Summing up 2010

I'd like to start off by saying that it is December and I haven't worn a jacket in over a month :) I told you guys I would rub it in when the time was right!! How's your freezing cold weather? One thing that has been sucky, however, is the fact that it's been raining almost everyday. And I mean that wouldn't be so bad, if every time it rained it didn't look like this...

Anyone have a boat?

Yeah, there are no drains... The water eventually leaves after several hours. But seriously, I can't ride my bike or walk through this. I guess it's like the old saying goes...November showers bring December flowers... or something like that.

Anyway back to the story at hand. Remember last blog when I told you that two games were moved? Well, it was time to play those games, along with four others in a 12 day. Anyone who has played basketball before, 6 games in 12 days is A LOT of basketball! I'll start with last Wednesday.

We played the same team that beat us the first game of the season by 3; but this time at home. We had a great start and continued that for the whole game. I had a good game and a couple of vicious dunks, (I'm hoping to make a highlight tape when I go home for Christmas break), and we won by double digits for the first time! Six game losing streak. Done.

Friday. Another home game, but against a very tough team. We fought the whole game, but came up short in the end.

On to Monday. One of the most memorable games I've been a part of. We started off well, but were down the majority of the game. We started the fourth quarter down by 8, and we were still down by about 8 with 2 minutes left. Then we hit a 3 to cut it to 5. Another to cut it to 2. They scored to make it 4. I scored an up and under to make it 2. They go down and miss with about 20 secs left. Rebound. No timeouts. We bring the ball up court and run a play. They defend it well. Time's running out. I run to set a ball screen. He gets open. Shoots a 3. SCORES!!! 4 seconds left. Longest four seconds of my life. I watch as they throw the ball in, pass it, dribble, and get an open look from three. I stood under the rim saying "please don't go in, please don't go in". The ball dropped in my hands. Relief. I just found my nearest teammate and hugged them. Great win! I had 23 points in a great victory.

Wednesday was another game I would never forget...but for another reason. It started of great. A game against our rivals! The crowd was amped up and ready to go from the beginning. I had 12 points in the first quarter, including a vicious dunk at the end of the quarter - and 1! The crowd went nuts!
- Another difference between basketball in the US and in Argentina is the fact that in the US, the crowd gets quiet when their players shoot free throws, here, nope. I went to the free throw line and I couldn't concentrate. I had a smile on my place and I see the whole crowd jumping up and down in my peripheral vision. Yep, I missed that free throw. Anyway, we were dominating the game until the third quarter, and then it became a dog fight. We went back and forth for the rest of the game. I got fouled with 24 secs left and we were down 77-78. Missed them both. Both. The worst feeling in the world. All I could think was how I used to be able to shoot free throws. But I had to move on to Saturday.

Saturday. The beautiful Buenos Aires. Imagine New York city translated into Spanish; that is Buenos Aires. I took few pictures that I want to share.

Anyway, on to the game. This was another interesting game. We were better than the team we played for the 1st, 3rd, and 4th quarter...unfortunately, we lost the 2nd quarter 35-13. We battled all the way back in the 3rd quarter though and made it a game. I had a career high with 28 points; I couldn't miss in the 3rd quarter. I was also named player of the week. You can read the article and see my picture here. But unfortunately, we came up short in the end.
- Funny story about the game. There was a huge thunderstorm before the game, and - you guessed it - the gym was leaking. I remember when I was at UVA, we went to Georgia Tech and their gym leaked. We ended up rescheduling the game. You think we did that here? Nope. We just had someone wipe the floor every time there was a dead ball. You have to love their ingenuity haha.

The next town we went to was at the very south of Argentina; which meant we had to fly. I knew I wouldn't get an exit seat and I would be smushed because I was flying with my whole team, but that's been the story of my life since I was 15; no surprise there.

We were so far south that I could see the Atlantic Ocean. I also met someone there that grew up in Louisiana, moved there to start his construction business, and has been living there for 32 years! We talked about how much we miss that good ole Cajun food. Small Small world. We ended up losing the game though. Ugh, what a year so far.

