Well you read it right, I have accepted a contract in Spain. As in the country of beautiful Spain. Well the truth is it is a kind of a tryout over here for 2 weeks but as my agent tells me it shouldn't take that long and as my playing has been so far I think I am in. Ok so now the logistics of the whole thing. I was getting ready to spend an amazing weekend with Jessica and Jake and his girlfriend at our family cabin in the Sierra Nevadas. We were scheduled to leave last thursday and I recieved a phone call from my agent that tuesday that a good deal in Spain may be in the works. Well needless to say I was very concerned to miss the vacation with Jake and Jess. But if it came down to it I was gonna have to leave the cabin early. Well we left thursday night for the cabin and were able to enjoy the entire Labor Day weekend up at the cabin. On the drive down on monday I was on the phone with my agent working out the details for the contract and getting the final itinerary in order. So inside of a week I had made a decision to move back across the pond and start a new European basketball career. This time however I would be moving to a country I knew something about and had visited a few years back, so I have to say I was pretty excited.
Well the plane departed San Diego International Airport bright and early Sept. 2. I flew to JFK in New York and continued on to Madrid, Spain on my way to Malaga and then Los Barrios. The drive from Malaga to Los Barrios reminded me a lot of Phoenix but with ocean front property and San Diego weather. So far so good. Upon arrival in Los Barrios I went straight to the club's office and met with the coach and the president of the club. We chatted for a few minutes and exchanged expectations on the up coming days. First on the list was practice that afternoon after moving my stuff in with an American teammate. The first practice went over very well considering that I had been awake for nearly 24 hours with 13 of those spent in an air plane. But practice went really well minus the fact that it is almost completely done in Spanish, so if nothing else I will become very comfortable with spanish pretty quick.
The last few days have been a blur for the most part consiting of practice, sleep, and 1 exibition game in which we played Malaga which is a first division team in Spain ACB league. This league is supposed to be right up there with the NBA. The league that my team is in is the next group of spanish teams so the league is as good if not better than most other countries 1st division teams. It seems to be a great stepping stone not only for spanish ACB but NBA as well. The website for the team is cbvillalosbarrios.es (you will need to work on your spanish or find a translator) This next week brings 2 more exhibition games and a whole lot of practices. It wont take long to find out if this league is the place for me.
In response to my poll question many of you wanted to know how the whole process works in terms of getting picked up. To tell you the truth the whole thing seems to me to be a crap shoot. Some guys get good contracts and invites to NBA vet camps who have not had great numbers in their career and some guys get great Euro contracts with no NBA interest. So overall who knows. You just have to play your game and hopefully good things will end up happening. Also it helps to have a good agent (thx B)
