Inauguration...

This weekend we inaugurated our first new court to open in Goma. The court is named after Ms. Valerie Todenhofer, who was an employee and key to building our partnership with adidas to fund the court. The court is located in the center of town in the compound of a Catholic Church funded library and cultural center called maison des jeunes. It is in a prime location to serve the youth of Goma, as it is located at “college”, which is surrounded by the three biggest private schools in Goma.

An inauguration is a celebration of a new beginning. It is a ceremony to commence the upstart of something tangible and useful. I could not be more happy, excited, and overwhelmed, as I was this past weekend. It has always been a dream of mine to be able to one day build a basketball court in Goma. I could never have imagined that I would be inaugurating a basketball court in Africa that I put a lot of my own time, sweat and blood into at just the age of 23.

It’s hard to explain, in words, the feeling you get as you watch your dream come true. It is a feeling of pride, contentment, and incomprehensible joy. To some extent the feeling is one of relief because you know that all the hard work and focus you put into something amounted to success, but it is not all relieving. It is almost the sense of relief you may feel on January 1^st when you put everything from the year before behind you and you can let go of the stresses of what was before. In the same way though the feeling also paints a picture of a future that you can step in to with a new found wealth of knowledge, experience, and opportunity that will help you to thrive in the future.

Sitting at home on Sunday after the inauguration I felt like a veteran schoolteacher returning home from the last day of school. In that moment I felt content with my life and assured that I was worth something. You know how younger people always question their worth, but usually you can see the happier old people content with life even when all seems to be going wrong? I think this is because older people (lets just consider anything over 35 “older” to me) have experience, which has proven their worth to themselves, so they can be contented. This experience has been that type of experience for me. One that has been so great that there are very few things that could happen to shake my worth. I have incredible self worth, and I have one amazing basketball court to show for it, and two on the way!

That is how I felt when looking back on my weekend. It is now Tuesday and I still haven’t really yet come to terms with my feelings. I am not in a state of “my goal is finished now what do I do,” as some people slip in to, but I am even hungrier for more. I have a long life ahead of me and I am happy to have accomplished something I thought would not come until after my career even before I’ve really started my career, but I have many other dreams and aspirations. I know now how great it feels to accomplish those dreams though, and I will strive to continue that.

Anyway, let get to the actual inauguration. The definition, according to dictionary.com, of inaugurate is “to make a formal beginning of…” Many times a person will finish a job and just leave it at that. It so much better to “formally” celebrate and commence the use of that job. I had very little input on the planning of the inauguration because I am not familiar with the traditions of Congolese celebrations, so I was really just along for the ride on Saturday and did what I was told.

The ceremony began on Saturday at a Congolese 2 PM (for those of you who haven’t read my blog at all that means about 2:45 or 3 PM). This meant that me and the other coaches were of course at the court at 6 AM sharp (I don’t play that Congolese Time) to prepare everything for the ceremony. This included cleaning the court, setting up chairs (we are now looking for funding to hopefully build some stadium seating for the court), trying to find a way to shade the seating area from the hot sun, buying refreshments… and so on. We wanted to make the ceremony as professional as can be to show our supporters and the people of Goma that we truly are a professional organization.

The ceremony began at around 2:45 PM with the playing of the Congolese national anthem. I mean no disrespect, but the song resembled someone singing a gospel version of Lean on Me at midnight at a noraebang after one to many drinks. Not to dog on the Congolese national pride (I love the country) but I have to describe it how I hear it right? Anyway… after that came the speeches. I was very impressed because there were only two speeches, one by Dario the founder and director of PJB, and one by the Congolese Minister of Sport. What impressed my was the brevity and straight to the point-ness of the speeches. When I am in meetings with Congolese people a 15-minute meeting can turn in to a four-hour meeting… No lie FOUR HOURS!

The speeches were each about 5 minutes long and from what I could understand (they were in French) they were concise and full of praise and excitement for the future of PJB and the city of Goma. Of course the speeches ended with the great act of The Ribbon Cutting. Its funny having a ribbon cutting for an outdoor basketball court because there’s no one entrance to the court. Instead we had to put 30 meters of blue ribbon across the middle of the court making it look a little bit like a crime scene. All facetiousness aside, it was amazing watching that ribbon being cut though because it was a mark, as I mentioned earlier of a new beginning.

I guess that could be what a ribbon cutting symbolizes. The ribbon is strung up with the tension of being tied to two unmovable objects. Then the ribbon is cut releasing all the tension and stress in the ribbon, and with that cut all the work and anticipation for the new court is also released and a sense of relief and excitement overwhelms you. The ribbon is a symbol for that pent up anticipation and when it is cut it symbolizes the release of all that tension.

