PORTLAND, OREGON – It’s an elevator ride Marco Bustos will never forget – and it nearly didn’t happen.
On Tuesday in Portland, the 18-year-old midfielder just wanted to head back up to his room after a team meal on the sixth floor of The Nines Hotel.
After a couple minutes, the elevator stopped on the sixth floor but it was going down. Then, came the dilemma that we’ve all certainly faced at one point or another.
Does Bustos get in or wait for the next one that’s going up?
“I just thought OK, whatever I’ll get in,” Bustos told whitecapsfc.com. “So I got in and then the elevator opened at the main floor. I pushed the button for my floor and as I’m waiting for the door to close someone sticks his hand in and ducks to get into the elevator. I was like, ‘Wow this guy’s big.’ And he turns around and that’s when I realized it was Manu Ginobili.”
Ginobili, of course, is an NBA star with the San Antonio Spurs, who were in town to face the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night. The 37-year-old shooting guard is a four-time NBA champion and two-time NBA all-star.
Suffice to say, Bustos was a bit star struck.
“Right away I said, you’re Ginobili right?” Bustos recalled. “He said yeah and then I asked if I could take a picture with him. So I took out my phone and we’re talking. It was sort or awkward because I was trying to take the picture and we were talking at the same time. But I eventually I got it.”
And they continued talking.
Knowing that Ginobili is from Argentina, Bustos spoke to him in Spanish.
“He asked where I was from,” Bustos said. “I said from Canada. Then he said, ‘Oh, you speak Spanish in Canada?’ I said my dad is from Chile and I was raised in Canada and always speak Spanish with him. He’s like, ‘Oh that’s awesome.’
“He also asked if our team was based in Canada and when our game was,” Bustos added. “Then we got off the elevator, wished each other good luck in our games, and kind of just went our separate ways. It was pretty cool.”
Bustos, a Whitecaps FC Residency graduate who has two goals and one assist in five preseason appearances, said he’s a little bit of a basketball fan. He enjoys watching Lebron James, though it’s safe to say he’ll be keeping a close eye on Ginobili from here on out as well.
“It was really inspiring to see an athlete so driven and down to earth, someone who’s made it,” he said. “To see that, it’s almost a motivation for you to get there in your sport. One day, I want to be that in soccer and have people look up to me and come into an elevator and say, ‘Can I take a picture?’ It was really cool.”
NOT THE ONLY ONE
As you can see below, Bustos wasn't the only Whitecaps FC player who got a picture with Ginobili. Kendall Waston did as well. The big man could easily pass as an NBA player himself!
Whitecaps FC SuperDraft pick Spencer Richey wasn’t as lucky as some of his teammates.
"It's a pretty cool experience for a rookie coming in staying in the same hotel as athletes from other sports you've grown up watching," Richey told whitecapsfc.com. "One of my buddies is a big Spurs fan so I was going to get a picture, but it was the one time I didn't have my phone in the elevator. I saw Bustos got one though. But I heard Oklahoma City is checking in today so being a Seattle kid, some lost feelings with the Sonics departing so maybe I'll respark those."
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