I leave today for the USA; seriously kissing the ground when I touch down in Atlanta. 2010 has been fun and has brought a lot of fun experiences as you can see. I look forward to coming back next year and having a plethora (face) of new adventures. See you guys in January! more pics

10 I miss about home...

1. See my parents and friends. Yall are all getting an uncomfortably long hug so be ready!
2. Eat a REAL breakfast. First stop iHop
3. Eat Seafood. Second Stop Roul's Deli
4. Take a looooooooooong shower that is powered by electricity and not gas. Water temperature regulation I definitely took for granted
5. My bed. Nothing else needs to be said.
6. Speak only English for 24 hours. I haven't done that in 4 months
7. Go shopping. I love UVA to death, but it took until I got here to realize that 80% of my clothes are from UVA
8. Drive my car again. I missed my baby. Ironically her name is Rosalita. (Thank you to the person who helped me name her ;)
9. Ride in a car without fearing for my life!
10. Little to no cigarette smoke. Yay no smoking laws!

Un-Happy Thanksgiving

First I would like to say thank you to everyone who has read my blog. I'm over 5000 views! Never knew the blog would be read by so many. Granted, half of those views are from my mom, but 2500 still isn't bad. Ok. It has been a long two weeks so let me get started. 


I always like to dedicate a few words in my blog about lost teammates. Lost another one last week; Argentinian this time. It's always hard to say goodbye and I'll miss him. 


On to last Fridays game. We lost another close one on the road. Ugh. I missed seven free throws that game. Seven. I went 3/10. In my whole basketball career I have shot about 75-80%. That was definitely the first time in my life that I missed 7 free throws in one game. 


Sunday rolled around with some big news. MY DAD CAME. He came all the way from Baton Rouge to watch me play, and it was his first professional basketball game! He had a lot of fun.

Why yes this is my dad... I had to answer that question  a lot.

Yet again, we lost. Close game on the road. Same old story. Very frustrating. Anyways, on Monday we had dinner with a very kind family who has shown me great hospitality since I have been here. I'll call this Monday dinner my Thanksgiving dinner. No turkey, because that is not served in this country, but I was with family and friends and we were all eating together and having a good time; that's what Thanksgiving is all about! 

Who needs turkey when you have beef ribs?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Then things start to go downhill. First of all, we looked at the schedule before my dad came and he was SUPPOSED to be able to see 3 games this week. He saw the game on Sunday, but unfortunately they changed the dates for the Friday and Sunday game. That meant he came all this way to see only one game, and not even a home game! We got a couple days off because of this so I was able to give him a tour of the city and we got to hang out, however, on Thursday we had practice. Not just one practice, two practices and lifting and swimming; we all know how much I loooove swimming. Annnnnnd I didn't have any turkey! Definitely the worst Thanksgiving Day ever.

Anyway, enough of me being the Scrooge of Thanksgiving. My dad leaves tomorrow and I had a great time hanging out with him here. While we were walking around, he saw some of the crazy driving that they do here and he commented about it. Then I said, "Now you see what I have been talking about in my blog". He then shook his head a little bit. I asked him if he even reads my blog and he said no. Wait a minute. My dad doesn't even read my blog? My mom checks it everyday, my friends and other family members read it, but not my dad? What a shame. I'm not even afraid to write this because I know he's not even going to see it. And since he doesn't read I'll make fun of him. He knows the least amount of Spanish than anyone I've ever met. He literally knew two words. 'Hola' and 'uno'. He learned three more during his stay here. 'Al club', to use the taxi to get to the gym, and 'arroz', because he loves rice (Mom don't tell him I wrote this).

Lastly, I got interviewed for the first time since I've been here; in Spanish. I am quite proud of myself. I understood almost everything he asked me; the speaking still needs a little work, but I'll get there.

That's all folks. I'll be coming home soon. Can't wait!

Yeah I know...

Yeah I know I haven't written in a while...it's just been a rough couple of weeks but here's the story.


My new teammate arrived last Wednesday right before we embarked on a 14 hour bus ride. Imagine getting off a 10 hour plane ride, and then having to ride on a bus for 14 hours after that. Ouch!