After the excitement of cutting the ribbon there was only one thing left to do… break the court in. We set up three abbreviated matches, one 30-minute game for each team in our program. The first game was between our youth team (which for right now is all boys) and a team called TBC. The game was actually embarrassing for me as a coach because I watched as our boys got dominated in all aspects of the game, which stemmed from our “superstar” type mentality. Our boys tried throwing up threes every offensive possession, danced around with the ball on the perimeter and chased the ball around on defense like a bunch of prisoners fighting over a bar of soap. I was very embarrassed, and I let the youth coach know after the game that he needs to work a lot in practice.

The second game was much better as it featured our elite girls team. Our girls have come a long way in their attitude towards the game. Though their skills are still really really bad, they now have the desire to improve, and the heart to work and play hard. They also developed (all themselves without the encouragement of the coaches) leadership within the team that has equated to great team spirit and good sportsmanship. The girls played a select team from the top women players in Goma and won by about 8 points. They won by doing all the little things, rebounding, playing good defense, taking smart shots, and hustling (the best they can) after the ball. The girls have a long way to go, but at least they have a foundation of strong leadership and a good attitude.

The day finished with a match between our elite men’s team and Virunga. I was not playing or coaching at all today because I was wanted to be a spectator and see what the program looks like for the outside, so I just sat back and enjoyed all day. This was somewhat of a mistake because Dario, another elite player, did the same. Our elite team got trounced. I think the final whistle found us losing by about 20 points… in a 30-minute game. There was no communication, no hustle, and no thinking going on, on the court. It looked like we were a bunch of teenagers playing grown men (which was exactly the case, but we are trying to teach our players to play like men, even though they are young). Like the youth team, the reason the loss could be mostly blamed on the attitude coming in to the game. Basketball is a skill game, but it is more so a mental game, so when you are matched up well with skill (which was the case in this match), attitude is usually the determining factor. It is my focus now in the next month and a half to lay the foundation of great attitude, team work, and sportsmanship toward the game, so when I am not here the players can use the drills that they have learned over the past 6 months to add improved skill to their base of a great basketball attitude and mind.

All in all, Saturday was a great day. I arrived back home at about 7:30 PM, which made it a 13-hour day in the hot hot sun, so I jumped in bed to prepare for day two of the inauguration on Sunday.

Stayed tuned for day 2… (which will include some pics)

Happiness

So one thing I haven’t really discussed on my blog is communication. Being here in Goma communication isn’t as hard as I thought it would be, but it is quite expensive. With five bucks I can call out of the country for about 30-40 minute… I can’t really figure it out because its different every time but what else would you expect from an African telecommunications company. The funny thing is that if I call in country, but between networks (the two popular networks here are airtel and vodacom) I end up spending close to 50 cents per minute, which is more than three times what it costs for me to call out of the country. Because of the ease of communication I have actually been able to spend some time and money calling my girlfriend and family. This is actually a great thing because Internet is very difficult to find here and is so slow it is hard to do most of the stuff I want to do on it anyway.

So, getting to my real point, I was on the phone the other day with Sophia in Houston and we talked for a second about happiness. While we were talking I had so many ideas bouncing around in my head that I just wanted to get them down in writing. I have actually found this to be my new favorite past time, writing about philosophical ideas that I come across during the days.

Our conversation was centered on measuring happiness. Sophia told me that she was having a discussion with a friend that posed the question that we can measure depression, but why can we not measure happiness. First of all, I don’t really understand how you can measure depression, but I guess there is some scientific way. I believe that only the person experiencing happiness can ever measure it, but why do we need to measure it anyway?

The way I view happiness is in a completely selfish manner. My happiness is something that I feel, and I feel it in a way that no one else can feel it, nor do I want to share it. As I am the selfishly happy person I am, there is no way anyone else in the world can judge my happiness. It is in the same way that I find people trying to measure their faith or the faith of others. As a person of faith, I know that my faith is what grounds me, and that fact can never be measured or judged by anyone but myself. I look at happiness the same way I look at faith; it is a personal matter.

I think that in the discussion of happiness you will have to talk in circles around judging the measure of one’s happiness. To accept another person’s happiness is much more important than measuring it. Before I go any further let me give you my definition of happiness and Oxford’s definition (I made mine up in a way that I sound smart like a dictionary writer… why? Because that makes me happy);

My Definition	Good Ol’ Webster’s Definition
“The state of being self-satisfied and content with one’s current situation and/or experience.”	“Feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.”

Looking at my definition of what I believe is happiness seems to be close to on par with what the accept definition for happiness is. Nowhere in mine or Webster’s definition of happiness is there mention of what causes happiness though. Furthermore, nowhere in the definition does it imply that there must be something in place to cause happiness except for some “feeling” or “experience”.  I think that so many people are focused on measuring the things that cause happiness and counting that as a measure of happiness.

