The LeBron Dilemma

The Heat lost in the finals, and suddenly everybody talks about LeBron leaving. I thought that was just the talk they always do. It’s like certain people just can’t do the right thing, so I didn’t pay it any attention, because I was sure, he wouldn’t leave. But then, he opted out of his contract.

Mmmmmhhhh is he really thinking about leaving? I still doubted it. I never had a problem with him leaving Cleveland. I know a lot of fans were upset, but that are common situations and common reactions. It is nothing wrong with going somewhere, where you can get more money and be more successful. However, leaving now to team up somewhere else, I consider as wrong. The heat is on the right way, they have been in the finals several years in a row, and they are just missing something to win it all. The Spurs showed how to do it. Last year the Spurs lost in the finals, and came back strong and determined and won it this year. That shows how it goes, not giving up, taking an easy way, where you think success will come easier, but stick it out, fight through the rough times and then earn it all.

However, him opting out shows that he wants something, be it either more money or other teammates that will help him win the championship. Now it was all over the news that he wants more money ($26 Mill) and better teammates, where my mind rings an alarm bell and say ***CONTRADICTION*** lol First of, what is the big difference between $24 and $26 Mill? If you have so many millions, I don’t think two will make a difference. Next thing is, if you want more money, your team will have even less for your teammates because of the salary cap, so that kind of makes both impossible, unless they get a really great deal on someone. Dirk Nowitzki in example, stated that he would be willing to less money, if that makes it possible to get better players to have another shot at a championship, which seems very reasonable to me. Sometimes you have to make personal sacrifices to gain team success.

Besides that, there could be another reason, why he might opt out, well actually two. One simple one, he gets paid by the media, and does all that to bring movement and rumors in the market, but never intended to leave. Another one, which could be a huge factor, is the way his teammates played in the finals. I only saw the last of the final games, and only LeBron showed up. The performance of his teammates was really bad. It was like something was missing, be it the will, the drive, the heart, the fire, whatever you want to call it. If it is the case that one player felt let down by his teammates, this team might not have a future. If this was the case, I doubt we will ever find out, but I can’t wait to see what is going to happen in the NBA :)

The Sterling Case

In April it was all over the news, the Clippers owner Donald Sterling made racists comments (the story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2014/04/26/clippers-owner-donald-sterling-tells-girlfriend-not-to-bring-black-people-to-games-disses-magic-johnson/?tid=pm_pop). My first thoughts about this case were: Why is this so big on the news? Racism in the USA is still a topic today, and unfortunately there are often racist incidents or racist comments made. Also, I was wondering: why is this even in the news? It was a private conversation between two people, how did this become public? All this already seemed bizarre. Then I read an article about an interview of Kareem-Abdul Jabbar (http://toprightnews.com/?p=2777), which hit it right on the spot. Exactly my thoughts: People are furious about the fact that someone like the owner of a NBA team with players of all races makes racist remarks. Interesting is the fact that there have been incidents before, where Sterling denied housing to African-Americans, and this didn’t bring up any consequences for Sterling. Furthermore, currently are a lot of discussions about the privacy of people. There was the incident that the NSA audio monitored the phone from German chancellor Angela Merkel, or that facebook bought whatsapp and is now also entering the privacy of the customers. All that are facts that alarm us, but the fact that a private conversation between two people is published and costs a man a lot isn’t. That’s all very suspicious, if you ask me.

 As a result to the incident, there were some crazy reactions. Some of them just as bad as the whole incident itself: Larry Johnson tweeted that African-Americans should make their own team and own league (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2044113-knicks-great-larry-johnson-calls-for-all-black-league). Of course, it is your right to do or start a league like this, if you want to, but how is that any better than the racist comments by Sterling? How will this solve the issue of racism in the US or in the world? Often I think people are just really upset that they don’t think, and just try to pay like with like, but even the Bible says that you shouldn’t.
Furthermore, the NBA had to react and they did. Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, banned Sterling for lifetime from all NBA activities, and decreed a 2.5 million fee and the sale of the Clippers (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/video/nba/20140429/adam-silver-press-conference.sportsillustrated/). That is the next thing that seems very suspicious to me. I understand that Sterling should face a punishment, but how do you ban him from his own team that he owns? And how do you tell him to sell something that is his? Plus it is really not a punishment, if he still makes money off of it.

