small victories – My thoughts on everything

Why Eurobasket Sucks

Eurobasket.com is the largest website in the world that exclusively reports on overseas basketball. Most people have never heard of it, but it is required viewing for anyone playing abroad. It actually does a decent job of aggregating the scores and stats from leagues all over the world, but it does so using the ugliest, clunkiest website known to man.

The site is, quite frankly, hard to look at. The layout is hopelessly cluttered, there is no intuitive way to locate old posts, and it is chock full of obnoxious advertisements. Also, the main page is extra awkward because they shoehorn video clips into the middle of the headlines.

One of the front page video clips you can access is a 2 minute highlight of Yugoslavia vs South Korea from the 1996 Olympic games. It has 5 views on youtube, and I think I account for 3 of them.

Timely! At least can’t accuse them of chasing trends.

Continue reading “Why Eurobasket Sucks”

Hazing

When a bunch of athletes are constantly hanging out with each other, it is natural for a lot of trash talking to go on. But if you are a small, white, Ivy League grad, you are probably going to deal with more crap than the average person. That is just the way the world works. There are a couple of main points people like me have to contend with. Continue reading “Hazing”

Self Promotion (Or Lack Thereof)

A couple of weeks ago I had a conversation with my agent. He said that he was talking to some teams in Italy. I got very excited. (I recently gained Italian citizenship.) Then he said that they wanted to see some film. Maybe a highlight tape. I was instantly crestfallen.

It hit me all at once that I was wildly unprepared to fulfill that request. My most recent highlight tape was from college. I sent that anyway, hoping that the all the footage of Jeremy Lin might serve as an intriguing distraction while I scrambled to figure out what I was going to do.

More Bad Luck

The bad luck continues. I broke my nose during the first quarter of Monday’s game after attempting to double team their big guy. This did not have the intended effect, because instead of passing the ball out he decided to move my face out of the way with his elbow. It did not feel good. I knew instantly my nose was broken, so I was just hoping I didn’t have a concussion. I felt pretty dazed for a while but I never felt nauseated and I never lost consciousness so I figured I was OK on the head injury front.

I contemplated going back in the game for the second half, but I got talked out of it by people who were thinking more clearly than I was. That ended up being the right decision because we won by 20. A total of 0 players from the other team asked if I was alright. Real classy Hod Hasheron. Hopefully we can beat them tonight at their place and advance to the semi-finals. I have to wear a mask. I’m hoping I pull a Richard Hamilton and love it so much that I wear it for years. Continue reading “More Bad Luck”

Rehab

Had one of my typical, hectic Israeli trips yesterday while trying to find a physical therapist. I was “scheduled” for a 10 AM appointment, but I quickly found out that Gabbi (team manager) really had no idea where he was taking me. There was heavy rain throughout the drive, and we were stuck in traffic for 20 minutes. Both those things set an ominous tone for the morning. I was also coming off a night of 3 hours of sleep, so every irritation was amplified. Continue reading “Rehab”

Summer Recap/Back In Israel

Quick recap of my summer:

I spent May just kind of putzing around doing nothing other than working out with my brother and shooting at the high school. This actually could be a pretty complete recap of my summer as a whole. A lot of working out in my front yard, shooting at my high school and watching TV with JD and Catie. But there were some other interesting things. I started playing with a semi pro team in the IBL called the LA Lightening. I was very lukewarm to the idea at first, especially after not playing that much in my first game. But after a while I got comfortable, the other PG left, and I had my best and most fun stretch of basketball in a long time. Granted a lot of the teams we played were complete garbage, but there were some pretty solid squads in there too. Some notable people on my team: Continue reading “Summer Recap/Back In Israel”