MELBOURNE young gun Christian Petracca says his recent catch-up with NBA superstar LeBron James was the "craziest thing" he's ever done.
The 21-year-old, who was on holidays in the US with a few Demons teammates including Dom Tyson and James Harmes, went to Philadelphia to watch Australian star Ben Simmons play.
"Watched Ben, who's a close mate of mine, watched him verse the Rockets in Philadelphia," Petracca explained on Thursday.
"Went out after that, and just met LeBron James, which was probably the craziest thing I've ever done and probably ever will do.
The 2014 No.2 draft pick returned to Melbourne on Wednesday and is still buzzing from the experience.
"(I) shook LeBron's hand, and I can't really describe to be honest, I think I was looking at my hand for about 10 minutes after, it was an awesome feeling," he said.
For the next week Petracca will be helping spread the buzz in the Lavazza marquee at Flemington, as the official barista of the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
In a way, it's life come full circle for the star Demon, who as a school boy had a job making coffees at the MCG.
"It was a pretty surreal feeling, I wanted to get drafted and wanted to be an AFL player," Petracca recalled.
"Every Friday night and Saturday arvo and even Sunday arvo as well I used to come down and make the coffees and used to watch the games.
"It was actually a really good learning curve, seeing that, and seeing the fans and how passionate they are and to be playing there now and looking at the fans and the crowd it's incredible."
