American Legends: NBA Rookie Photo Shoot 2006 [J. Mark English]

The American Legends team had the oppurtunity Monday to attend the NBA Rookie Photo Shoot.

The event took place at the New York Knicks training facility in Tarrytown, New York.

John Schuhmann of NBA.COM sums up the event:

At the draft, they give you a hat and a generic '06 jersey to hold as you pose for photos. In summer league, you wear practice jerseys. Some guys get to wear the full uniform as they pose for some post-press-conference shots in their new home, but for many, the Rookie Photo Shoot is their first chance to don an NBA uniform.

That's a pretty significant moment for guys who have spent most of their lives dreaming of the chance to hoop professionally. So much so that some couldn't wait until the day arrived.

"I actually put it on last night," the Sixers' Bobby Jones reflected. "It felt awesome to finally wear the jersey and the complete set. I took a picture of it on my phone and I'm probably going to put it on MySpace pretty soon."

The Rookie Shoot is also a chance to get together with 33 other members of the class of 2006 to talk about your summer vacations, your new cars (a Range Rover Sport in the case of Allan Ray - "Supercharged") and the upcoming season. They will reconvene in September for the Rookie Transition Program and nine of them will be invited to Las Vegas for the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge in February, but days like this do not come around often.

"We probably won't have many more times where we'll all be together in the same place," Jones said, "so you don't want to take that for granted. You just want to have fun and get to know everybody better."

And there was plenty of time to do that. The shoot lasted seven hours, including a 60-minute lunch break presented by T- Mobile (burgers, dogs and some deeeelicious cookies). The practice home of the Knicks and Liberty housed more than 15 different photo shoots, along with a few autograph stations and a three-TV setup to play NBA Live '07.

American Legends had a terrific time at the event, enjoying the oppurtunity to "chill" with the rookie class. Among the outstanding personalities were Hilton Armstrong who should be a welcomed player in the city of New Orleans.

Some of us also had the chance to take our first lick at NBA Live '07, months before it will be released. If your a fan of the EA video game, you have a lot to look forward too.

We'd like to thank the NBA for giving us a day to remember. We hope nothing but the best for the rookie class of 2006.