But anyway, we were talking a little bit in the restaurant before we left when a little girl and her dad came in to say hi to us. Now between my comments in my blog, and my general aversion, people here know that other Americans and I don't like to do the Kissy greeting with other guys; but we do the greeting with women. So back to the girl. I already knew her, and she was my friend, so I gave her a big high five. She then turned to greet my teammate. She leaned in close to his face expecting a Kissy greeting... He had never seen the greeting before, so he quickly leaned back with a look on his face that cannot be described in words. After I almost fell on the floor laughing, I told him what she was trying to do; he properly greeted her, and we had a big laugh afterwards.

The 14 hour trip wasnt so bad; I slept for most of it, watched a movie and played on my iPhone. The city we arrived at, Corrientes, was beautiful. They had a mall, a Wal Mart, and a beach that was right by the gym; what more could you ask for in a city. I know: A Casino! They had that too. 


As far as the game, we played well in the first half...but unfortunately games are 40 minutes, and we ended up losing. I contemplated commenting about the overall officiating in this blog post, but then I thought if one of them happens to read it, it wouldn't bode well for me. Therefore, I will only say that I miss ACC refs. Yes, ACC refs. 


Anyway, that night, I went to the Casino and blew 50 pesos in 3 minutes. What a great day that was...


The following Sunday was worse. We lost that game in about 5 minutes. You want to know what's worse than getting your butt kicked in a basketball game? Getting your butt kicked, and then driving 16 hours on a bus!


This was a tough week as well. We lost a heartbreaker at home by 1 point; then we drove 8 hours to face the same team and came up short again. We are currently 2-8 and desperately in need of some wins this weekend. We're still fighting though. 


Last comment, the fans. Now it's not the 10,000 fans that I had grown accustomed to at UVA, but the 1,000 or so that do come, come to cheer. I've already commented on how great our home fans are ;), but I can't help but marvel at the fans on the road as well. One of the places we went to had a section of fans that stood up and chanted loudly for the entire game. The entire game. I was impressed. I even asked one of the guys on the other team mid-way through the first quarter if they were going to chant the whole game. He said yes, and sure enough they did. I MUST go to a soccer game over here; I can only imagine how crazy the fans get.


For the sake of having a picture, here's a picture of me and a cute baby...

Aren't I cute? I mean isn't she cute?

The Day We've All Been Waiting For

Due to the death of the Argentinian President's husband, all matches were suspended on Friday and moved to Tuesday.


Sunday comes, we have to win. We have lost four close games, but was time to come out victorious. I was anxious for the game; no way we were losing that one. The team we were playing against was 4-0 and we were 0-4 but that didn't matter; we had to win!...


Well...We won, we won, we shot the bb gun. They lost, they lost, they ate the applesauce. Sorry, my inner 3 year old just came out, but it was a good win after some tough loses so I feel it was justified. As for me, I had what I think was my best game as a professional (23 points 10 rebounds and 3 blocks... of course I got the wine :) 
- I have added a link to the stats along with the pictures at the top of the page.


They love me in this city. They were chanting my name during the game ( Jerome clap clap clap Jerome... and my favorite Oleeee olee oleee oleeee Jeeeerooooommmmmme Jeeeeeerooommmmee!!!) I couldn't help but smile. 


Last week, there was an article on me in the newspaper here. Boy my teammates teased me a lot for that picture. In my defense, it was after the tough loss against our rivals and I was trying to leave when someone with a "normal" digital camera asked to take my picture. I put on my best fake smile and let them take the picture, assuming it was for a fan. Nope. It was blown up and put in the newspaper the next day. Oh well haha.


My Spanish is getting better everyday. I am also getting quite a few followers here in Argentina. One of these days I will write my blog in Spanish and make my American readers translate!


Back to business. Today we hadanother game. Yes, it's great we won our last game, but we are only 1-4 and we need another win.


A few hours before the game, I heard a knock outside. Wasn't quite sure if it was my door, but I went to see anyway. I looked outside, and to my surprise I saw a new bed! Queen size!!! I teared up a little bit. I quickly ran back in my room to turn off the Spice Girls music that was blasting  (I'm glad they didn't know English or they definitely would've made fun of me) and moved my things around for the new bed. In the olden days I slept like this...

And I used to not wear socks when I slept...

