Question: How do you publicly ask Blake Griffin to dinner and make sure he knows how to contact you?
What happens when you give an entire NBA arena your phone number
Answer: Hold up a giant poster with your phone number on it in an arena full of strangers.
That’s exactly what 20-year-old Clippers fan Danielle Richards did when Los Angeles traveled to Washington D.C. to play the Wizards.
“I lost a bet to my sister, over whether my father would let us go to the game,” Richards explained to me.
Their unknowing father gave his permission for the two to buy tickets, and the stakes forced Richards to hold up a sign asking Griffin out to dinner with her phone number on it. Richards’ father may end up regretting his fated decision.
“He probably won’t be very happy I did it,” she admitted.
The responses started coming as soon as Richards began holding up her sign. Many fake “Blakes,” a few actual dinner invitations and at least one telling her to sit down.
“One guy called me and said he was Kobe Bryant,” she laughed. “The same guy called back later and told me he was DeAndre Jordan.”
Griffin himself took notice of the sign on his way out of the arena, but unfortunately has yet to take Richards up on her dinner offer. But that doesn’t mean she’s not willing to accept a back up offer from a responder who seems interesting enough.
“I mean, my phone number was out there,” says Richards, quite matter-of-factly. “If someone wants to call themselves Blake for a day, then we can have some dinner.”
By the numbers, here’s what happens when you give an entire NBA arena your phone number:
381: Text messages received
188: Phone calls received
174: Texts or calls from someone named “Blake”
29: People pretending to be other athletes
63: Dinner invitations
52: Requests for a photo
6: Unsolicited photos
1: Person with too much time and extra cash will spend $12.20 to ship $12 worth of Sutter Home wine to Griffin on your behalf.
And perhaps the most shocking number that may renew your faith in humanity:
0: Unsolicited pics of random genitals