If people look at it this way, I think that is easy to measure happiness, but I do not believe that the things, which cause happiness, are in-deed happiness. Happiness is a direct result of the causes, but happiness is never equivalent to the causes of it.

So I’m blabbering on about all this stuff that I am not sure actually even makes sense (we will see when I read over it when I’m finished), but let me make an example to see if I can get my point across. There are many things that make me happy. Sexxxy basketball shoes, good conscious rap, playing sports, jerseys, parties, traveling are among some of the many things that make me happy. If you look at these things you can see that I have all of them, so I am happy. That is not necessarily true. All of these things are material things, things that can be measured. This is why people measure these things and call it happiness, but happiness cannot be measured from this standpoint.

I have a great example from my time here in Africa. Daily I pass by a little shop on my way in to town on my bicycle. The first time I ever passed the shop was my first month in Congo, and now I stop there to talk with the guys there every day. It has become my daily routine and it is something that makes me very happy. My good friend there, Ari, is 19 years old and a refugee from Masisi. He works every day repairing motorcycles or bicycles that ride by on their way in to town. The problem is that there are about 15 stops just like his on the way in to town, so most of his days are filled by sitting around waiting for work that will not come. He has talked with me before about wanting to go to school, but he cannot make enough money to go.

Anyway we talk every day (he likes to practice his English, and me my French) and sadly everyday turns in to a discussion about money. His perception is that I am a white person with money (partially true and partially not) so I am happy, and he works hard all day with his hands, is a black man, and receives no money, so he is not happy. The thing is what he doesn’t realize is that everyday I stop by and talk with him because talking with him makes me happy. That fact is true regardless of if I am a millionaire or bankrupt. I can also see on his face as I ride my bike up every day, and he runs out from under the umbrella he is using for shade that he is happy when I come talk to him.

If you were to take our two situations from an outsider looking in you might think, that white man must be so annoyed by all these Congolese kids trying to talk to him, or wow look at that Congolese being friends and talking to that MIZUNGU! These are actually comments I get by the different people who pass as we sit there and talk. This is not the case at all. I am just as happy to be there talking with Ari as he is to have me talking to him at his shop. People would judge our happiness in the situation by the white man having everything to give the black man and the black man having nothing for that white man, so there is no way the white man can be happy. This is just not the case at all.

So I want to go back to the point that it is more important to accept another person’s happiness than to measure it. Many people today are so quick to rebut another person’s happiness. It can be out of jealousy or out of hatred, or whatever may cause one to dislike another person’s happiness, but people always want to somehow discredit another person’s happiness. The way to do this is by putting a measure on another person’s happiness. “This person is happy, but how much more happy would he be with this or that…”

In the culture of the world today it is all about material things. Look at the TV. You may be happy playing your PS2 everyday, but then you see on an advertisement for a PS3 and all of the sudden you are no longer “happy” with your PS2. This is not happiness. I think that society so badly wants to measure happiness, so that just like in any other capitalistic utopia, we can compete to see who is happiest.

Happiness is not a competition. Happiness is not meant to be determined by anyone else. Happiness is a selfish emotion that a person can only determine on their own. True happiness cannot be fabricated for the benefit of others around them. It is a feeling of being. I would encourage everyone to develop true happiness, so that they can independently fulfill their true selves because to be happy is to be one’s self.

Coaching Philosophy as of March 2012

Coaching sport is the most respectable leadership platforms in the world and it is also one of the most scrutinized. A basketball coach assumes many roles in the school or organization in which they are coaching. A coach can be seen as an organizer, an advocate, a leader, a mascot, a role model but however you want to categorize a coach their most important role is as a teacher.

I have wanted to be a coach since I was in high school. The reason I fell in love with coaching is still the same reason I pursue my passion today and that is that I want to teach the great game of basketball in a way that I can develop better players and better people that I ever could be. My aim as a coach is to develop the most complete basketball players to ever play the game, but also develop the best people to ever walk the earth.

Basketball is an ever changing game in the same way that we live in an ever changing world. That is why as a coach I must focus on being adaptive to the changing climate of the world and basketball. Through my continuous effort to learn and grow as a coach I try to show and teach my players to love beating on their craft (whatever that craft might be). As Will Smith said, “, skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.” Coaching not only gives me the opportunity to day in and day out beat my players crafts into them whether they like it or not, but it is my goal as a coach to create players who understand and love the effects and outcomes of industry and hard work.

It is well known that families that play together, stay together, and those that walk apart fall apart. My team is my family and so the communication and continuity of every aspect of my basketball program must be on the same page. My attention, respect, and time is open for every player, coach, administrator, and fan that is part of my team. In my personal philosophy family is prioritized second behind my faith and my basketball philosophy is exactly the same, but I will always consider my team family.

