Adidas Weekend

So this last week we have been blessed to have a visitor from Adidas come to join us at PJB. I do not know if I updated everyone about it, but PJB has just signed with The Adidas Fund and we have received funding for a new basketball court and a whole lot of shoes and basketball jerseys and gear. Last Monday an employee of Adidas, not one that works for the fund, but just a basketball loving employee that heard about the project decided to join us in Goma to check out PJB.

Robert, the “Adidas ambassador”, came at a very interesting time here in Goma. As many people know the DRC is going through a historic election period. Along with the busy schedule we had planned for Rob, he was also here during the last week of campaigns. The town of Goma was hoping as each of the many candidates for cabinet worked to get their last strategies to play out to win the hearts of the people. The atmosphere is very hard to explain, but we’ll see how it all turns out.

So after a busy week of trainings, meetings with board members and partners, and some touring of the town we filled Rob’s weekend in Goma with Elite games. On Saturday we played our third match against the Gomabulls. The game started at 10 AM, which as you have probably caught on means that the tip was around 10:45AM. If you look through past blogs you can see that the matches between us and the Gomabulls are usually fast and tough fought games This game was exactly the same. The bulls led most of the game, but in the end we ended up winning by one point, giving us a 3-0 record against the Gomabulls for the pre-season so far.

After the Boys Elite match, we had a girls match against another basketball initiative team called TBC. PJB girls are actually very tall and pretty good players, and the other team just could not match our size. We have four girls that are about at 6 feet tall. The match was never close and we ended up winning by about 50 points. It is great to watch the girls play though because they play with great enthusiasm and just have a lot of fun as a team. It reminds me of when we were in High School playing with my brother and best friends.

If two games on Saturday wasn’t enough for Rob, we scheduled a rematch against Virunga, the team we beat by 40 last week, for Sunday morning at 8. So, as always bright and early we began another game against Virunga. This weekend wasn’t as good as the last game we played though. Our team was slow and sluggish, I don’t know if it was because we played the day before, or the heat, or if the other team had a burst of energy, but they ran circles around us. We ended up losing by about 15 points, and I would estimate that we had more turnovers than points. It was a very frustrating match for me because I was playing and not coaching, so I tried to keep my mouth shut for substitutions and timeout situations. The head coach for PJB on Sunday though did an extremely poor job of coaching. I think with proper coaching, even though we played terribly we still could have beaten Virunga because they just aren’t that great a team. Now I am in a Dilemma like Nelly and Kelly because I think I might just want to coach instead of player/coach because I want to win. I am starting to develop a competitive side, and after Sunday, I don’t want to lose ever again!

So it was a busy, but very fun weekend, and I hope that Rob got a good taste of PJB’s competitiveness and passion for basketball. You know, it is a great testament to the hard work that everyone in the organization puts in when you have three games in a weekend and the stands are packed for each one, especially during the election time that we are in right now. It was great to see kids and adults come to the court to have fun and forget for just a second about the stress and madness of the elections.

Stay Tuned!

PJB vs. Virunga

            This weekend we (PJB) were slated to play a friendly against the highy touted Virunga NBA (NBA is the team name J) team. The match was scheduled for Saturday at 3 PM, but from the time I woke up the clouds loomed it rained most of the afternoon. There was a slight pause in the rain though, so we began the game at 4 PM. The game began great for us. We jumped to a 10-0 lead (not bragging but 8 of those 10 points were scored by yours truly). It was a very fun first quarter where our starters really showed their dominance. The coaches went to the bench and at the end of the first we led 19-16. At the quarter break it began to drizzle a little bit. The bench stayed in the game the whole second quarter and they didn’t fair so well.  At half time we were down about 8 points. The coaches decided to re-insert the starters to begin the second half, but the rain picked up from a drizzle to a steady downpour, and we played about 2 minutes before the game had to be called. We were down 34-22 when the game was called.

            So the game was reschedule to the following morning; a tip-time of 8 AM Sunday morning. Starting at 7 was a PJB girls (fille elite) game that I had to coach at so it was an early morning Sunday morning. The girls game was the PJB elite team against a group of the best youth girls in Goma, who are part of PJB but play for other club teams. It was a fun game, we got killed, but that is because the other team was like an all-star team. Its always fun though coaching girls. The girls here are also very motivated which makes it even more fun.

            Out game began at about 8:45, which is Congolese 8 AM. It was a slow start for us as it took us about 8 offensive possessions to score a basket. It was not a bad start though because we began the tip with great defensive intensity and they only scored 3 points before our first basket. Even though our start was slow offensively, it was a great start for the game because it really set the stage for our defense the whole game. We benefited by having our whole team there, which consisted of two new grown men players who are very big and aggressive. Slowly our offense got into the groove and our defense continued giving Virunga problems scoring. By the end of the first quarter we were up about 10 points and we never looked back from there.

