The Most Mysterious Man in Basketball - World Wide Wes

A few years ago while shooting the NCAA South Regional in Houston, I took some shots of the celebration after Memphis won. One of my shots included CDR hugging a man and crying. I later found out that the man he was hugging was William Wesley - World Wide Wes. I printed a 5x7 and took it to the next tournament game to give to him. I showed it to one of the local news broadcasters and he said "I don't really know who he is, but he knows everyone." He mentioned he saw Wes take out his phone and get Michael Jordan on the line. Wes really liked the photo and was moved when he saw it.

This past week for some reason, who knows why, Wes was at the C-USA tournament (I'm quite sure there is a reason he was not at the SEC tournament with Coach Cal). After saying hi, I thought it would be awesome to get a shot with him. Here we are in Tulsa.

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Wes can now put David Minkin on the list of people he's connected with.

2008 GQ Article on Wes

New York Times Article on Wes

Double Loss @ C-USA Tournament

As the photographer for The Daily Helmsman and The University of Memphis I recently traveled to Tulsa for the C-USA Tournament. Unfortunately, the Tigers lost in a heart breaking one point loss in the first round. We're proud of our team and especially proud of Coach Pastner for his extraordinary efforts this season.

This was not the only loss for me during the tournament. I lost a camera and lens. The Mark III cost $5000 and the 15mm f/2.8 lens is $650.  I'm sending the equipment to Canon, but don't have high hopes they can be repaired. I do have insurance, but had a claim a year and half ago - alot to have to deal with...

As we were making an unbelievable comeback, Houston's #31 Adam Brown attempted blocking a Willie Kemp layup. As you can see in the photos, he missed the block, but did not miss trashing my remote camera and lens.

For some unusual shots, I mount a camera on a metal plate and use pocket wizards to remotely trigger the camera. I usually use an old Canon 20D camera with a 15mm fisheye lens for these shots. Being a member of CPS (Canon Professional Services) I can evaluate any equipment for a 2 week period. I chose to try the new Mark IV for the tournament. Having this camera to shoot the regular fore court shots with the 24-70mm lens, I replaced the old 20D with one of my Mark IIIs.

The photos below show the last seconds for the camera and lens thanks to Brown.

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The last photo for this camera & Lens...

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the aftermath... (notice the exposed circuit board on the lens)