On Saturday January 17th, during our game against Dortmund I once again experienced another career milestone. After building a 25 point lead into the 4th quarter, I was switched out onto a guard and defended him on the perimeter. A teammate of mine stole the ball and I was able to leak out onto the fast break early. I received the pass from my teammate and turned around to see 47 feet of clear wide open space to the basket. With my mouth watering at the opportunity to throw down one of the greatest dunks of all time, I approached the basket "full running" (as my Serbian Coach calls it). The whole thing happened so fast that I didn't have ample time to decide which dunk to pull out of my dreadfully limited 3 dunk repertoire. Would I A) Throw it down one handed and "Bear Claw" the ball? B) Throw down a powerful two hander? C) Go out on a limb and try a 180 one hand dunk? Or D) None of the above. The correct answer of course is D.
I attempted a two hand power dunk but threw the ball into the back of the rim so hard that the ball flew all the way back to half court and was corralled by a player from the opposing team. Fortunately we were up 25 and I received a playful laugh from my teammates and the "K-Squad" (our fan base nickname). Just another career milestone to add to the belt. We ended up winning by 30 and my American roommate Paul and I came only 11 points short of outscoring our opponents by ourselves (35 and 32).
Monday, January 19, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Catching up
So to close out 2008...
As for my time back home and bringing in the new year I was fortunate enough to spend some great quality family time with both of my grandmothers, my cousins in Illinois, and of course my parents and sister. I also got the chance to keep it live in Ann Arbor and New Years Eve in New York City! I got the chance to spend my time in America with loved ones and and indulged myself with America's finest... burgers, Gatorades, Taco Bell, my automatic transmission Jeep, skittles, dishwashers, dryers in the laundry room, high definition television, AMERICAN TELEVISION, AMERICAN SPORTS ON American television, and many many more. I even got to watch my Detroit Lions loose their 16th game of the season. I thought they wouldn't pull it out but of course we broke the record and I'm really proud of my boys (or angry brick wolves for that matter).
Since being back in Germany, I have had some of the most fun yet. I had a special visitor from Amherst come stay for a week. Chelsea and I spent some quality time watching movies, experimenting with cooking (ever had chickamon??? chicken with cinnamon, ask for the recipe if your interested), visiting den Haag in the Netherlands, and many hours spent on the road. She even got to watch us embarrass the most low-budget team in our league with a 3o point smothering. That's about it for now. Keep on working hard with whatever you are doing and remember, "The only things we ever keep are what we give away." -Louis Ginsberg
- I stayed up until 7 am to watch the presidential election and acceptance speech from Barrack. Probably the best speech I've ever heard live in my lifetime. I'm pumped for the Inauguration!
- A wicked time in Osnabruck with big Kev and his teammates. Resulting in unforgettable partying with the doner man.
- A huge thanksgiving dinner with around 25 people, 1 turkey, and interesting side dishes brought to the table (mac & cheese??, pizza??).
- A spur of the moment trip to Koln at 1 am with Kevin, Olson, and some other teammates. What could possibly await 12 guys each paying 30 euro for a 40 minute train ride on a Saturday night?
- A visit from my White Birch Lodge friend Abby and her roommate Kelly who were studying abroad in London town which was a blast!!
- A trip to Amsterdam where I found myself down $160, completely sober, and only window shopping around the red light district (I promise Mom).
(yes this is my car)
- I also got the chance to catch up with Coach Wilcox and his team in Amsterdam. It was quite a coincidence to run into the whole team at this little cafe...
- A flight-squad throw up after a serious throw down in front of the infamous Kbomb.
- 5 Wins by a total of 65, 2 Losses by a total of 6, a new career high in points (37), a new career high in rebounds (18), the best game of Basketball I have ever played (34 pts, 52% fg, 18 reb, 2 TO, 3 Ast, 1 Steal, 1 Block in 40 minutes), the 2nd best dunk in a game of my career (Elms still prevails), my first successful alley oop in a game, and our team is in 3rd place for the first time to finish 2008.
As for my time back home and bringing in the new year I was fortunate enough to spend some great quality family time with both of my grandmothers, my cousins in Illinois, and of course my parents and sister. I also got the chance to keep it live in Ann Arbor and New Years Eve in New York City! I got the chance to spend my time in America with loved ones and and indulged myself with America's finest... burgers, Gatorades, Taco Bell, my automatic transmission Jeep, skittles, dishwashers, dryers in the laundry room, high definition television, AMERICAN TELEVISION, AMERICAN SPORTS ON American television, and many many more. I even got to watch my Detroit Lions loose their 16th game of the season. I thought they wouldn't pull it out but of course we broke the record and I'm really proud of my boys (or angry brick wolves for that matter).
Since being back in Germany, I have had some of the most fun yet. I had a special visitor from Amherst come stay for a week. Chelsea and I spent some quality time watching movies, experimenting with cooking (ever had chickamon??? chicken with cinnamon, ask for the recipe if your interested), visiting den Haag in the Netherlands, and many hours spent on the road. She even got to watch us embarrass the most low-budget team in our league with a 3o point smothering. That's about it for now. Keep on working hard with whatever you are doing and remember, "The only things we ever keep are what we give away." -Louis Ginsberg
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