Other Duties as Assigned Personal Foul Mike Lowery Assistant Director of Conference Planning, Tax Executives Institute
YearsagoIhadthe pleas- ure of managing the logistics for an awards show held on Broadway for an organization that promotes women in media. One of the presenters that I was very excited to meet was Isiah Thomas, the Detroit Pistons great, who was an analyst forNBCSports at the time and was there to present one of the awards. Before the event, we had several members of the
paparazzi try to sneak into our reception area to get pic- tures of the VIPs. I had been positioned inside the red velvet drapes separating the reception area from the ban- quet room, and had already had five “photojournalists”
removed from the building for trying to access areas they shouldn’t have. Somy patiencewaswearing thinwhen someone
came barreling through the drapes. I reacted quickly and grabbed this person by his jacket to stop him from entering. Maybe a better descriptionwould be that I grabbed this person by the silky-smooth lapels of his cus- tom-tailored tuxedo and prepared to hand himover to security to be escorted out. Then I realized that I had just accostedNBAlegend
Isiah Thomas. I quickly flattened his jacket lapels, welcomed him to the event, and directed him to the VIP area just around the corner. He was surprisingly under- standing, and a pleasure to meet at the event.