As a normal reaction to all this, of course Sterling wouldn’t give in, and decided to fire back. Sources say he sued the NBA for 1 billion dollar (http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/report-donald-sterling-to-sue-nba-for-1-billion-053014), and as this all wasn’t enough, the story continues. Sterling’s wife wants to sell the Clippers, but Sterling doesn’t. Now his wife tries to prove mental illness on his side, so she could decide on her own (http://nypost.com/2014/06/24/judge-donald-sterling-has-little-chance-of-blocking-clippers-sale/). All this is just another suspect matter, and calls one more time for a huge setup. I wouldn’t even be surprised, if his wife and his girlfriend made a deal to set him up and sell the team. Right now it has been really calm about this story, but within the next month there should be some decisions since the deal for the Clippers is only valid until Sept 15^th.

American vs. European Sports

When I think of American Sports, I have to immediately think of Football or Baseball, just because they aren’t common over here in Europe. The same goes for Softball. Honestly, I didn’t even know how any of those sports were played before I lived in the US. I remember the first time I went to a Football game with my Belgian teammate. She was shocked how many players they had, and then noticed that they all were wearing the same jerseys until someone told us that this is the same team, just the defense and the offense team, and the opponent was standing on the other side of the field ;-) When you speak about Football in Europe everyone means Soccer. Soccer is the most popular sport over here. Another common sport in Europe that isn’t popular in the USA is Handball. It is a mixture out of Basketball and Soccer. You play with a smaller ball, you are allowed to dribble and catch, but you shoot at a goal with your hands that’s why it is called Handball. Besides different sports, there is another big difference between American and European Sports.

In Europe, everyone plays Sports in a club. That means, when your kid wants to start a sport, you have to choose a club, become a member of that club, which includes usually a monthly or yearly fee. You pay a small amount of money, but therefore your kid can play the sport, gets coached and is insured in case something happens. A club, depending how big it is, can offer many sports or also just one. Usually the name of the club gives you some information: Osnabrücker Sportclub is the name of a club that offers many sports in the city Osnabrück; Basketballclub Wildcats Wolfenbüttel is the name of a club that offers just Basketball in the city of Wolfenbüttel and the Wildcat is their mascot.

Usually clubs have youth teams and adult teams. In youth teams, the kids are put together after age. Of course kids that are better in their sport can also play in the higher age group. Depending on the sport those youth teams can go until different ages, but not older than 22.

In adult leagues, everything goes after performance. That means to move up to a higher league, you have to become the best in your league. In certain sports there are even up to 10 leagues, which is usually hard to understand for Americans. Sometimes there are also professional players in D4 or D5. Of course moving up has also something to do with the amount of money a club has, because the more money, the better players they can get or pay the fees in the higher league. However, just with money you can’t move up, you have to perform. The same goes the other way around, if you are after a season at the bottom of your league, you will have to move down to the lower league.

Since sports are played in clubs in Europe, all sports start off as hobby, and even as you get older, and the kids graduate from school and go to university or work a job, nobody cares that you play sports. You have to do that in your free time, and you won’t get off from school or get any support. You also don’t get anything paid for with sports; in general most times you pay to be able to travel, to get a jersey and all those things. This is a huge advantage in the US, where the school and the sports basically work hand in hand. You have to get good grades to be able to play, and you have to play well to be able to get a scholarship. In Europe, the parents have to control all that and decide, if their kid can practice or has to stay home and study. Therefore, practices are usually in the late afternoon and evening because everyone has their own schedule during the day. Also, practices are only once a day, and not even every day depending on the level of the team. An exception to that are sports schools, who offer morning practices, but also those work hand in hand with the club, and kids don’t play for their school. There is some kind of university championship, but usually the players of a club that study at the same university come together and play in those games. However, there is no league or even practices. Just in regular time, there are championships and a University can register their team.

But back to the clubs: Another thing to mention would be the age differences in the leagues. Since the league your team plays in depends on the performance, it happens often that teams out of different age groups play against each other. It is possible that an Under18 team also competes in D4, and plays against a team that has an average age of 35. Also, in one team can play players out of different ages, i.e. 17 and 36. It just means those players are all able to compete at that level.

