Nolan Dalla: Chit Chat With Trump And Poker With Shaq

Being at the very top of your chosen sport, or profession or industry is a wonderful place to be – and for Nolan Dalla the stars were aligned 12 years ago when PokerStars decided to sponsor basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal’s 33rd birthday party and he was introduced to a who’s who of A-listers, including one Donald J. Trump.

Dalla, the former director of communications for PokerStars at the time, has recounted for the first time the trials and tribulations of an evening with the stars on his blog – and it’s an amusing and educational account of trying to get O’Neal and Trump together at the poker table for that one big defining shot which would justify the $160,000 outlay!

"The push was on to become the number one poker site in the world, both in terms of daily traffic and reputation,” recalls Dalla, adding: ”Sponsoring non-gambling mainstream events like Shaq’s birthday party was yet another way to try and legitimize our company — which despite our best efforts — was still tainted as a shady gambling company…”

In his recollections of the bizarre evening Dalla points out:

"The irony of multi-millionaire athletes, presumed billionaire financiers, and movie stars having their personal entertainment paid for by an outside company was preposterous. We’d all jumped the shark. This was cultural insanity.”

Dalla recalls how he and Rich Korbin “became the chosen ones. We were plucked to play the role of party hosts, representing the official sponsor — PokerStars.com. My qualifications for this role were suspect, at best. However, Rich was essential to the operation. Rich was known as the man to get things done at Stars.”

Getting things done turned out, not surprisingly, to be exceedingly difficult – such was the fame of O’Neal, surrounded at every second by well-wishers, friends and hangers-on. His own ‘job’ –an attempt to get Trump in on the act – was a miserable failure…

Despite being interrupted by the arrival of Shaq’s birthday cake, Dalla and Korbin eventually pinned down Trump and wife Melania, but messed up…

"I don’t remember if it was Rich or me who started with the small talk, which we both admittedly don’t like. Trump hates small talk too, from recent testimonials of his personality. Gee, I wish we’d just come right out and said what was really on our minds at the time — Mr. Trump… we need a favor… would you help us out for a couple of minutes? He’d likely have gone along. But instead, we wiggled through the usual conversational gymnastics trying desperately to get Trump to join the poker game upstairs. Trump politely declined.”

As for O’Neal, well initially things didn’t look great according to Nolan Dalla.

"Where am I going to find Shaq in that crowd?” the PR lady asked. “There’s at least 500 people at this party.” My reply was something to the effect — “Gee, I don’t know. Try looking for the 7′ 1″ Black guy dressed in white suit topped with a fedora.”

When they finally did get their window of opportunity – amidst the open-air poker tables on the verandah with cards blowing this way and that – they discovered a problem…the giant of the basketball didn’t know the rules!

“What do I do now?” Shaq asked.

In all, Dalla creates a great read over two parts, and I won’t spoil the ending, but it’s moments like these and writers like Dalla (when he sticks to non-controversial subjects) which help to bring the weird and funny moments of the game alive.