Bye Bye Boston... So long Meerkats

Nicolette keeps reminding (bugging) me to write a new blog entry and I keep telling her that I have nothing new to report to my imaginary readers. She says that I need to continue writing and focusing on the journey, not the results. Well, she didn’t actually tell me that specifically, but I understood what she meant. The process is the experience and the experience is what I will remember and pass along. Plus, since nobody is actually reading this, it’s a good way for me to review and vent about the voyage (thesaurus’d voyage for journey… the journey is being a bit overused!

Boston turned out to be an interesting experience. It was a blast being back in the “basketball fraternity” but quite upsetting when I found out that I would not be getting $125 per game. Instead, we were given $100 TOTAL. That covered about 1/3 of my gas and didn’t cover any food other than the delicious luke-warm-semi-breakfast that the Best Western so graciously provided. You can only eat hard-boiled eggs and muffins so many mornings! Ah, the glamorous life of being a wannabe professional athlete.

My cheering section was in full effect as my Dad, Sister, Aunt, and Girlfriend got to witness my final days of being a Meerkat. We ended up losing both games and didn’t make the Sunday championship. Oh well… I got to leave early and head home for Justin’s birthday! Overall, I was pleased with my play and the entire experience. My two main goals for the league were to get recent game footage and to stay healthy… I succeeded in both! The final stats still haven’t been posted but for the 6 games, I averaged approx 22pts, 5rebs, and 6assts… Not too shabby for a 27-year-old white boy Jew from Iowa. I will post a quick highlight video from the league shortly!

Physical health has always been a concern for me. During the last few months of workouts, my biggest fear has been my body and staying healthy. How was my back going to handle these aggressive workout routines and how were my knees, ankles, shoulder, etc going to stay fresh after constant gym work? Surprisingly my body has been pretty amazing. I have had a few minor setbacks…. dislocated shoulder… pulled calf muscle…numbness in my foot… but hey, what is gain without a bit of pain!

Boston was a great test for me mentally and physically. Physically, I needed to know I could still handle 2 days of 4-hour practices followed by 6 days straight of NBA length competitive games. Mentally, I needed to know I could not only handle the basketball aspect of the league but also be capable of earning the trust and respect of my coaches and teammates. I know this may seem like a physical feat, but I’ve come to realize how mentally taxing basketball and especially basketball players can be. It’s mentally tough just to be around them. It was hard as a player, it was stressful as a coach, and it’s tougher now after being away from these numskulls for years. All of you basketball people can understand what I’m saying. There is something about basketball players that is just hard to deal with. Whether its ego, cultural background or lack of education, it is obvious in basketball like no other sport I’ve been around. To sum up this paragraph, basketball players are generally idiots and are very hard to be around for long periods of time!

So here I am… back in Philly working out… waiting on my dream. My agents told me that I should know something around the 15th of August. They still say I have a 90%+ chance of getting a contract. They keep saying that the NBA lockout is messing with the entire overseas market because foreign teams are looking to bring in NBA players and it’s creating a trinkle (is that a word?) down effect on the “notgoodenoughtobeinthenba type” players. They also told me that if I get a contract it was a very quick process of when they want me to head overseas. It tough to mentally prepare for something to may or may not happen… ya, dig?

Okay… date night… then back to the gym in the morning! :)

P.S. For those of you who do read the blog consistently... please message or comment me things you would like to hear about? Do you like when I write about specific events or just recap? Suggestions, please...