In what has been a long off-season with its ups and its downs, I have found myself playing for a new team in Luxembourg called the Musel Pikes. I have been here for almost 2 months already which seems crazy because the time has really flown by. In these two months, I have gotten situated with my new home, gotten lost in the beautiful country that is Luxembourg, been on the wrong end of a few team jokes, brushed up on some of my French, and have met some really cool people.
On the Basketball court my new teammates and I have really come together and are looking to start the season off on the right foot this weekend. We start the season Saturday against the team BBC Nitia from Bettemburg Luxembourg. I absolutely can't wait to begin the season as it has been quite some time since our team has played an exhibition game together (about 3 weeks!). In that time, we have been practicing and making great strides in the right direction but it's time to show what we can do when it matters most!
I'd like to give a shout-out to my former team in Iserlohn who is currently 4-0 in their young season and looking very good via the highlights put together by Olaf's Dad. I appreciate the effort to put these together and I'm glad to see they are doing well.
I'd also like to thank all the young coaching staff at Amherst College for putting together the beautiful youtube site where some of my greatest memories are only a click or two away.
As always, I appreciate all types of feedback (good, bad, or ugly) from my posts and of course my door is always open to all.
I'm going to leave you with this unbelievable video because with such a huge weekend coming up that includes our first Musel Pikes Basketball game of the season, a HUGE Michigan vs. Michigan State football game, and the Detroit Tigers fighting to make the playoffs, it's about that time to get all fired up!!!
The weekend of February 22nd and 23rd was our teams bye week because of the national holiday, Karneval. I was quite glad to get a rest for my legs as we've been going strong now for 7 months with only Christmas break in between. The weekend of Karneval is pretty much a unique mix between Mardi Gras, Halloween, and Presidents day back in the United States. People are dressed up all weekend and tend to drink heavily. Naturally, Karneval seemed enticing enough for me and so I pretty much enjoyed myself all weekend in Hagen. Then came Monday.
Monday is actually the biggest day of Karneval but I coincidentally got hit by a Doner bomb late Sunday night. After going out chasing pac-man all night (see below), I worked up quite an appetite and decided to go for my usual late night 4th meal; the Doner (pronounced DER-NA). Now this one time delicious treat comes from the great land of Turkey. It is basically a gyro but made with baked bread rather than a pita. They are so well known in Germany that there is even a song about them! (which translates to "Eating Doners make you beautiful!". So Sunday night I decided to call it a night rather early for Germany (2:00 am) and grab a quick Doner before I doze off to sleep. This particular Doner place was very well known and respected by all the locals in Hagen yet somehow I was hit by a Doner bomb that did me in. My body recognized something foreign in my stomach which I'd wager was the undercooked meet from the Doner and so my body got rid of every ounce of food and liquid in my body by all means imaginable. Apparently my body keeps about 20 lbs. of undigested food and liquid at all times so by Monday afternoon I was actually 20 pounds lighter! My body recovered rather quickly but of the 24 hours on Karneval Monday, I was asleep for 20 of them and drinking water profusely the rest of the time.
As a result of a good bye week, I have decided to say goodbye to the infamous Doner.
(We had a scrimmage on Sunday against a regionalliga 2 team who were missing all of their Forwards and Centers and so we won by 40 points and had a lot of fun doing so. 13 points and 4 assists including an off the backboard alley oop pass, oh and about 5 or 6 turnovers of course. Remember, we're talking about a SCRIMMAGE, not a game, not a game... a SCRIMMAGE!)
Since my last update our team has kept a nice little win streak going. Win number 4 of the streak came against the 12th place team at BG Hagen on January 23rd. We played a sloppy game overall but ended up winning by 8. I believe I finished with 30 points and around 10 rebounds but missed another tip-in dunk and played flat the first 3 quarters.
Win number 5 was at home against the 5th place team on January 30th and was one of the most inconsistent games I have ever been a part of. We started the game on a 22-3 run. We then let the Grevenbroich Elephants go on a 12-0 run in the 2nd quarter. The 2nd half was then filled with multiple mini-runs until we finished with a strong 4th quarter. We ended up winning 89-81, but I had the worst performance of my professional career. Playing in front of the home town crowd I shot a miserable 27%. I missed all 5 three point attempts and went 0-3 on other jump-shots. I made 5 wide open layups and went 8 for 8 from the line to salvage myself somewhat by scoring 18. It also didn't help that I had 3 turnovers to my 1 lonely assist.
