Let’s go to basketball… Well, it’s been a nice ride for me since the last time I blogged here. I’m probably playing my best basketball right now and the team has been doing pretty well too. We won like eight or nine games in a row before we lost to Panathinaikos, who is the best team in Europe. At halftime, I thought we had a chance to beat them, but it was not to be. Anyway, I had a good game so at least I was happy with that.

Right now I’m feeling way more comfortable playing. People here were telling me it would take me more than a month to get used to the type of basketball that’s played over here and I guess they were right. It’s like I’m finding my niche – being active, rebounding and shooting well… One of the toughest things is adjusting to the new rules. Travelling… Aww. Refs here call traveling a lot. Sometimes you take the first step on the fast break thinking it’s going to be an easy basket and then you hear the whistle! Well, I guess I will have to adjust to that.

Another difference? Fans. They are just incredible. They come early and cheer the whole game no matter who we are facing. I played in San Antonio last season, you know. And no disrespect to people there (they are very loyal and all that), but Spurs fans are so used to winning that they are a little bit spoiled. They sit, watch and cheer sometimes. Here is a whole different story. There’s just much, much more passion.

Life off the court hasn’t changed much for me. I don’t go to a lot of places and it has a lot to do with the area of the city in which I live. I’m in the Asian part of Istanbul and most of the places to go are in the European side. That’s a big issue since the traffic here is absolutely crazy. If you want to go to the hot spots, you have to cross the bridge. And if you get unlucky you can get stuck in a traffic jam there for three hours. I’m not feeling that!

One last thing: You’d never imagine how much you miss American TV living abroad.

Talk to you guys later this month. Keep those comments coming.

Bye.

Some of you will remind me for my college career in Cincinnati and my stints in the NBA last season with the Pacers and the Spurs. I was released by San Antonio in July and chose to come overseas to make a living playing basketball here. It’s not the best possible situation because my dream always was playing in the NBA, but it’s still basketball and I’m going to do my thing for a Euroleague club. So you could say it’s kind of like the second best situation, right?

I’ve been here in Istanbul only for a few weeks so I’m still getting used to the place. The good thing is I have Willie Solomon (who played with the Grizzlies a few years back) on the team. Willie has been around longer so he tells me where to eat, where to get stuff and is very helpful when the language barrier becomes an issue with the other members of the team and the coaches.

Can’t say I’m doing much outside of practicing with the team. You get home, watch movies, talk to people back home… And that’s pretty much it. At least for now.

In case you were wondering, yeah, I received my championship ring. Well, in fact my girl received it. It’s a good thing to have and it was a very cool experience going through the playoffs with the Spurs even though I didn’t play at all. Just living in that atmosphere, watching how the veterans were able to handle all types of different situations… It was great. You learn a lot just being around. No matter how tough it was when they cut me, I’m going to keep good memories from my time there.

Will be back in a couple of weeks. Peace!