited to officially get things moving. The whole weekend included a couple of meetings to discuss what to expect for our 2007 tour with regards to rules and what is expected of the players. We then had the photoshoot and then one last meeting where we evaluated the gear coming out for the upcoming season. When we all get together like that, time is always taken up by messin’ with each other, talkin’ shit and just havin’ a good time. Some of the stuff I remember is us laughing when Hot Sauce was killin’ some people with his immitations of everyone. He’s got everyone on the team down pat! It’s funny as hell to see him turn into people when he immitates! Then I remember everyone arguing at one point about if Lil’ Romeo is going to be a good Pac-10 level player. Some people said yes and some said no. We are all fans of the game just as much as we are players. It doesn’t matter if it is high school, college, minor league, overseas or NBA ball.

During the photo shoot shoot they told us they ended up taking 2500 photos for the upcoming promotions for the tour. That includes autograph cards, posters, print adds and flyers. Also add in all the magazines coming out soon with the tour schedule and player pics. It’s gonna be hott!!! It’s got all of us as a team looking like soldiers reppin’ ‘United Streets of America.’ You can check out some of the photos taken that day during our downtime…..

Professor
AND 1 #12