Win number 6 came on February 7th against Bayer Uerdingen who was at the time 2-18 for the year but with a new American power forward who was brought in to help save the team from demotion (in the Regionalliga West, the top 2 teams are likely to be promoted into Pro B whereas the bottom 3 teams are to be demoted into Regionalliga 2 for next season). The game was played in front of a decent sized crowd which happened to include my parents! They had flown in 2 days before from Detroit and were still very jet-lagged. After missing my first wide open lay-up of the game and shaking the jitters out from playing in front of my most loyal fans (my parents of course) I went on to score a new career high of 43 points which included 6 dunks. Everything seemed to be going in that day but the game was still a fight to the finish as Uerdingen was playing for their spot in the league. We ended up winning the close one 85-78.
After the game in Dusseldorf, my parents and I experienced the interminable Saturday night bar scene in Dusseldorf. We had a great time and then stayed at a nice hotel not too far from town. In the morning we set our sights for Barcelona Spain where we spent Sunday, Monday, and part of Tuesday. It was a wild 3 days to say the least and we all had a blast exploring the maritime atmosphere.
Our next game on February 14th was the biggest one of the entire season. We played TSV Leverkusen who were 2nd place in the standings only 1 game ahead of us. They beat us last time we played them at Leverkusen by 11 so we needed to beat them by 11 to take 2nd place in the league. The game was hyped all week on the radio and in some of the local schools. With around 1000 wild fans in our gym it was quite the stage for a great game. The game got very physical from the start. I failed to mention last time we played against Leverkusen how dirty the team was. Apparently, I am not the only one who feels this team as somebody took the time to highlight some of the dirty plays by one of their players this season. Aggression on both sides continued escalating throughout the first half until our starting 2 guard got knocked out of the game by the infamous American player from Leverkusen as seen in the video. We also had the same terrible referee that officiated our first game against this team. Coincidentally, I had my 3rd foul in the first minute of the 2nd quarter, our starting point guard had 4 fouls in the 1st half, two players were out of the game with injuries. By the end of the game we had 3 players foul out (including myself) and were called for more than 10 more fouls than the other team. Regardless of the blatantly poor officiating, we were winning for more than 75% of the game. Heading into the 4th quarter we had one of our largest leads at 8 points. This was when Leverkusen made 6 3-pointers in a row as part of there 41 point 4th quarter. During this ridiculous stretch we made about 3 3-pointers and a lay-up or two in an attempt to match them, but in the end we fell short. We lost the game by 10 as I had to watch the last 6 minutes from the bench after fouling out. I was very proud of our team and our fans as we battled with them throughout the whole game despite being out sized by about 15 lbs. per player. It was quite a disappointment to loose this game but in the end we played our hearts out and did all that we could.
After the game we caught wind of an Amherst victory over Middlebury and the Olsons, the Walters, and the Nehrings helped celebrate a 2nd place NESCAC spot, the Olsons anniversary, and a BBV Hagen (Andrew's team) win thousands of miles from home until 5 o'clock in the morning! My parents were here for only 10 days, but we made so many memories and epic stories that I will never forget in my lifetime. What a week!
Last week I celebrated my birthday... a few times. This is actually a picture of my dream German birthday. Need-less-to-say, it was a different experience being in another country away from my family and friends. Thankfully my teammates and former teammates were here to help celebrate. Since Goldy (who played with me at Amherst and lives an hour away) has a birthday on October 17th and my birthday is on the 15th, we usually have a 4 day extraveganza. If you check out his blog, we pretty much kept true to tradition with American sports, German drinks, and the male-bonding. However, I really missed my family and friends and I didn't even get to speak to any of them on my actual birthday. This is actually my fault seeing as I have a skype account where I can call my family or my ex-girlfriend whom I miss both VERY much.
Last Saturday we beat an easy team at home by 20 and my roommate had 33 points! (I had 24) Today (Thursday) we play the #2 team in the league in their one of a kind gym. I will explain why it is so one of a kind later, stay tuned.
I'm getting a little behind but last Saturday we played the Grevenbroich Elephants at their place. Coming off of our first road win in about 2 years it was about that time to go and get another one. Grevenbroich is 5-0 and on top of the standings so far this season. We started with our best American PG and our best German PF/C picking up quick fouls in the first minute and a half of the game leading to a quick 7-0 deficiet to start the game.
The only thing I can attribute to their quick start was the hype madness that was their pre-game introductions. After announcing our team, they all exited the gym and the lights were turned off. There was an emcee who acted as a hype-man and was leading all sorts of chants in German that got these fans absolutely loose. There was a laser show with glow sticks scattered throughout the crowd. They then put on The Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack on a set of speakers that were BANGIN! For those who do not know me, it was over from that point on! I absolutely love that song (for multiple reasons) and it got me so hype on Saturday.