The way I teach my players to play is the same way I want them to live life. In a game I want my players to be playing at full speed for 100% of the game and never take a possession off offensively or defensively. I want them to play fast, but not out of control. Though hustle should never be mistaken for skill, it sure can make for a pretty good substitute for skill. That is why my best defender and my best rebounder will always start a game along with my best scorer and ball handler.

No matter a skilled player or not my players will always be in attack mode offensively and defensively. I have found that the best offense against a man to man defense is fast break and the best offense against a zone defense is fast break, so my offense will always be breathing down the neck of the defense. Also, I have found that nothing makes a ball handler or shooter uncomfortable is a hand in their face so my players will always play pressure defense. Finally, I realized one day in 11^th grade math that the more opportunities someone has to score, the more that person will probably score. For this reason my team will rebound the basketball so as to have as many possessions as possible.

Basketball for my team is way more than a game, but it is a metaphor for the type of people we are. As mentioned above we will prepare ourselves to be ready for whatever the game and life throws us and we will give one hundred percent to succeeding in what we catch. We will attack each and every obstacle together with cooperation and poise. Most of all we will approach all the good and the bad we face with a good sportsman-like spirit. Our minds will be clear to revel in our wins yet learn from our losses and we will taste success.

Steroids

I just finished watching a movie called Bigger, Stronger, Faster, which focused on drug use. I really liked the way the narrator attacked the issue of steroids because though the focus was steroids the documentary seemed to be searching for something deeper, and the message came to me as a lesson in competition, specifically America’s attitude about competition. The focus of the message was not in attacking the physical aspect of taking steroids, but more so the mindset of taking steroids.

            A big focus of the movie centers around proving that steroids are illegal in the USA yet have not been proven to be as destructive as they are perceived. This got me thinking and brought me to the first important lesson of the movie. That lesson is: anything in excess is unhealthy. Alcohol isn’t necessarily bad but it is destructive when consumed in excess; Vitamin C is great for your overall health but if you take it too much you can poison yourself. The list of examples goes on forever because anything and I believe everything in excess is unhealthy.

            It is a flaw in human nature that more is always better. In the competitive world you can never get far enough ahead. Having things in excess is not just an accepted concept, but it is almost required in the world today. My mom taught me since I was a young kid that no human will ever again be perfect (This was a religious teaching that Jesus was, is and always will be the perfect human to walk the earth). This message resonates in me way deeper than the religious context because it is true. It seems that whenever we see an example of someone that has it all we find that they really don’t have it all; when we see someone that looks to have it all together we see that there is some empty void within themselves that they are trying to fill. When a person feels these shortcomings, they focus on gaining more of what they have or can gain in excess to fill these shortcomings.

The truth is that as humans we are not meant to be perfect and we are definitely meant to have shortcomings. These shortcomings are what keep us even as human beings. These shortcomings are what drive healthy competition. Humans should not concern themselves with being perfect instead they must focus on the pathway towards perfection. The pathway to perfection involves the character of a human being whereas being perfect is all in the perception of a human being.

This leads me to the one reason I will never do steroids (unless it would be for the medicinal purpose of keeping me alive): because it is cheating. The obvious edge that it gives athletes in sports isn’t even worth debating, but even for those not in competitive athletics the only non-medicinal use of steroids is a shortcut to some end that is unhealthy. Steroids are used by people to develop muscles in a way that they could never naturally build. I am a firm believer in hard work as it is one of the highest prioritized value in my life and I completely understand that even people that use steroids work very hard to gain the muscles they get (some people may even say they work harder than people who don’t take steroids, but that it also a by product of the fact that they took steroids so they can work longer and harder).

I can think back to high school when I was in physics class and our teacher allowed us to program whatever formula in our calculators (if we wanted to do the work) because he wasn’t concerned with us memorizing a bunch or formulas, instead he wanted to see if we were able to apply the formulas properly. I thought that this was a great tactic because it helped me as a student realize what is important to focus on in education, which is to apply my knowledge not just attain knowledge. Anyway, there were many times when students somehow got the answers to the tests and spent the night programming the answers into their calculators because they knew the teacher wouldn’t check their calculators as they were allowed to program whatever formulas they want. These students put in a lot of hard work in programming all those answers into their calculators, even more work than I did actually studying the material. The students imputing all the answers into their calculators hard work and my hard work studying was only different in one way, they were cheating.

Sure there were students who got much better grades than me in physics class but I feel that I gained more from that class than any of the students that cheated did. This is because I was working towards knowing everything that I was taught whereas the students were only concerned with showing that they knew everything that was taught. It is the same deal with steroids. If I want to be able to bench press 600 pounds but without steroids I cannot get 500 lbs up and I’ve worked as hard as possible then I should be content in the fact that I did everything in my power to try to put up that 600 lbs, but I feel short. When I take steroids I am overlooking the work I am capable of doing and only focusing on just putting up 600 lbs. As John Wooden said in his book Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court, “Too often we neglect our journey in our eagerness or anxiety about reaching the goal.” As people, and I think American’s are the best example, we are so worried about becoming perfect that we would compromise ourselves by taking a shortcut in our journey towards that perfection.

