Great story!! I have a similar one from a friend I played with in Rhode Island who played in Ireland for two years. This was before fell phones so I’d call the hotel a couple times a month to chat with him. One time the front desk at this large hotel answers and I ask for so-and-so’s room. As ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” is blaring in the background at the bar 4:30pm Ireland time the front desk person says, “Oh wait I just saw him walk past let me get him.” So my buddy is at the front desk chatting w me for 5-10 min and every couple minutes you’d hear girls clamoring over toward him and we had to end the call. I think the last thing I said was yeah you’ve got it rough over there lol.My nephew played in Sweden and Czech republic. He was one of the best players ever in Canadian college. He grew late was 6'5 in high school, ended up 6'8. Lute Olsen decided not to take him as transfer, since he had used three years in Canada. He got to play 3-4 games a year vs Div 1 schools, and went to work. In europe he kicked the crap out of enough All Big Ten, etc guys that he made up for missing his chance to play at Arizona, etc. His girlfriend did not go with him to Sweden. We watched as each game he was interviewed post game by another impossibly beautiful 6 foot blond, while seeing women that looked like super models of various ages, were gathering in the edges of the shot waiting for his autograph. When he hit a buzzer beater to win the game associated with festival at the sports club and the women's team, and women's volleyball team ran onto the court and mobbed him, none of us were surprised when his girlfriend sent an email the next morning that she had decided she couldn't spend Christmas without him, and had decided to go to Sweden.
Another time when I was 20 our Armenian traveling team was playing in a tournament in Montreal and it was like we were The Beatles. It was insane. Something about American ballers at any level......just look at The Dream Team.