After finally settling in, we didn't let the lead grow and kept a steady pace; 25-18 after the first quarter. We then went on a 10-0 run to go up 3 and after a key 2nd quarter, we were up about 5 at the half. The game began to get a little interesting when we went on a 15-3 run, and followed that up by allowing them to go on a 13-1 run. The last I could remember, we were up 10 with 1:30 seconds left. We miss a open shot, they come down and hit a 3. One of our young guys (17 years old) drives the lane only 7 seconds into the shot clock and looses the ball. They score, 5 point game, 45 seconds. Our American point guard hits a HUGE shot off a ball screen and we go up 7. They come down and score again so its a 5 point game. We turn the ball over in our own court and they get an easy lay-up, 3 point game with 15 seconds remaining. Luckily, they foul and we make our FT's down the stretch en route to a 6-point victory.
We beat the #1 team at their place! Great win for our team!
Before I begin, I would like to explain that the title "Weekends are for the Warriors" is a song from a new band A Change of Pace and is hot fire. Andrew, Goldy, Brooke, and I fell in love with this song during our trip to Ann Arbor in 2006. This song is especially close to our entourage because of the fact that Andrew grew up with the drummer Jon in Arizona and we got to meet him this year.
I guess my weekend started Thursday night when I went to the legendary FunPark. A typical high-school/early college years hangout where the song playlist is as long as Adolph's torso (not very long). I was pleasantly surprised to hear the news that Mickie Krause was performing that night. For those who are uninformed, Mickie Krause is a drinking song/pop icon in Germany and is known for his reputation as the party king of Majorca (an island in Spain where all Germans tend to locate for vacation).
The next day, I was reminded that my roommate and I had made a promise to one of our friends that we would go into Dortmund to this classy club on Friday. We made the promise over 2 weeks ago in a half joking manner but our friend was determined to keep us to our word. So on a night before gameday we went out to Dortmund and went to this very nice club called Prism and of course I was driving 3 very drunk girls singing along to Justin Timberlake. Although these girls didn't speak perfect English, of course they knew every word to Justin and made sure we knew about it. What looked like an average night turned out to be pretty legendary. It turns out that Cascada was performing there that night. As an Amherst alum, it was almost impossible not to know who Cascada is. Of all the things I expected to do or see in Germany, rocking out with Cascada in a PACKED club hall with thousands of drunk Germans was not one of them. Regardless, she killed it and made my night!
Saturday, we won our game by 10 to BG Hagen. It was a good game all around but playing at home against a team who has only 1 win this season I was again disappointed we didn't win by more than 10. I don't think our team has found our killer instinct that we seemed to have at Amherst against average/mediocre teams. It will appear soon enough. I played one of my better offensive games but should have finished with maybe 35 pts. My final stat line was 26 pts (46% from the field), 12 rebs, 6 steals, 2 ast, and of course 7 TURNOVERS. It just felt good to have a right hand functional during a game for a change. Saturday night I decided to stay in and watch my Wolverines and the Rays. Don't want to talk about it tho.
On Sunday I woke up and decided to pull the trigger on tickets to go see BVB Dortmund vs. Hanover 96 in Dortmund. So one week after seeing all the mayhem in Dortmund, I had to see what it was all about for myself. We bought some cheap seats but of course as any savvy veterans would do, we moved down closer and used the language barrier as a fail-proof plan to get better seats. Within 15 minutes we had seen 2 very nice goals by both teams and within 20 minutes, we saw a should-be goal for Dortmund that was called back because the ref didn't have a good angle.
(video coming soon)
After the adventure, we came back to watch NFL games on our projector and watched the Chargers-Dolphins game with Paul and my Coach from Serbia. To set the stage, my coach is a die-hard Dolphins fan and Andrew is a die-hard Chargers fan. I asked my coach if Dan Marino was his favorite player and sure enough he doesn't even know who that is! The reason he jumped on the Dolphin bandwagon was for no other reason but one player... Ricky Williams!!!! My Coach put money on the Fish this week because of their heroics last week where they wiped the floor with the Patriots and sure enough in front of the biggest Charger fan I know, the Dolphins beat the Chargers and my coach won some euros. My whole knowledge of sports is now upside down and I'm searching for some solid ground. Somebody please help, my Serbian coach who follows Ricky Williams actually bet money and won with the Miami Dolphins over the San Diego Chargers while watching in my living room eating McDonalds and shouting Ricky! Ricky! everytime he was even mentioned during the game. My apologies for the length, but this weekend was pretty legendary and one for the warriors!
