So a couple people (alright, nobody) asked me if I was going to continue blogging while I was overseas as a means to keep all my friends and family in the loop on things (or pass time between practices). So let's get on with a quick update shall we?
After finishing my season in Japan, I returned home to Seattle for the summer. All in all it was a great summer, blah blah etc etc. I entered the NBA Development League Draft and was fortunate enough to get picked by the Springfield Armor. This was quite fortuitous because both my girlfriend's family and one of my best friends live near Boston.
Anyway, I went to training camp and played well, and probably should have made the team. But I got hurt and got sent home. About ten days later I was called back, the team wanted me to come back cause they realized after their 0-4 (with four blowout losses) start that they may have made some errors somewhere along the way. Feeling vindicated, I returned to Springfield.
Unfortunately things did not go well. At first I was playing good minutes, but my minutes went down as the season went on. Then on December 31st I got the news that I'd been cut. It sounds worse than it was, the team was losing all the games and I wasn't playing. Not like I was having a lot of fun there. Add in the fact that I spent December 24-29 stuck in Sioux Falls (if I didn't put the state would you know which one it was in????), South Dakota and I was more than ready to get out of there.
So I shacked up with my girlfriend's mom and sister for ten days. Oh and Alisa (gf) was there too. In that period of ten days I was contacted by an agent on facebook. He said if I was interested he could get me a job in Turkey. I said yes, and two days later I had a plane ticket to Istanbul bought for me by a Turkish man I met on the internet. So I flew to Istanbul knowing only two things. My agent's name anda the name of the team I was trying out for. I didn't know who was picking me up at the airport, what hotel I was staying at, or anything else that people generally tend to take care of when they fly halfway across the planet. This is not a joke or even a slight fabrication of events.
After getting here I had a whole day to orient myself before the tryout began. Making the transition tougher was the fact that I am the only American. But the tryouts went well, they offered me a contract on the second day of a three day tryout. Obviously I took the offer.
Our first game was today, and coincidentally it was an away game with the other team I was supposed to try out for. We ended up winning the game, 65-60. It was a little bit ugly but it's a win. I didn't play well for my standards, but the team and coaches liked my production so that's good. I ended up with 10 points, 11 rebounds and two steals.
Our next game is on Friday at home. Apparently we have a tough slate of games coming up or something. I could be totally wrong about that, only about 20% of what coach says gets translated for me.
Alright well it's late. I'll put another post up later in the week describing my initial impressions of Turkey.
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