            Our attack consisted of a strong fast break, but also good penetration by our guards. By half-time we were up by over 20 points. I actually acted only as a player during this game because one of our players (and PJB founder), Dario, was suffering from an ankle injury, and he acted as a coach. I can never play basketball as just a player anymore though, so I had a lot of things for the second half to tell the guys, but Dario and Bienfait, the other coach, said everything I had in mine. We must still treat the game as a game and not a joke, even though our lead was great. They also said that we should practice getting the ball inside. This is a skill not mastered yet by any Congolese. They don’t really understand getting the ball inside.

            So to start the second half I purposefully made a conscious effort to get the ball inside. On problem was that the big men weren’t used to getting fed, so they played on their heels. It is important that big men gobble up their passes with a strong jump stop. I actually got a few buckets off of the post feed, but it didn’t seem that many of the other guys understood how to get the ball inside. I don’t know why but they love to lob the ball to the inside, which usually gets stolen. So This is one thing that we will be working on a lot of, entering the ball into the post.

            But the rest of the game just got out of hand in our favor. We continued great defense and allowing only one shot each possession with our rebounding, but we also scored everytime down the floor. By halfway through the fourth we were up by 37 points and began entering the victory cigars into the game. Funny thing is, even the 12th man on the bench scored and actually played pretty well. It was great to have  agame like this to show our dominance, but also give some confidence to our bench. We ended up winning the game by about 27 points (sorry I don’t have an exact figure, I forgot to write it down, but this is also because I was playing and not coaching). It was a great win for us to prove to the other teams of Goma that PJB is no joke, and that we will be ready to come play once the season rolls around.

            

The language of basketball

Can you interpret the passion screaming out of my eyes?

Can you interpret my love, Do you speak heart?

Can you interpret the drops of sweat hitting the hardwood as they ring out the with the melodies of hard work?

I teach wisdom not through proverb, but the choices I make with the ball in my hands.

I express my faith not through scripture, but through my focus on the system.

I give dedication not through oath, but through my time I give to preparation.

Understanding poise comes through confidence not definition

Understanding sportsmanship comes through respect not friendly banter

Understanding success comes through self-satisfaction not fame

The definition is yours

The definition is creativity, passion, wisdom, and poise

The definition is attempted by many, but mastered by few

Do you speak the language of basketball?

Watch me play and I’ll translate for you.

blog post 11/14/2011

I was sitting by the lake at 6:15 this morning after finishing my morning workout (insanity for now). What a beautiful day it was. The sun was already risen in the sky and the lake was so calm and flat it looked like I could throw on some ice skates and glide around on it. I found a rock to sit on and dangle my feet above the water and listen to some music as I enjoyed the peace and still of a beautiful new day.

            It takes a conscious effort to look and count the blessings you receive every morning. As I sat listening to “Still” by Hillsongs, I saw a reflection of a flower next to me on the rock I was sitting on. The flower was in bloom peeking itself out of a crack in the lava rock I was sitting on. I looked around at all the other hundreds of large lava rocks which make up the shoreline and realized that this was the only flower on all the rocks, and it was next to me.

            How could a beautiful flower bloom from the inside of a rock? It shows that even from the ugliest and darkest of situations a flower can grow. Taking away any scientific thought or wikipedia explanation of how a flower could grow from the inside of a rock, it seemed pretty cool to me. It made me think of all the people and places in the world that we can look at from the outside and write off as hopeless, and even the people we may look at as “lost causes”. People and places in this world can portray an empty, baren, and hopeless feel that we give up on, but could there be a flower blooming from within these people or places?

            This is my mission as a coach, to grow flowers. I want to take kids and foster the growth of the flower within them. Even the kids who act the hardest, have the least, and seem to have no direction in life, I want to be able to water them with teachings and direction so that within them can grow a beautiful person, and also a great basketball player J.

            Its funny that it is the little things in life that spark so much thought. This little flower that I would usually not even notice stuck out to me today. Makes me wonder, who have I been neglecting that might have a little flower inside of them that I should be helping to grow? I feel like being here in Congo I hope to plant a seed with the children so that even in this desperate, war-torn, seemingly hopeless nation can begin to bloom into the culturally and resourcefully rich country that it has so much potential to be.

            When we as humans begin to learn that within every situation, within every person, within everything there is a flower waiting to bloom. No matter how desperate, how neglected or how hopeless it may seem, we must always do our best to recognize the potential for growth. It is our duty as human beings to not only plant the seed of growth, but foster that seed into fruition so that we can change the world for the better.

thoughts on a quote

“Never put players in a win-lose situation, always put them in a win-win situation.”

Failure is not a state of being… It is a state of mind.

Going into a new season (as a coach or player) or a new job, many people throw themselves into win-lose situations. The individual or those around them set goals, standards, and expectations. It is when those goals, standards and expectations aren’t met that an individual is viewed or views themselves as a failure. This is what causes a win-lose situation and causes an unhealthy environment with unhealthy competition.

            Sometimes people find themselves in lose-lose situations, which is caused by corruption and malicious intent. Lose-lose situations occur in environments or situations that lack integrity. The objective of success is lost and selfish materialism takes over. An example of a lose-lose situation would be taking steroids as an athlete. There may be short-term glory, but in the end every party involved will lose as a result.