Saturday we played an away game in Dortmund and although I am thousands of miles from my home in Ann Arbor and my beloved Alma mater campus in Amherst Massachusetts, things felt very familiar to me on Saturday.
The trip to Dortmund is a quick 30 minute drive on the autobahn (going around 90mph of course), and for our away games we travel in a 12 person Nissan Euro van looking thing with a big Kangaroo on the back. Anyway, as soon as we got into the city there were thousands of people rushing to get home from a Dortmund Foosball (soccer) match that had just finished. I suddenly felt as if I were in Ann Arbor on a crisp Fall Football afternoon (well nothing can touch that, but it was very close). Everyone was decked out in their yellow and black scarves and it was a great sight to be seen. To the game. We started out very well and held a 2-6 point lead almost the entire first half. Thanks to some ridiculous calls from the referee, I had collected 3 fouls in the first half and was forced to start on the bench for the start of the 3rd quarter. We played a pretty good game and ended up winning by only 4 but the referees were responsible for about 10 points in their favor.
As it turns out, this was our clubs first road victory in over 2 years. I had no idea about this little fact but I knew something was strange after we celebrated with such exuberance after beating this team by only a few, when I know for a fact that it should have been by at least 10 points. Our club played in a league higher the last two seasons and I guess they went 0-for in all of their road games on their spiral down to the Regionalliga. Pretty cool thing to win on the road but something I have been way to familiar with from my time at Amherst.
I had a dunk in the first minute but would not score again until the 2nd quarter. I had heard that my boys Andrew, Goldy, and Kevin were coming to the game but I think they didn't show up until around the end of the 1st quarter. Maybe it was just my teammates being there, but after a miserable 1st quarter I turned things around and started helping my team down in the post. I was proud of the way I played as I had my pinkie in a small plastic cast and the entire finger taped to my index. I know I like to go left, but it is quite difficult when you don't even feel comfortable catching a ball with your off hand for fear that the wound may open up again and the sheer discomfort of the ball smashing into old bloody stitches.
After the game the A-crew held it down in Iserlohn and we were back to our old habits. A glorious Saturday in my opinion as I was familiarized with the spirit of sports, reunited with old friends, and put an end to an ugly streak of loosing.
So everyone knows the Boston Celtics won yet another NBA Championship this season and this of course solidified them as one of the most recognizable "famous" sports organizations in the world. However, does anybody realize that this so called "blue collar sports town" doesn't really give a damn about their beloved Boston Celtics? Sure this season they were 12th in the NBA in attendance, but lets take a look back a few years. In 06-07, Boston was ranked 20th in the league behind New Jersey and Orlando and in 05-06, they were 18th in the league. Now tell me how this is a world famous organization that still sells many tickets by riding the coat-tails of the legendary Larry, Robert, and Kevin teams of the 80's and 90's.
My question to everybody is, why doesn't anyone realize how fair weathered these Boston Celtic fans are? They start winning a few games in 07-08 and then all of a sudden, thousands of these "die hard" Celtic fans start coming out of the parquet woodwork, and into the Garden?
Wait, there's more! In 04-05, they ranked 24th and in 03-04, they were 18th. Of course the old cliche is that if the team starts winning, the people will come. Yet how come the fans of Chicago, Cleveland, and L.A. have been pouring in the last 5 years and show their allegiance to their respected clubs. I am sick of hearing how the Boston Celtics and the L.A. Lakers are the most historic franchises in Basketball. Boston is nowhere near the level of L.A. Sure the Lakers and the Celtics have the most Championships by a long shot, but honestly the Boston Celtics fans don't give a damn about their Boston Celtics so long as the Boston Red Sox are in town (and the Patriots keep on winning). As much as I dislike the Lakers, I have to respect their fan base and the city of Los Angeles for actually showing up to see their team play whether they have a strong season, or it is a rebuilding year. Dedication and persistence people, that's all I ask.
Whats up everybody, I play professional Basketball in Germany. I just recently graduated from College and figured I would give this blogging thing a shot. I know a lot about Sports and love to talk sports with just about anybody. Not only discussing the current sports news and such, but I really enjoy talking about philosophy and psychology of sport and competition. Athletics have become such a huge part of human culture and the progress of athletics continues to push the seams and boundaries everyday.
I am also a family man. No I do not have a family yet but I am a huge advocate for family and family values. I would like to blog a lot about family issues and everyday hardships and pleasures from both work and leisure. If blogging is a way for me to outlet my thoughts, feelings, and aspirations way out here in Germany, then so be it! Today is the first day of the rest of my blog-life. I hope you enjoy! Thanks
