After Hearing Bill Raftery Being Called 'Uncle One More' With A 'Once In A Lifetime Liver' - There's NOTHING In Life I Need More Than An Invite To This Dinner He Hosts

[The Athletic] - The Bill Raftery experience, Jay Bilas advises, involves so much more than a game. It means lunches. Long dinners. Lots of wine, some cocktails, maybe a few Miller Lites.

“You kind of have to gird up for a good two- or three-day bender,” Bilas says.

It took three years of being Raftery’s on-air partner before Eagle realized he could retreat to his hotel room before midnight. They don’t call Raftery “Uncle One More” for nothing.

“Bill has a once-in-a-lifetime liver,” Eagle says. “And he’s not afraid to use it.”

Raftery organizes a large dinner gathering for the Sunday night of Final Four weekend. The guest list can include current and past coaches, former players, broadcasters and media types and folks he met earlier in the day. He has closed down bars and restaurants in every major town but never seems worse for the wear.

The stories of Bill Raftery are legendary. He's always been talked about as a drinker and everything like that. But, this? Hearing he has dinner at the Final Four and invites media types he met earlier in the day. Well, I'll be at my third straight Final Four and I never needed an invite to anything in my life more. Shit, we already met! 

I'm even holding a beer in that picture, so it shows that I can fit right on in with Raft. I've said it before but Raft is my favorite human in the world. He's one of like 5-10 people in the world that has a 100% approval rating. I don't know anybody that doesn't like him, it's impossible. The moment you hear him on the call of a game, you instantly smile. You hear that man-to-man call and you say it with him. He's just the best.

But look at these quotes again. The man is known as Uncle One More. He has a once in a lifetime liver! Ian Eagle was scared to return to his hotel room before midnight for three years. The man is 76 years old and there's no one I want to spend time with more than Raft. That says a lot about the guy. 

I need to know what a drunk Raft is like. Obviously he just has stories for years about hoops. I wouldn’t even have to say a word around him. Just want to listen to him talk and share stories about his time calling games. I want to hear about his bar stories. I want to hear him talk about the decades he's spent in college hoops. There’s no one else better than this guy.

There's nothing I need more in my life than this. We all have that one person that we just idolize and fanboy/girl over. Raft is that guy for me. I would even pretend to eat all my veggies just to have some drinks with him and talk hoops. Until this happens it just feels like there's something missing in my life.