Depending on the amount of teams, and the perspective, parents should choose the club for their child wisely. It should be a club that offers their child a good team in their age group, but also higher league teams that it has the chance to move up to a better team. For youth players it is even possible to play in two different adult leagues as well as their youth team. I.e. when I was a teenager, I played with 17 in the U18 youth team (my age group), a D3 team, where I got quiet some playing time and also a D2 or once even a D1 team, where I was happy when I got to play two minutes, and was able to learn from the professionals . This is also an important thing for the development of your kid as a player, because the kid learns to take on different roles, such as the go-to-player and the bench player that is glad to just come in, and doesn’t complain about not playing. In some cases it is even possible to play in two different clubs, if the one club offers only youth teams and the other club offers adult teams, your child can become a member of both clubs, and play for the youth team in one club and an adult team in the other club. However, it is not allowed to play in teams of both clubs that compete in the same league.

I hope I could help you understand the European Sports a little better, and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

The Youth of Today

How often I heard this saying when I was younger „die Jugend von heute“ (“the youth of today”), most followed by the person shaking their head. Back then I always thought ‘we aren’t that bad, what are they talking about?!’ Now since I am older, I have to say I have the same thoughts: ‘What is wrong with the youth of today?’ I don’t even want to talk that much about general life situations, but you can even see it in Basketball.

I remember when I was a youngster and was allowed to play with the first team, I was excited, I was anxious, and almost peed my pants, but hoped coach would pick me to play even when it was just for the last two minutes of the game. Never in my life would I said no to such an opportunity, and nowadays younger players that get the chance to come into the game with 6minutes left, just say ‘no, now I don’t need to play anymore either’!!!! Or on road trips or when the jerseys were handed out, of course did the elderly get to choose their uniforms or seats on the bus first; you took what was left over. Nowadays, the younger players are the first one to scream what number or seat they want without even thinking about.

Next thing is the work attitude. I am sorry, but younger players’ work attitudes suck! They complain that you as a professional don’t have to work – Uhm, excuse me, but actually I do, I lift weights, go shoot and have practice, while you are sitting in school! – But they are the ones, who never run the lines and cheat on every possibility they get. The same attitude you can observe in games, in offense they sprint, in defense they jog! How come?
I say we can’t blame the youth, I know it is a shame, but it’s how we raise our kids! I was taught the saying, “Who makes a mistake in offense, is the first one in defense” and by this saying I play until today. I was raised and coached this way. Young players aren’t coached this way anymore, and don’t get punished for cheating in practice, therefore they will continue to do so. Same thing goes for the parents. I had a kid coming only once to practice a week because she had school and other sports on the other days. I told her that is fine with me, she still can come practice and play, but she will have to understand that other players, even the ones that are worse than her, get to play before her because they are up to 5 times in practice a week. Next day her mom comes to me and tells me that her daughter won’t play anymore for the team since she is a starting five player and doesn’t need to sit on the bench … whooooaaaaa!!! And we wonder, when our youth has a big head and isn’t willing to work for anything anymore?

How far would you go?

Last Weekend, the last games of the Elite8 in College Basketball were played, and one of the games was very tragic. In the game between Duke and Louisville, a player broke his leg. The way how he broke it was terrible. He jumped out to the three-point-line to contest a shot, and landed awkwardly. He didn’t just twist his ankle, but his shin landed on the ground and broke, so that a part of his bone was sticking out of the skin. All the players were shocked, and he was brought immediately to the hospital. I watched the video of him getting injured again because I just couldn’t explain myself how something like this could happen without any contact or ankle braise. Later on the doctors mentioned that he might had a small fracture, which nobody knew of and by the awkward landing the bone snapped.

One of my friends is in a similar situation, just not as tragic as the Louisville player, Kevin Ware. My friend had pain in his wrist for a while, but played threw it and had just landed a new contract for a few weeks in South America. Even though he wasn’t able to shoot normal, he still put up good numbers until he got injured again. Now he had to see doctors, and it turned out that he wasn’t insured by the team, which made him go home immediately. At home he found out that his wrist is fractured, and that it looked like it was an old injury, which just broke open again. He will be out for 6-8 weeks, which is nothing compared to the time it will take Kevin Ware to come back, if there even will be a comeback!

