Playoffs?!

Whaddup fellow ballers? It's been a hectic week-and-a-half since my last post as many other responsibilities in my life have been tugging at me for my time, but you just KNOW that nothing's getting in the way of me being around basketball! Despite reduced time, I've still been able to play plenty of pickup games, read numerous inspiring articles, and enjoy this year's NBA playoffs! As far as the latter, it's been a fun and satisfying postseason so far even though my Phoenix Suns were in the race for the 8th seed for the entire season until they lost an underrated key player in Brandon Knight to injury, and gave up 9 of their last 10 games to teams who could actually keep their roster healthy and make a respectable push into the postseason, and I had to watch as those like the San Antonio Spurs, who looked like they weren't even going to win their first round postseason match-up throughout most of the season, somehow defied their age yet again to become the hottest team in basketball and went on an impressive win streak to finish the season... there's always next year.

As far as the pickup games, the combination of this project and the weather starting to finally move towards spring has made me JACKED to play basketball more than any time in recent memory (I hope you all feel the same)! More and more I've felt eager to go outside and enjoy the day with a good group of friends by playing the timeless game of basketball at our local (and may I add quite nice) court outside of the Midland Community Center. My friends and I love this place as there are two full, free-entry basketball courts that are open any day of the week at any time. An unexpected outcome of going there so often is that I've met many other ballers who do the same, and have formed some casual friendships with a few of them. To anyone who has the ability to come play here, I'm telling you it's a nice spot to shoot hoops and get pickup games going - I know you'll see me there more and more as the weather brightens up!

The picture above is of course LeBron "King" James himself. With the playoffs just beginning, I figured I was going to see a lot more wins and highlights from the Cleveland Cavalier's superstar (widely considered the best active player in the world) over the next few months, so I decided to read up on how the player I grew up idolizing prepares his mind and body to play at the level he does. Coming in, I had assumed that James trains himself strenuously and diligently to maintain the level of athleticism he's accumulated, however I had no idea just how strictly he diets and how intense his training regiment is. LeBron keeps himself under strict and consistent guidelines in order to be in the best shape he can, and his work ethic is awe inspiring. I think we all realize that professional athletes are paid to keep their body in top shape, but I also think that we all tend to underestimate just how hard these "professionals" work in order to be the best they can be - it's commendable.

Link to an article outlining James' workout routine: http://www.menshealth.com/celebrity-fitness/lebron-james-workout

Ballin' up this week and many more,

Brad

An Eventful Month

How's it going baller-nation? A lot has happened since my last post - from almost a full month ago- and I'm excited to share what I've been working on and learning in order to further my progress toward my goal of being a better basketball player. Over the past month, I've concluded this year's Community Center League basketball season, taken a trip to Florida over Spring Break, and played many more pick-up games than usual. Additionally, I've read one very interesting and helpful article that has changed my mindset in particular.

Shortly after my last post (ironically titled "Feeling Good"), my CCL team played our way into the championship game where we faced the upperclassmen of our very own Dow High School. They were the defending champions and despite an honorable effort, we were unable to pull out the win. Although the CCL season may have ended in heartbreaking fashion, I still feel that this project greatly helped me in becoming a better basketball player, and by improving my overall confidence in any game situation. There's always next year!

My Spring Break trip was very relaxing and a needed break from school, but I made sure not to slump on my goal to improve my game. Although my friends and I (most of the CCL team) were staying at a villa located on an island off the west coast of Florida, we were all hungry to continue playing the game we loved. Fortunately, one of my friends drove and was able to bring along a basketball; however, we still needed to find a court. We all set out and took a long bike ride to the location that we thought looked like a basketball court from Google Maps, and luckily it was a small concrete court. We were all overjoyed to find a place to basketball on our vacation, and we went almost every day to improve ourselves, as well as the team (I feel very good about our championship hopes next year).

The picture above comes from the aforementioned article that discusses the shooting technique of one of my personal-favorite players, Kyrie Irving. When I first searched, "how to shoot like Kyrie Irving," I expected dozens of articles praising Irving for his beautiful shooting stroke and fundamentals. To my surprise, the first search result was an article that critiqued Kyrie's shooting stroke and fundamentals, and said that if he must fix some bad habits if he ever wanted to dominate the NBA. The article provided an in-depth analysis of what is wrong with Kyrie's stroke, and even ways for him to mend his poor technique. This came as a great surprise to me, because beforehand I held up Kyrie as one of the best players in the NBA, and that it was his sound fundamentals and sweet shooting stroke that got him there; the article changed my perspective to one of more awareness in player's shooting errors.

Link to the article: http://hoopshype.com/columns/david-nurse/how-to-fix-kyrie-irvings-shot

Ballin' up this week and many more,

Brad