all for the glory

So I’ve been having some problems with my ankle. I turned it a couple of weeks ago, missed some games, turned it again in another game, mised another game. Basically I was told I need a week or two to rest, however I don’t have that luxury with the eurobasket coming up. So tonight I was given a cortizone shot from the team doctor in the hopes that that would speed the healing…we’ll see.

But it got me to thinking, what price would an athlete pay for sporting glory? If you were a boxer and someone told you, you could be the heavyweight champ if you were willing to live 5 years less, would you do it? 10 years, 20? Or would a football player given the choice between winning a euroleague title and living with arthritis the rest of his life, or meddling in mediocrity and living his twlight in perfect health, what would he decide? I’m not talking about making more money, only about the possibility of sporting glory vs. later life health problems. I think the short answer is that most world-class athletes would be willing to cut months or years off of their life in order to have the opportunity to win if given the choice. Success means that much to them, why else train and dedicate your life to sport if not for the end result? Of course the longer answer is much more complex, look at an athlete like Florence Griffith-Joyner, flo-jo, she died in her 30s but leaves behind an indelible legacy. I’m not saying she took steroids since she never tested postive but clearly the strain of her career had an irreversable affect on her body. I doubt she would have chosen the legacy. Or look at the numerous american football players living their life with athritis, unable to pick up their grandchildren after playing games or seasons on painkillers and cortizone shots. Is it worth it? I think its a good question for retired older athletes living with the consequences of their playing days; boxers, track athletes, football players etc.

I think if the question was given to me, ‘would you be willing to live 1 year less in order to compete in the olympics?’ I would say absoluetely. 5 years, less likely. 10 years, not so much. So I ask you, would you die young and/or live your life in pain in order to fulfill a dream?

Ultimately the question I’m asking, and what all althletes must face at some point in their career is, ‘how much is a dream worth?’

The Rubio Question…

So we played Spain last night, the number 2 team in the world- http://zonadostres.com/?p=2636 …basically if your spanish isn’t up to par it says we lost.

They are a very good team, and well deserving of their number 2 ranking. However, since yesterday I’ve been inundated with questions from my friends about Ricky Rubio, the 18 year old spanish prodigy drafted into the NBA this summer. Since he’s a point guard and I got to play against him, everyone wanted to know how good he is.

playing D against rubio

The answer is mixed. He is good, in fact he is very good. He moves and passes the ball with such ease and grace, like a young Baryshnikov floating down the court, he effortlessly finds a crack in the defense then exploits it with style, showmanship and creativity, a fan’s dream. And his ability to read a complex game at a young age parellels another prodigy, Bobby Fischer. However on a purely technical level his shooting needs lots of work, he’s not quite as quick as I thought and he’s still physically very small. Maybe I’m nit-picking, after all he is only just 18 years old. When I was 18 I played basketball against kids that looked like Daniel Radcliffe from the first Harry Potter. Rubio on the other hand is playing against Men, men who are some of the best basketball players in the world and he’s excelling.

Maybe the expectations are too high, when people dub him the next Magic Johnson or Pistol Pete Maravich (http://www.nbcolympics.com/basketball/news/newsid=221449.html) his possibility of failure increases, how can anyone live up to that? The pressure to become the ‘next’ basketball legend can be excruciatingly tight, especially for an 18 year old.

I think I might compare Rubio to Yao Ming. Stay with me here, I know there is no physical comparison and they play completely different positions, after all Yao is 7’6″. The similarity could hinge on his ability to handle the spotlight. When Yao Ming first joined the NBA in 2002 he was the first player from China, and scouts raved about his abilities. Therefore he had a tremendous amount of pressure to perform, he literally had hundreds of media waiting for him after practices, let alone games, and I’m sure he was painfully aware he represented a billion Chinese people and their sporting ambitions. The expectations were herculean, his game was anaylzed constantly, his abilities dissected daily. It made you wonder how anyone could be successful with this hanging albatross around their neck. However, ultimately Yao did succeed and remains one of the best in the NBA at his position, I can’t say enough how much I respect him for becoming the player he is in the face of that. Many a lesser man would have stumbled and faded into the background.

Yao

So for Ricky Rubio to turn into the future legend many expect and hope for, it will hang on his ability to handle the constant pressure that will come with being a prodigy. In today’s digital, global world his every move will be criticized and dissected, and will increase ten-fold when he reaches the NBA. After seeing him in person, there is no doubt he possesses the intangibles that only the greats have, but we will have to wait to see if he possess the inner fortitude that Yao, Lebron and other prodigies turned stars have shown.

new music

what I’m listening to this weekend:

http://www.themahoganyblog.com/2009/08/kiss-of-life-2/

http://basicali.bandcamp.com/

Training camp

Training camp is in full force…Our days are pretty full. I’ll give you a sample of the schedule

Day one- 10am practice, lunch, 5pm practice, dinner, sleep

Day two- 10am practice, lunch, 5pm practice, dinner, sleep

Day three- groundhog day

Day four- groundhog day

Day five- groundhog day

Basically you get the idea, each day identical to the day before. Featuring basketball, with a pinch of basketball and a side dish of basketball.

Even last night I went to sleep, and started to have a great dream- laying on the beach, next to a beautiful woman in a bikini, eating a bucket of vanilla haagan-dazs ice cream, watching the surfers…Then all of a sudden a basketball bounces out in front of me and starts talking to me. ‘V-cut, face-up, triple threat, pick and roll, high hedge, feed the post, trap, weak-side help defense….’ I wake up, then back to the court.

Training camp is like Cod Liver Oil. Its not tasty, doesn’t look great, but you know if you do it everyday in the end it will pay off. So everyday we suit up, work as hard as we can, because we know in the end, it will all pay off.

game time!

Darts v. Basketball

I decided as the eurobasket tournament is approaching, that is was time to really find out what Brits know about basketball. So I took my camera out to do a small sample in north London. In any other country competing in the eurobasket, it would be laughable to ask someone on the street in one of those countries if they’ve ever seen a basketball game, and majority would probably know the names of the top players on the national team.

In Britian it’s a different story. Basketball remains a niche sport, much like Lacrosse or the Spelling Bee in the States. Basketball struggles to find its place in a country thirsty for sport, yet seemingly unwilling to fully embrace anything outside of the traditional ‘english’ sports. I’m willing to bet that more people in the UK could name the 3rd string Aston Villa Goalkeeper than they could name any player on the GB basketball team. This doesn’t mean that it’s hopeless for basketball in Britian, quite the opposite in fact. With the Olympics fast approaching and British talent developing fast, all those involved in the sport see a light seeping through a crack in the British sporting landscape, just big enough to fit a few 7-footers into the awareness of the British public.

blog-knowledge of GB2

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Special Thanks to my camerawoman Melissa!

…And they’re off

GB training camp started today, players flocked in from all over. America, Australia, Guildford. The excitment level was high, since it’s been 30 years, maybe 40, 50 (no one seems to know) since GB/england last made the eurobasket championships. Its still a month away until we play our first match of the euros, but still I decided to do a little research and see what the odds of GB winning actually were. Of course any sane person probably wouldn’t bet their mortgage on GB winning the euros or even winning our group, especially against world number 2 Spain. But I wanted to see what we were up against.

So after a little research I found that bwin.com gave us 101-1 odds of winning, still better than portugal or bosnia’s 1001-1 odds. I then checked coral.co.uk and we were 300-1 to win and 60-1 to win our group. Basically if you put 5 pounds on GB to win, you’d take home 1505 pounds…

So the training starts and whoever that drunk guy is that walked into a ladbrokes and bet 5 pounds on us… we’re trying buddy…