I want to know what is it that fuels this neglect. There are multiple things that drive people to neglect the correct path (the path that will bring true happiness) towards perfection. The first thing that is so prevalent in the world today is unhealthy competition. Now I am a basketball coach, so I am an advocate for competition and I believe it is the only way that one can improve but there is both healthy and unhealthy competition. Healthy competition arises from doing your best to become as successful as you are capable of becoming but also willing to accept the outcome of your best effort.

What I see within the capitalist mindset of many people today is an unhealthy approach to competition. Unhealthy competition is fueled by the desire to be better than the next person. Unhealthy competition arises when a person directs their attention away from themselves and puts it on the success of others. Comparison is what drives people towards unhealthy competition. Success and happiness will always be a personal matter and can never be determined by another person yet in the world we are always determining what, where and who we are by comparing ourselves to others.

To use a relevant current event we can look at Jeremy Lin. Many people are saying that the Warriors were stupid for letting Lin go last season. When the president of the Warriors was approached with the attack of, “what it the world were you thinking letting this guy go,” he replied that he already had a point guard, Stephon Curry. He then proceeded to ask the person who would he rather have as a starting point guard, Stephon Curry[1] or Jeremy Lin[2]. The person who posed the question silently moved on.

So who is the better point guard and why the heck was the Warriors office so stupid as to let Jeremy Lin go? The answer is that none of these questions matter. The fact is that Jeremy Lin and Stephon Curry both have shown success as starting point guards and who are we to judge the success of either of them. The Warriors are where they are now and the Knicks are where they are now and that is the way it is. As long as both teams and both players are doing everything in their power to be the best teams/players they care capable of becoming than they are both successful. Healthy competition would allow for the success of all parties involved.

Another thing that steers people off the correct path on the journey towards perfection is poor self-image. I think that this is one of the driving forces for steroid use outside of athletics. People want to portray themselves as something that they are not and so they artificially produce the results they want even if it may compromise their character. Whenever I think about self-image I think about the fact that I am not better than anyone but I am just as good as everyone. Poor self-image again is usually developed by comparing ones self to another. The fact is that you are who you are and he is who he is and you will never be him, so there’s no use to pretend or even try to be him. Too many people want to be something that they are not so they will forever struggle with self-image. The only time you can ever develop a healthy self image is when you accept who you are, accept your shortcomings, and walk down your personal path to perfection. You can always try to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, but no matter how perfectly you followed directions you will end up in a different place.

The last thing that I would like to discuss that drives people to neglecting their proper path is selfishness. Steroids are a drug and when abused can have the same effects on others that drugs such as alcohol or marijuana have on others. The drug becomes an obsession for the person taking it and can lead to the destruction of relationships and trust because the selfish drive of taking the drug.

For example, a wife may not want her husband to take steroids because it is illegal and the husband agrees. After a couple weeks the husband is exhausted like he’s never been after his workouts and seems to be getting weaker, which would all make sense because he is no longer taking steroids. In many cases I feel that the husband would then turn, because of his selfish nature, back to steroids and maybe secretly start taking them again. This was one of the examples in the documentary. A drug like steroids develops a selfish obsession with strength, body image and being better than everyone else. Using steroids for any purpose other than to cure a chronic or mortal disease is a completely selfish act.

I want to talk about America for just one second and think about why steroids are so prevalent in the culture of America as compared to other nations. The obvious reasons could be the wealth of Americans, the emphasis on image in America, or the competitive capitalistic mindset. What I believe is the driving force of Americans to take steroids is their undying desire to control everything and everyone. It is the same reason why America is a country obsessed with war.[3]

Many Americans would consider taking steroids in sport as wrong, but would have no problem with someone taking steroids outside of sports. There was a point in the documentary when they interviewed some military pilots that use drugs to focus and hone their concentration while flying. The comment that one of the pilots made when asked why he thought it was wrong for athletes to use steroids but it was ok for him to use them, his answer was something like, “because in sports there are rules but in war there are no rules.” This is the mindset of American competition in general.

Americans don’t see competition as a sport; Americans see competition as a war. Like Kendrick Lamar says in Ronald Reagan Era, “Cant detour when you at war with your city…When you fight/ don’t fight fair/ cuz you’ll never win.” This is the mindset of American’s that has been taught to us throughout the generations, and it is what I see defining Americans as a society. We have the power to fight unfair and unjust battles and we do just so we can exert our power. We selfishly flex our muscles to the world to show that we are better than anyone else and we are willing to do anything to stay better than anyone else whether it goes against the rules or not.

