Happy Thanksgiving

Life's Greatest Gift...

A few months from now GOD will be providing my wife and I with life’s greatest gift – the birth of a new child. I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am about this process. With this child entering my life, I feel like I have developed a whole world of new feelings deep within me. Of course like any prospective father, I had my share of fears, worries, and concerns but with my wife by my side, I have no worries. She is the best teammate I could ever ask for. I thank her every day for the sacrifices she making to make all this possible.

Today Jen is 20 weeks, making us halfway through the process (140 days to go) – the due date is set for April 7. We’d decided to have the baby here in France. With the help from one of my teammates, we were able to find a doctor who will deliver the baby for us. After visiting with the doctor twice, we feel comfortable with him even though he does not speak much English but the nurses/midwives do. To help cope with the language barrier, one of the ladies who works for the team has been coming with us to our appointments as our translator. I must say she has been very helpful throughout this whole process so far.

The baby is growing well which is always refreshing news – 3 ultrasounds have already been done. Basically every time we visit our doctor he will do an ultrasound. In addition to that, we have 3 separate in depth ultrasounds done at a different location during week 14, 22, and 32 – these ultrasounds provide us with the measurement of the baby. Our next ultrasound for week 22 is schedule for Dec. 1st. This will be the first time we can learn the sex of the baby but we have chosen not to find out the sex; to instead be surprised at birth (that may change). All we pray for is a healthy baby come April 7.

We thank everyone for all of the well-wishes and for the prayers that have no doubt been helping. This journey is amazing and we feel very blessed. Have a great weekend everyone…until next time…love, peace, and happiness!

Monte Carlo

Yesterday the team was playing on the road visiting Chalon while we spent the day hanging out in Monte Carlo. This beautiful little city in Monaco is just a short drive for us (2hrs). Famous for its wealth and celebrities, we thought we’d take a stroll down the fast lane. Arriving early in the afternoon we quickly learned that making a trip here means being prepared to hit the red carpet. Our first stop was the Le Grand Casino, the most popular destination in this area. We pulled up next to the casino and I noticed nothing but Bentleys, Rolls Royce, and Ferraris parked all around the front entrance. Judging by the look of things and us sporting a KIA Soul, we saved the embarrassment by hiding our car in the parking garage.

The weather was awesome so we spent the afternoon wandering around the area. Nothing but the best of the best in this area, I’m talking about Gucci, Prada, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, etc. you name it they got it. We spent majority of the afternoon window shopping just drooling over the items they had on display but someday we’ll be the ones in the stores while everyone will be looking at us. We also took the time to throw away our money gambling in the casinos. The casinos were similar to Vegas so there wasn’t much of a difference. We mainly just played the slot machines and there wasn’t a whole lot of luck for us. Well there was none since we came out on the negative end. Losing money is never fun but we had a great time. I guess it was nice to do something different. We didn't stay long in Monte Carlo because I wanted to get back to the apartment to watch the team online. But on our way home we decided to make a quick stop in Cannes for dinner. I guess it was a great way to finish off the day - also nice to have all these cool cities nearby.

 

The Victory…

The team came away with a much needed victory, winning 94-80. It was a great feeling at the same time a sense of relief. We played without our team’s leading scorer Rick while he is nursing a foot injury. It seems like the guys played really well, I haven't had the chance to talk with any of my teammates so I can’t go into details about the game. By the look of things I guess we improved a little bit on defense but we can’t keep allowing teams to score 80 points on us unless we are going to drop 90 every night. Our next game will be at home on Friday night against Strasbourg. Let’s hope this victory get us on a roll…

Shout out to the WSU Women’s and Men’s basketball teams on their victories – I stayed up way past 4am watching video live stream. Congrats to the both of them on their victory and starting the season off with the dub! I sure do miss playing on that court – I spent most of the day reminiscing about my playing days there. Ah long live the memories!

Before I get going I’ve got to give a shout out to the Badgers’ football program for handling business against Indiana; wow 83 points seriously! Also have to give a shout out to Iowa’s football program for once again choking at Northwestern. I got to give it to them; they keep finding a way to mess up their season against this team. My wife won’t be too pleased with me writing this! Alright time to end this post, till next time – love, peace, and happiness!

Growing Pains...

We suffered a defeat on our home floor this past Saturday – well rather an embarrassing defeat. The final score read 76-93 bringing us to a 2-3 overall record. We allowed our opponents, Pau-Lacq-Orthez to shoot an astounding 65% from the field and 64% (9-14) from long range. Credit to Pau-Lacq-Orthez for shooting lights out but our defense simply must get better. They had five guys finish the game in double digit scoring with four of those five guys scoring more than fifteen points each. We just can’t let teams have their way against us. Our defense is ranked among the bottom in the league. Our opponents have been shooting 51% from the floor, by far the highest allowed by any teams in this league. I said before that our defense can be our worst nightmare but it was even more of a nightmare to witness it from the sideline. Worse yet, our fans were frustrated and leaving the game early. It was one of those moments where you wished you could have it back and do it over. If we don’t come up with a solution, it’ll just be de ja vu week after week. I know the coaches are frustrated as well as the players but now its gut check time. Either we step it up and own up to our responsibilities and get the job done or we break as a team and become somewhat like the Dallas Cowboys. With our defense being the way it is, the relationships among the guys appear to be souring….