Things like this always make me think how lucky I have been throughout my career. Of course, I did have injuries such as ankle sprains, torn ligaments and muscles, and a broken nose, but so far nothing severe, which caused me to have a major surgery or sit out for a long time. I know a lot of players, who underwent surgeries and doctors told they couldn’t play sports anymore, and they did it anyways. Also, this season most teams had a lot of injuries and our opponent in the first play-off round is struggling as well. Their point guard broke their pinky and their post player has a knee injury. While the point guard hasn’t been playing, the post player did. How far would I go? Would I take the risk to play to reach something I never accomplished before? When is it time to take a break or even hang up the sneakers? Also, it made me think how healthy I really am. What if something in my body isn’t healthy and I don’t even know it? I do want to play Basketball also with my kids one day, and we all know professional athletes will struggle later in life with their bodies, so when is the right time to retire?

Honestly, I have thought a few times about retiring. The first time, I thought about it was the year I signed a contract with a Ukrainian team and it didn’t work out. I was wondering, what if I don’t get picked up by another team? Should I just retire? The answer was easy! I watched games of the women’s team in my hometown and noticed how much it bothered me to sit in the audience instead of being out there on the court! So I kept on playing, now I am almost turning 30, and I remember how I was as a young hungry player thinking why is this grandma still playing. Now I am the grandma, and before this season, I had thought about retiring at the end as well. I wanted to get my coaching license, and thought about being a coach afterwards. However, after playing this year, I saw I still got it. I have been playing a lot, even played the entire 40min, and put up decent stats, so I am thinking why not keep on playing? Last weekend, I watched the MBC game vs. Bonn, and Christ Ensminger was dominating inside the paint. He is almost 40 and can’t be guarded by players way younger than him. He is the perfect example that age isn’t a reason to retire. As long as you are doing your job on the court, you can play. So when is it time to retire?

I read the story about Johannes Herber retirement (http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/basketball-nicht-das-ganze-leben-nachspielfeld-12055024.html), which was very inspirational. He was forced to retire due to injury as many players are. I hope for me this will not be the case (and yes, I am knocking the whole time on wood, while writing this). I don’t know yet, when I will retire and what the reason will be, but a big injury would definitely be a reason for me, especially at this age. If you are young, i.e. like Kevin Ware is, there is always the dream of playing ball professionally, but I already accomplished my dream and I am living my dream and hopefully for a couple more years ;-)

"10 Reason´s why the serious balla should not smoke Weed"

An important topic that concerns quite more hoopers than someone would think. That is why i share these thoughts from a very experienced Basketball legend, who once played professionally himself and is still educated young kids nowadays - Joe Asberry aka Coach JumpingJoe 

Take the following as advice or as Coach JumpingJoe said himself "I´m all comedy,thats me,but i hope i can help ball players with the mistakes i made,if not,those dumb asses will watch a career wash right down a DRAIN" 

"10 Reason´s why the serious balla should not smoke Weed" 

1. It destroys your long and short term memory! 

2. You won´t be able to remember the plays your coach wants you to run.

3. It will ruin your condition,you need your lungs to be able to run in that 4th quarter. 

4. It will ruin your ability to drive and lean on the autobahn in Germany when you´re in a big 5 series beemer racing at 130 mph(Yep thats what i was cooking at this morning) Or the car the club gives you to drive 

5. You will have to double check every thing before you leave your crib to go to work when you´re a ogee. Do i have my keys to the gym? Do i have the basketball´s? 

6. DRUG TESTS! The team´s here in Germany will give you a test to make sure you´re clean. You don´t want to throw away your paper or a chance to get a foot in the door because you were smoking blunts and drinking 40´s with your mans and dem who are not working at the moment.Not hating on your mans and dem at all,they probably have a job making more then i do,but they also gotta dodge the po po´s i can write a book about it! LMFAO 

7. Those BLOOD SHOT EYES! Every body is going to know you´re blunted. 

8. Danger! I blew my first J when i was 13 with the vato´s George Luna and Pauncho Luna. My big homey Mike found out and tryed to knock off my dome,i should have recieved danger pay for that J. 

9. You won´t be able to do DRUG PREVENTION! I get paid to play horse with kids and tell them don´t smoke weed and the paper is good! I gotta stay clean now,so i don´t knock my hustle. 

10. Last but not least, in some places its illegal and you can catch a case. So think about being locked up with a beast like TOOKIE AND YOU IN FOR A FAKE ASS WEED CASE! LMFAO!

Overseas Basketball Documentary

Anybody that wants to play professionally basketball overseas (to know what to expect), anybody that has played professionall overseas (cuz u can related), and anybody else interested should watch this documentary (WORTH IT!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZeJ3oB8pZE