The steroid issue is one that brings together so many problems and issue that can be debated and discussed. When weighing the reasons for and against steroids for their physical effects, I think anyone would decide to take steroids. The problem I find with steroids are the forces that drive people towards takings steroids and those are to gain an unfair advantage over everyone else, because they have a poor self image and feel they are not strong enough to overcome their shortcomings without steroids, and because people are just plain selfish. I think that it is sad that any culture or persons would defend the use of steroids in any circumstance. I think that instead of producing strong people, steroids instead just exemplify the weakness of the individual.

If any of you reading this have any input on what you feel about the issue of steroids I would love to hear what you think.

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[1] Who has had steady and consistent success as a starting point guard

[2] Who just recently exploded and is having a brilliant run of games at starting point guard for the Knicks

[3] Which is one characteristic of a totalitarian government, but that’s for another time.

Random thoughts

So as of late things in Goma have been pretty slow. Our courts are not yet finished because work has been delayed and retooled, the kids are taking exams so they find little time to come train, and the league (championat) postponed the beginning of the season 3 weeks (at least I hope it begins in the 3 weeks) because of disorganization. This time of the year was supposed to be the busiest and most exciting, but TIA and disorganization has turned February (Fevrier) into a lull. I hope that things start falling in to place, as I have been working so hard for everything, so that I can have some interesting and exciting updates for everyone.

So because there is nothing really going on within PJB except for some great ideas, but nothing material as of now, I decided I would use my time to write about current events from the perspective of me. My situation doesn’t allow me to hear about, see, or discuss anything going on in the world to any grand extent. So here are my thoughts, two cents, and knowledge about what is going on outside of Northeast DRC:

1.     JEREMY LIN- Here is what I wrote about Lin last weekend:

 “I will start with this because this morning I woke up at 3 AM to watch the Lakers vs. Knicks on the TV. We arranged specially to have a generator going so we could watch the game. Earlier in the week I had read about Jeremy Lin exploding in his first game starting with like 25 points and 6-8 assists. I wasn’t too surprised because I have always thought of Lin as a very good player. He’s smart (Harvard WHATUP!…… Asian WHATUP!), he can shoot, he can pass, and he doesn’t play out of his element, I actually had been waiting for him to get an opportunity to play because I thought he could be a solid backup point guard for a very good team.

Then I watched the game and found out that this little Asian is on a terror. Four games as a starter, four games with over 20 points, and four wins. Then I watched as he sliced and diced the Lakers for 38 points. Man, I know I’m Korean (and white), but I am starting to feel some Asian pride.

My prediction for the future of this stud: He will continue to dominate, and end up winning MVP. He will be so valuable that NYC will end up trading Amare, Chandler and Baron Davis to snatch up Dwight, and we will see the new big 3- Melo, Lin, and Howard beating out the Heat in the Eastern Conference finals. Then they will play out a hard fought series in the Finals and Lin will hit a 3 with 15 seconds to go in Game 5 to stun the heavily favored Thunder to become World Champions. LIN= Finals MVP.

Last thought on the topic: If anyone sees the shirt that the guy at the end of the game was wearing, “All I do is Lin, Lin, Lin” you have to cop it for me. I need that shirt!”

2.     GOP- So its hard to be political when you haven’t heard anything about the country that you are discussing the politics of in over 5 months, but even if Obama were to go to war with Iran, have an affair with Emma Watson (is there any other woman you know so cute and innocent?), personally torture and interrogate every inmate at GITMO, and kick all immigrants out of the country, I still think I’d vote for him. Rick Santorum? Mitt Romney? I am very ignorant actually on the topic of American Politics, but the GOP should come up with a candidate that isn’t ignorant about every aspect of life. Really it blows my mind how anyone could be so blind, and the sad thing is it is a great deal of American people. Just thinking about having to return to America for the elections makes me think about never going back to America because of how much I hate the politics.

2a. As a supplement to point two I have these lyrics from Joe Budden, “If you closed minded/ I call that an emergency/ blind fold yourself as if there’s nothing more to further see./ Honestly that’s absurd to me/ if the sky’s the limit/ then where’s the urgency/ I embrace life/ I’m so care free/ and I wont judge yall/ if you don’t care to be./ Just know that no matter who you are/ the right system can turn a role player to a superstar.

3.     News Channels- I hate to say it, but I think that the French even do news better than the US. I will never chose to watch CNN, Fox News (I guess I would never watch that channel anyways), MSNBC or any other American news channel after being spoiled over here with France 24, BBC World, and Aljazeera.

4.     Superbowl- There is probably nothing that Eli Manning could ever do to ever gain back my respect, but he did it again and deserved MVP. None of that is important though because Madonna killed it at half time with her incredibly homosexual yet outstanding performance, with the help of my girls Nicki and MIA.