Aside from basketball, life is good – Jennifer is doing great and the ankle is healing great as expected. I’ve been keeping myself busy in the weight room even though the crutches alone give me a good workout daily. Shout out to the Warriors as they take on the Gophers tonight, make us proud! Well this is all for now – love, peace, and happiness!

Happy Halloween

Allow me to reintroduce myself – at the same time reconnect you to my world. These past couple of weeks has been a roller coaster ride with some twists and turns that provided some scares. Instead of being focused on the game of basketball, I’m exhausted from battling the front office staff. From bad checks, to late checks, to not honoring the contract – it’s just a constant battle that had me feeling bitter. I won’t go into more details but I’ll just say the business part of basketball has been very unpleasant. With all my bitterness, I guess karma can find a way to get the best of you – this past week I suffered an injury that will sideline me for the next two months. I tore a ligament in my left ankle – no surgery is needed but for the next three weeks I’m walking around in a hard cast and crutches. The team has already announced that they are bringing in a player to replace me for the next two months. I can’t say that I am thrilled about that but it is what they need to do. I do know that I won’t be cut or released so I have no worries in that aspect. It’s weird because now that I’m hurt I don’t have to attend any practices or travel with the team on road. I’m just free to do whatever that is till I begin physical therapy. Despite all that happened I somehow see my injury as a blessing in disguise. I can get away from basketball to focus on myself, to focus on my wife, and enjoy this life that we have. Earlier I mentioned about me being bitter, well now it is time to get rid of all the negativity and just enjoy. This whole experience won’t be a smooth ride and I just have to take the good with the bad.

On the flip side we’re doing ok as a ball club. We are 2-2, winning two games at home and losing two games on the road. Both road losses can be credited to bad defense – transition defense and defending the pick and roll. If we can’t come up with a solution, defense will be our worst nightmare. Somehow, someway we have got to find a way to toughen up on defense if we are planning to be among the top in the final standings. Through the first three games I averaged 25 mpg, 8.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg, and 1.7 spg. Nothing flashy but I do my best to provide an energy boost for the team.

With France being all over the news I’m sure some of you are wondering if any of the strikes have affected us in any way. Thankfully, nothing has really hit this area beside a few small strikes along the downtown area in the city of Toulon here and there. There has been a rise in the number of gas stations that have closed down in the area due to the shortage. But other than that nothing has been serious. I think all of this is really interesting but I’ll let you be the judge – do you work a few more years to keep the country from folding or do you strike and watch the country fold???

Well folks that’ll be all for now – I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! Trick or treat, smell my feet, or give me something good to eat!!

As always…love, peace, and happiness – God Bless!

1-0!

We emerged from the weekend with a victory against Poitiers – the final score read 68-64. We didn’t exactly play great basketball but somehow we prevailed with a win. We didn’t execute as we have been doing all preseason, our offense was out of sync and our defense was average at times. But at crunch time it was our defense that won us the ball game. The team and myself just played out of character – too many unforced turnovers and too many missed lay-ups. We’re happy we came out with the victory but we know we could have done a better job. We held a 7 point lead throughout most of the game but we just could never put them away. We kept giving Poitiers opportunity after opportunity to make a run at us and stay in the game. Now that I look back on the game, it is surprising that they didn’t take the lead. I’m not trying to knock on my team but we played bad enough that we should have been dealt the loss. Odd thing is, during the game I never once felt we were going to lose the game despite our play. After the game, coach was bittersweet – happy we won but not happy with how we played. He knows we can play better and he believes we can do something special this year as a team.

More on a personal note, I finished the game with 9 pts on 4-11 shooting, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and 3 turnovers. I did some good things and I did some bad things, I played the game overly excited. I think it was because my parents were here and because it was the first game of the regular season. I was disappointed with myself because I wanted to have a better performance for my parents. They were just excited to be there and see me play but I know next time in the future when they watch me play it’ll be better!

My parents flew back home yesterday and made it back safely but it was sad to have them leave. We had a great time and it was so much fun having visitors. Now I can’t wait to come home for Christmas and see them again. I posted some pictures below from their stay and from the game, I hope you enjoy them. Well it is about that time for practice – as always love, peace, and happiness!

Let's Get It Started...

Back to blogging – sorry there haven’t been any updates the past couple of weeks.The preseason kept me busy but that is finally over. Now I have a chance to slow down and catch everyone up with our progress. The month of September was filled with preseason games/tournaments. We played a total of 14 games finishing with an 11-3 record. We played all of our preseason games on the road except for one game, so it been a long preseason with all of the traveling. Coach has been happy with our progress as we won 3 of the 5 tournaments we participated in. Our performances have been outstanding and I believe we have a lot of people excited for this upcoming season.

This Saturday we open up the regular season with a home game against Poitiers. I’m excited for the game and for this season because this is what I’ve been working all summer for. I am really ambitious about this season and striving to have a great year. A lot of people said I had a good year last season but I’m looking to do more and put up better numbers. I’m getting all pumped up just writing about it…

But I’m also excited because my parents will be here today. I’m at the apartment waiting for them as they should be arriving anytime now since Jennifer went to get them by herself because I had practice. This will be my parents’ first adventure over the Atlantic Ocean so I hope it is a great experience for them. I’m making this a short post – now it’s time to sit back and relax on the patio with a nice cold drink and wait for my parents and my wife to come join me and enjoy this beautiful weather. I’ll be back on this weekend to give an update about the game and hopefully we start the season off with a win. Take care, as always; love, peace, and happiness – God Bless!

A couple of pictures from media day as one well one from our only home preason game vs. Antibes