My feet will still hang off the bed,
but I'm 6'9 (2.06) so I'm used to it

But now my friends, I will sleep like this! 






Ok, seriously back to business. Gametime. Not going to lie, I was a tad bit tired from Sunday, however, we fought hard as a team and came out with another victory! We are now 2-4 with two more games on Friday and Sunday. I know, it's a long week. What makes it worse is that we have a 12+ hour bus ride ahead of us... Argentina, beautiful place, but just a tad bit too big... Anyway, I'll have every battery that I own charged to capacity and we will set off ready to grab some more victories!

Tough, tough week!

My computer broke again... but it's back now so I'm happy.

Annnnnd I lost another teammate. He wasn't even here for two weeks! It's been rough constantly changing teammates; I feel like as soon as I start really getting close to them they leave.

We are 0-4 now, by a total of 12 points!!! We've been so close every game, hopefully this week we break through.

On Friday I had my first double double this season and we lost by one point! But let's back up to before the game. My name. You remember last week I put tape over my away jersey. I came to the gym fully prepared to do the same to my home jersey. I pick up my jersey, and to my surprise they fixed it!...or at least tried...

Close... but no cigar

Mucho mejor!

I mean I would give them an 'A' for effort, but that's the letter they messed up on!


After I corrected my name - again - we went out there and lost a tough game. After the game, I was named the player of the game and they gave me a bottle of white wine! My goal is to open a winery by the end of the season :)


Sunday we had a game against our rivals! It would be like UVA playing Hokies (it took a lot for me not to insert a degrading comment here). As you would expect, the game was tough and fierce. But before the game I had a little surprise...

I left this picture large on purpose :)

 Third time is a charm! The game came down to the last possession. We were down 3 with 9 seconds left. We missed the 3 to tie the game but I got the offensive rebound. I ran as fast as I could to the 3-point line and got off a decent shot...missed just short. Man that would have been a great first career three pointer!

Understandably, I was upset about the game. I was eating with a couple teammates after the game thinking about how close we were. I got the urge to use the restroom so I stood up, looked around, saw an 'M' on the bathroom and headed straight for it... In my preoccupied state, I forgot that I was in Argentina, and not the US... and the 'M' stands for Mujeres not Male...

Luckily no one was in there, however, a waiter came and told me that I was in the wrong bathroom! Quite embarrassing. My teammates and I got a good laugh out of that one; it was just what we needed too.

On to the next game!!!

Walmart!

We drove to Paraná, the city of our Friday game, on Thursday so we had a little extra time before the game. On the way to the game I saw my favorite store in the whole wide world...WALMART. 

Me gusta!

It's just as beautiful here as it is in The States; there are a few differences though. There is a little bit more security...

Honestly it might be more for the dogs haha.

I did some shopping and what not. I bought some clippers! As we were leaving, I found some more evidence that dogs run this country. 

The dog decided it was hot outside, came inside, and went to sleep. (Oh yeah it's warming up out here. Low 80s, High 70s :)



Sidenote. When I was checking out, I saw someone buying this... 

????

Now what you buy is your business, especially at WalMart. But, if you look closely, you will see that person in front of me was buying 12 Liter size bottles of dish washing liquid and 6 bottles of Raid roach spray. Hmmmm. I'm still trying to come up with a good reason anyone would need that much soap and bug spray, if you have any ideas please leave me a comment. Honestly, I probably wont use that much dish soap or bug spray in my entire lifetime!




Back to the story. A few days later I decided I should probably cut my hair while it still had the shape from when my teammate cut it. I won't get super dramatic this time, but I actually did what I said I did last time. I watched a couple videos and asked some questions. 

Here goes nothing!

I was as cool as the other side of the pillow as I went to the mirror and cut my hair. And you know what, it didn't turn out that badly. 

Success!

I think after my bball career is over I will be a writer/barber; what do you guys think of that? Haha I'm kidding...maybe.

That's for now, I have a game to play tonight (Friday). I'll try to write a blog or two next week to make up for lost time.






Most importantly, I have added a link to a photo album with my bball pictures. The link is right under the tittle "Overseas Adventures". I should update this album weekly so check it out.