5.     College Basketball- I was able to catch a replay of the Duke-UNC game last week… what an incredible game. Rivers was outstanding, Zeller played like a pro, and Barnes quietly had one of the best performances of the night (if rivers hadn’t gone off). My two cents though, Kendall Marshall could be the most valuable asset that any team in the NCAA has right now. His passing ability and the way he controls the game impresses me more than any point guard in the world right now.

I also got to watch Michigan State beat Ohio State last week, and I have been watching a lot of early season games that I downloaded while in Europe and I have just a couple observations. I think that in this year’s tournament teams that rebound well, have big guards and get out in the break will cause havoc. This year’s tournament will not be like any other years… I guess kind of like last years tournament, but even more so this year. If we look at the success of teams like VCU and Butler in the tournament last year we see Butler, who rebounded the ball (offensively and defensively) extremely well and played great transition defense, and VCU, who had big strong veteran guards and a team that could run with the best of them. I can see surprise teams like Butler and VCU in the tournament again this year, but these mid-major teams are looking to me to be teams like Wichita State, Cleveland State and Temple (Fernandez will fight to the end of his career).

These are just some ideas I have, and we’ll see who even shows up in the tournament, but I am becoming more and more of a believer in teams that rebound and teams that have good guard play. Right now my 4 best teams in the country have to be Kentucky, UNC, Michigan State, and Mizzou because of these two aspects of their games. Sure Syracuse, Duke, and OSU have star studded and very successful teams and coaches, I think that they will fall in their conference tournaments and the national tournament because of small flaws in their games. OSU I think will be an early out because of their lack of depth, their inconsistent guard play, and their sometimes stagnant offense. I think Duke relies too much on the 3 point arch which is a death wish unless they can have a miracle run and finally I think ‘Cuse has all the pieces, good rebounders, quick guards, strong guards, shooters, and shot blockers, but I just don’t see them putting it all together into the complete game yet.

We will see, but right now my prediction for Cinderella’s are Wichita St. and Cleveland St. and my locks are UNC, MSU, and Kentucky. Man I could talk college basketball all the time and be content in life.

6.     Opportunity- “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” At PJB we just got word that one of the girls from our program was selected by Disney and the Jane Goodall Institute to visit Orlando, Florida for a young leaders conference. She will go in April for a week to visit Disney World (or Land, whichever one is in Florida) and attend conferences, award ceremonies, and we even set up two NBA games for her to go see. It is very very exciting for this young girl and PJB as an organization to know that our players are exhibiting what it takes to be considered young leaders of the world.

As I think about how happy I am, and I saw how happy this girl's parents were for the opportunity, it really got me thinking about opportunity. This opportunity for this girl is once in a lifetime. For the youth of Congo going to America is a dream that is rarely fulfilled. You can’t imagine how many people, young and old, have told me that they would give everything just to go to America. Yet I see these same people falling in to the same routine of being late, lying, cheating, stealing, and making excuses for their life. They are being lazy and not making the best of their opportunities.

I think about it and my conclusions before were that these people are never given the opportunity. They are born in to a life where their opportunity is zero, but this is not correct. In every persons life arises opportunity of some cost. It is what people chose to do with that opportunity which determines who they will become. People must take personal responsibility for their life and what they make of their opportunities. That’s why I like the quote above. If life is about finding yourself, then you don’t have any personal responsibility for the way your life turns out, but if you chose to create yourself then you take that responsibility upon yourself to determine who you will become. You determine who you will become by what you make of your opportunities.

I am very proud of this girl because over many conversations I have had with her through the travel planning process I see that she is on board with this idea. She is not taking for granted this amazing opportunity she has and I know in my heart she will milk it for what it is worth. This girl I have been talking about is the same girl that I wrote about in my first post from Goma. She posed the question to me the first day I arrived at the basketball courts, “Will you give us your best?” If you have read my blog you know that it is a question that has really defined my trip to Congo. I am learning more and more that when we give our best  and make the most of the opportunities we are given we can accomplish anything.

So that is my take on what is going on and what has been dominating my thoughts lately. I will update as soon as there are some new happenings at PJB. PEACE!

Hate and American X

I just finished watching the movie American History X. I have mixed feelings about it. I think that I liked the movie a lot, but I hesitate to say it because of what the movie is. What the movie is hate personified in such a real way that it is sickening. I think that I liked the movie though because it portrayed hate the way that it must be portrayed.

            I like the way that the movie ends with Danny saying, “hate is baggage. Life’s too short to be pissed off all the time. Its just not worth it.” That is the way the movie portrays hate, which is how it must be portrayed. Was the movie an exceptional story that would only happen in the most outrageous of situations? Yes. Do those situations occur in real life? Yes, but I will never accept that my world can be a world that would ever allow the events that take place in the movie to occur. The only way in which things like the prejudices and violence in American History X can occur is in a place which hatred exists.

