Many Thanks....

TheInsider — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:54:56 GMT

As my week with the Mavs has come to an end, I wanted to take time to thank anyone and everyone who has been a part of this amazing experience. I've always heard you're supposed to thank the "little people," but that's one thing I can't do...because in this instance, I am the little people! I'm just an ordinary Mavs fan who was given the most extraordinary opportunity: to live out my lifelong dream of becoming a part of my beloved Dallas Mavericks.

Many thanks...

First and foremost, to HP, the NBA and the Dallas Mavericks for creating the HP Insider contest and picking me as the grand prize winner.
To Chuck Cooperstein and Mark Followill, for treating me like "one of the guys" and letting me hang out on Friday morning
To Bob Ortegel, who even though he didn't feel the greatest, still kept me company on the bus ride to the airport
To Jeff "Skin" Wade, for spoon feeding me what turned out to be a key question for Coach Carlisle
To Gary Fineske, for making it a point to remember me, both now and previously
To Coach Carlisle, for the personal touches, like introducing me to the team and remembering me after the victory in San Antonio
To Jet, for making me his assistant and calling me by name every time he saw me
To Jason Kidd, for scaring the crap out of me and waving to me from the Mavs bench before the Lakers game
To Drew Gooden, for waving, smiling, and generally being nice every time I came in contact with him
To Dirk, for taking time to talk with me before signing not one but two commemorative T-shirts
To the entire team and coaching staff for being so friendly and unannoyed with me
To Mark Cuban, for seeming just as excited to meet me as I was to meet him
To Mike, of the Old No. 7 Club, for carding me the first night and remembering me the next
To Clay, for ordering too much food, including the guacamole of a lifetime
To Lesley, Sarah, and Kyle, for getting me closer to the action in different ways
To Lauren and her cohort Brian with the Marketing Arm, for all of the technical support; without their help, there would never have been a blog
To Leslie with HP, for proving to me that someone outside my family and circle of friends was actually reading what I had to say
To my friend Chintamani, for initially informing me about the HP Insider contest; to my best friend Lori, for sending me the text message (the first and only one in our 28 years of friendship) that convinced me to enter; to Holly and Susan, for brainstorming ideas with me; to my friend Taina, for buying me the orange Wheaties shirt that everyone will be talking about for a long time to come
To my dear misguided husband Rickey (the Spurs fan), for tolerating and in his own way, supporting, my Mavericks obsession all these years
To my dad, Tommy, for introducing me to basketball and for joining me on this awesome adventure
To my friends, family, and anyone else who was reading the blog, for coming along for the ride and supporting me
And last but most certainly not least, a big thank you to Kathleen and Jay, for edits, approvals, invitations, loads of laughs, and generally making this week even more fun and entertaining than I imagined it could be. Having you two along for the ride made it that much more memorable, and I hope that you enjoyed it every bit as much as I did.

Although returning to real life is more daunting than I had expected, the amazing memories of this incredible journey will be enough to remind me that, for one week of my life, I was more than just a redheaded freckle-faced fan....I was the Insider.

Yours Truly,

Mandi Smith
Mavs Fan Extraordinaire