            At all costs, as a leader you want to avoid both lose-lose and win-lose situations. Whether on the basketball court, in the classroom, or in the office you must put those in which you lead in win-win situations 100% of the time. By doing this you ensure the success of everyone around you and the organization. To do this you must teach/show that no shortcoming is enough to be called a failure unless the individual allows it to be. Even in a losing period an individual can succeed. No one is a failure (a loser), unless they allow a loss to destroy their focus and ruin their happiness.

            An example I can think of is the Butler Bulldogs and their coach Brad Stevens. I believe that Coach Stevens is a coach who always puts his players in win-win situations, which is exemplified by the play of his team leaders. In 2010, when Butler made the National Championship they were in a win-win situation. They were a Cinderella story and if they won it would be a miracle. If they lost, however, they would not be criticized because they had already exceeded expectations and succeeded in making it as far as they did.

            Going into the 2011 season, Brad Stevens could have been a common coach (and leader) and allowed his players to begin the season with a win-lose mindset. After a Cinderella moment a team is quickly forgotten, especially when their best player (In this case Gordon Hayward) jumps to the league. Coach Stevens could have lowered his standards and allowed his team to return to their non-contender mid major status, but Coach would not give in. Instead he developed a win-win attitude among his team and University.

            The attitude of his senior leader Matt Howard exemplifies that confidence and will which can be best developed in a win-win program. When there is no fear of failure is when you see gritty defense, Cinderella’s upsetting powerhouses, and in the 2011 NCAA’s exciting comebacks and buzzer-beaters. In 2011, Butler again fought and clawed its way into the National Championship for the second year in a row. When watching Coach Stevens’ team you can see that the players play without fear of failure because if they give their all, play harder and smarter than anyone else, then no matter what the scoreboard says, they will be a success.

            To develop a win-win system, a win-win situation, and a win-win mentality should be the goal of leaders in every aspect of society. To do this you need to teach those under you that failure is a state of mind, not a state of being. Failure occurs when an individual cannot see that giving his/her all is a success in itself. A win-win situation can occur even in a lost match because nobody is perfect, nobody will win 100% of the time, but you can succeed 100% of the time.

            As a leader, to put those who you are leading in a win-win situation, preparation is key. Like Shakespeare so simply puts it in Macbeth, “The readiness is all.” Preparing for success, preparing to win, is key but you must prepare in the right ways. First is developing a win-win attitude. Making sure that those in which you are leading have a healthy view on success and failure, and will put forth maximum effort at all times is the basis of a win-win attitude.

            Next as a leader you must always develop a win-win situation by teaching all aspects of your business strategy, game plan, assignments, ect… You must equip those around you with the skills to tackle the task at hand. In the case of being a role model you must equip those around you with the skills to change the world for the better.

Skills are important to have, but they are useless unless you know when and why to use them. Because of this a leader must always teach the importance of a skill and when and how to use that skill properly. If you master a skill and always use it properly you can never fail.

            The media, capitalism, and society today strive to create win-lose situations. They always want there to be someone who is gloried and someone who suffers. Of course this is what sells, but it is not what is best for the world. I try to live in a way that what sells, what brings in the money, what attracts the most attention is not my focus of attention. Sure these things play a role in my life, but I want to focus on what brings me happiness, and what makes me successful. What makes me successful is not the amount of money I make, what material goods I have, or what others think of me, but it is the happiness and contentment of my being.

            I give my all to understand the why and how I am using my skills so that I will never let myself, or more importantly anyone else down. I have put myself in a win-win situation. I hope that I can do the same for those that I lead

Birthday Post

So today is my birthday, or my born day as my momma would say, its really her birthday because she gave birth to me. I am now 23 years old, even though I feel older. I tell everyone here in Congo that I am 27 to make myself feel better. I have probably had the most exciting and awesome 23 years of life anyone has ever lived. I was born into the best family ever. I could not wish for better parents and cooler siblings. I have great friends that I can always count on no matter what, and I can find these friends in countries all over the world. Finally, I am blessed because I am able to do what I love as a job. I wake up everyday to a job that excites me, challenges me, and rewards me through the satisfaction of knowing I am doing something important.

            Being alone (as in away from family and friends) on my birthday gives me the opportunity to really reflect on what has been important to me over the past 23 years. I have thought about my FOCUS group, the Ju$t Cuz Thugz, high school sports, my “Olivet experience”, and now currently my African Coaching adventures. I wish I could put into words what all the people in my life that I love have taught me and given me, but that would take forever. Id just like to write to everyone reading this that in some great and magnificent way you have touched my life. Even if you feel like you hardly know me, you know me, and you mean something to me. That makes all the difference in the world! I love you guys!

Man I miss you guys

Many different Ingredients go into making us what we are. One of the most important is true friendship. True friends occupy special places in our psyches. They don’t have to interact with us everyday, or every month, or every year. They’re always a part of us. Its not that we take them for granted. We just incorporate them into our lives so naturally…” Bill Russell