            Hate is a force, which can arise in so many situations. Environment, prejudices, conflicts, politics, emotion, and religion all can create or birth hatred within one’s heart. Hatred, real and deep hatred develops deep within someone before it is even noticed. In the movie it shows that its not even just anger that creates hatred, but it grows from ideas and actions taught to us, which are exemplified during times of uncontrollable and illogical anger.

            Many times I would never focus on anger, hatred, malice, because they aren’t things that I like to dwell on. You may say that I hate hate, but in the past couple hours since watching the movie I have been trying to understand hate, and I don’t want to come at it from a love perspective, because I feel like I always try to look at things from the optimist side of things. I really want to try to understand hate because as I mentioned earlier I will never accept my world to allow hatred to manifest itself like I see it in the world today.

            I feel as if my ignorance of hatred comes from my inability to stay or even be mad. I think that it is a learned ignorance in me through being raised shown only love; I was never paralyzed by anger or hatred. I was never given the opportunity and I was never put in the situation where I could be hurt to the extent of hatred, which is paralyzing.

            I see around me what people might call “hell on earth.” I live in a town which recently (within the past 10 years) was almost completely destroyed by a volcano, and what was not destroyed was and is continuing to be manipulated by the ongoing conflict (some still call it a war) among the people of the area. Yet through all the destruction, all the lives lost, all the poverty, all the struggle, and all the hopelessness, I see very little hatred. So what is hatred, and why does it exist in this world that I call home? How can I rid my home of this disabilitating state?

            In American History X, and what I can see a lot of in American society is that fear and anger cripple people with hatred. I think to myself where does this fear and anger come from? The answers, which become known to me through (not true, but to some extent true) stories such as the movie American History X, or even one of my favorites, Crash. This fear and anger come from the preconceived notions of what we don’t know (ignorance), the misinformed assurance of those notions (media, politics and religion), and the absence of resources and motivation to overcome that fear and anger (laziness).
            In the world there are so many examples of people who take what they hear and write it on their heart with permanent ink. Examples are seen in many people’s religious beliefs (which has nothing to do with their faith) and in their social expectations. When these beliefs and expectations that one holds so dear are challenged and discredited is when anger arises and a person can be blanketed with the darkness of hatred. Closed-mindedness fuels hatred.

            I feel that hatred manifests itself not only where love has been subdued but where thinking stops. Perfection is not the only thing that comes from clear eyes and a full heart. When your eyes and mind are clear you are able to think rationally and critically. If a person can think with an open mind, a clear mind then they will never be closed off by anger and hatred. If a person can have a heart full of love then hatred can never make manifest within their being.

            Hatred not only paralyzes life, it destroys it. Hate is destroying the life of our planet. The heart and mind of humanity is closed and clogged with the anger that can only create hate within the being of us all. Humanity must open its mind and heart to the love and knowledge that can abound yet only when it is allowed to make manifest.

“Hate is baggage. Life’s too short to be pissed off all the time. It’s just not worth it... “We are not enemies but friends. You must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, they must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell and again touch as surely they will be by better angles of our nature.”- Danny from American History X

Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. –MLK

“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it”- MLK

Why Do I Coach? (Part 1)

I want to be somebody to someone. When I stop living for others and start living for myself, my life will loose its purpose and meaning. No day is complete until you can do something for someone without expecting anything in return. It is more important to give life than to live life, but you give life by the way you live life.

I want to give my life through sport not to sport. I want to give my life to coaching so that through my life I can give others the education that I received through doing what I love most, playing sports. Sport has taught me that nothing can be attained until you first lose something. No championship is won until each and every player on a team loses their pride for the good of the team. No progress is made unless one loses their time and effort to growth. Love cannot manifest until one loses their heart to the people and things that they want most. I want to lose myself for the purpose of others.

To lose myself I must give myself, or I must be stolen away. I will not allow myself to be stolen by the things of this world such as material things, money, drugs or pride. These things can come as a thief to steal your soul. I give myself fully so that I may not be stolen away. In this way I can lose myself for the things that will make the world a better place, instead of being lost to those things which are destroying it. These things which I will give my being to include integrity, truth, passion, love, industry, and peace.

As Marianne Williamson said, “as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people the permission to do the same.” As I give to others I give others the example to do the same. As the light of my love shines on all, so all can love in the same way. As people see the joy and happiness that giving brings me they will consciously or unconsciously do the same. This is how modeling is done. This is how to be somebody to someone.

As a coach I am a role model to those I coach but also everybody I come in contact on a day to day basis. This is a large responsibility but one that I am willing to die for, one that I am willing to give my whole being to. Though my success will be measured by wins and losses, my life will be measured by how the world has changed because of my presence. If I live my life to change the world I will win the ultimate crown, and that will make me a success. That success will be the satisfaction in knowing that my mind is clear because I gave you all and that my heart is full because you were perfect.