Category: Israel

My Shower Woes

I know what area of my body is bound to be the cleanest at any given time. It is always my chest.  This is because the majority of my bathing the past few years has taken place inside of extremely tiny showers, and I don’t really feel like doing a complicated maneuver to be able to wash my legs. I stretch pretty much all day every day, and I still have a hard time soaping up my whole body in these minuscule Israeli showers.

You would have to be a veteran cirque du soleil performer to be able to comfortably maneuver in the shower that I am provided with. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was all the auditions for Cirque consisted of. They wheel out a classic Israeli shower and tell people they have to clean themselves without knocking over the soap container and breaking the cap, without bumping into the handle and causing the temperature to get thrown completely out of whack, without banging against the glass so hard you are legitimately worried it might crack, and without becoming claustrophobic because the ceiling slants downward and just barely clears the top of the shower door. That ceiling is really eerie. It gives the illusion that you are completely sealed into a tiny, watery prison. Continue reading “My Shower Woes”

Back on the Court, Thoughts on My Lamp

I am back! I made the decision to fly home and rehab my foot. I think it was a wise choice. I might have gone crazy fighting with the trainers out here when they insisted I do squats and leg presses.

I got back to Israel last Tuesday, and played that night. I didn’t feel 100 percent, but at least there was no pain in my foot. I played 18 solid minutes and came through with some clutch free throws in the last 30 seconds. I hit 3 out of 4 to help seal it, but a teammate still told me that I had let him down, because “white boys ain’t supposed to miss free throws.” A fair point.

Our team is going to be on TV tomorrow, 7:30 in Israel, 9:30 AM PST. You should be able to watch it if you go to this site and click on the basketball looking things: http://one.co.il/

Now it’s time to analyze what is written on the side of the box that my lamp came in. Continue reading “Back on the Court, Thoughts on My Lamp”

Team Meetings

I have a serious bone to pick with the concept of the team meeting. Maybe it is my tendency to view everything through the most bitter lens possible, but I believe they serve no purpose. They are only called when things are going bad. Everyone knows things are going bad. The problems with bad teams usually run deep, and a 45 minute meeting is not going to be enough to change the tide. Call me pessimistic, but that has been my experience.

I have been on some bad teams, but maybe none more dysfunctional than my team last year. The Calabasas Coyotes circa 2002 had some serious head cases, but that is too long ago for the memories to stick out. I also had some classic team meetings in college, but I’ll have to really think about those details before I write about them. So we are sticking with Haifa for now. Continue reading “Team Meetings”

How To Ruin a Negotiation Without Really Trying

1. Be angry from the moment you wake up.

From 10 AM on I was working myself up about my meeting with the team owner. I decided that there was no reason that he should have charged me for the car that he let me use for a month. There was no reason I should have to pay for a flight when we never the discussed the details before hand. There was no reason I had to go in there and be a kiss ass when I had not been paid in over 2 months. I was ready to really get into it with this guy.

2. Don’t Listen to Anybody’s Pre-Meeting Advice

Maybe my agent sensed the fury growing within me, because he called me around 11 AM. He told me that he had talked with the owner, that I needed to accept whatever money he offered me, and that he would work something out later. I asked him why everything always got pushed back around here. He insisted that nothing good would come of bringing the ruckus right now. Continue reading “How To Ruin a Negotiation Without Really Trying”

Rehab

     Had one of my typical, hectic Israeli trips yesterday while trying to find a physical therapist. I was “scheduled” for a 10 AM appointment, but I quickly found out that Gabbi (team manager) really had no idea where he was taking me. There was heavy rain throughout the drive, and we were stuck in traffic for 20 minutes. Both those things set an ominous tone for the morning. I was also coming off a night of 3 hours of sleep, so every irritation was amplified. Continue reading “Rehab”

Start of Year 3 in Israel

I have arrived in Israel for the 3rd straight year. If you had told me in 2005 that upon graduating college I would spend 27 of the next 36 months in Israel I would have never believed it. Yet here I am, on a  team called Beer Yaakov. The city is right outside of Tel Aviv and is very close to all sorts of interesting places. That does not matter to me as much as it normally would because I am car-less this year. Yes, my time in Haifa was so disastrous that I could not even sign a contract that included a vehicle. So it goes. The silver lining is that I won’t have to pay for gas anymore, which was where like half my paychecks went last year. Continue reading “Start of Year 3 in Israel”