Hello Everyone,
Sorry it has been so long since the last time I wrote. Things got pretty busy and I did not have time to do a lot of things. I will try and give everyone a year in review of my life in the D-League.
It started off pretty well. We were playing well and everything was going great. We hit a road bump about nine games into the season and went on a nine game losing streak. Somehow, we managed to stay in the playoff race all the way until about eight games left in the regular season.
All in all it was a very tough year, but I did learn a lot about the game. For those of you who did not know, our games are 48 minutes long. There was not a lot of defense being played, but I would probably say we tried to play more defense than NBA teams based on the fact we were fighting to get up to the big time.
I also did not accomplish my goal of making it into the NBA, however I was able to get on a few teams' radars, which is good to hear. I am hoping to get on a Summer League team from the NBA and get a chance to play good minutes and impress people.
The great thing about this year was meeting a lot of new guys and being able to play for and with a lot of good people. It is weird when you are playing against guys in college and then all of a sudden you are playing with them a few years down the line.
A couple of guys I played with this year that I played in college were, Courtney Sims (Michigan), Shannon Brown (Michigan St.), Jackie Manuel (UNC) - just to name a few. It was definitely good playing for Nick Nurse and the rest of the coaching staff. Obviously, getting to play with Doug and Adam again was awesome.
This is going to be a pretty big Summer for me as far as my career goes. I will probably end up having to make the toughest decision of my career. Do I keep trying to make the NBA or Do I just forget about it and make as much money as I can overseas? Hopefully I will not have to make this decision and I can just play well enough to get on an NBA roster.
I tend to think a lot of times that I know what I am talking about when it comes to all of these things, but I am very realistic as well. I know that I would have to play out of my mind in order to make an NBA team, but I owe it to myself to at least try while the opportunity is still there. I played pretty well this year, but just could not shoot the ball well enough in order to get a call-up. I hope my goal of making it in the NBA comes true, but if it does not I am still going to be happy and keep playing ball somewhere.
I just want to thank Rob Howe and Jon Miller for letting me do this. I hope everything is well in Iowa City and I wish I could give you guys my whereabouts on where I am going to be next year, but even I do not know the answer to that question.
Thanks,
Jeff