Well first I apologize for not keeping up with my postings. We just returned from a 21 day road trip that started before Christmas and ended Sunday morning. I didn't bring my computer for reasons I am still not sure of, mainly because I am an idiot but that is in the past. On with the update. We are currently sitting pretty in second place in the league behind Boise. Our trip started with a game in Ft. Wayne, Indiana where we played very well coming off our Christmas break. I think we really needed some time to recover and hangout with our families. The game went very well and we started our trip with a W. From there we drove to Chicago to spend 4 hours in a hotel to wake up and catch a 6 am flight to Cleveland, Ohio where we then jumped on a bus to drive to Erie, Pennsylvania. I think it was my dad who said "Does our travel agent not own a globe cuz the drive from Ft. Wayne to Erie is like 5 hours?" But hey more time on the bus the better! Upon arrival in Erie we slept for 2 more hours and then headed to the gym to play our game. Unfortunately we got our butts kicked by a team that we should have beat. After that great trip we got to fly to Des Moines, Iowa my favorite place on Earth! We lost that hard fought game in overtime which sucked. I hate losing to their coach who was my coach for half of last season. That just really pisses me off! I had a pretty good game but we just weren't able to pull it all together in the end. We have been playing short handed since our point guard Mateen Cleeves pulled a hamstring in the Iowa game on New Years Eve. I got to spend New Year's Eve having a great time sitting and having dinner in the hotel bar thinking to myself "I left Des Moines for a reason and now I am back and on New Year's Eve, Damn it!" Well what are you gonna do this is life in the d-league? The next day we were back on the bus headed from Des Moines to Omaha and the airport (cuz we can't fly out of Des Moines that would be too easy). The drive should take about 1 hour maybe an hour and a half. We arrived at the airport 3 hours later. Man I love this traveling!! The bus driver had a GPS unit that he didn't use, instead he was using a hand drawn map that his boss gave him. That definitely makes more sense to me. It wasn't for about an hour that he realized he had been looking at the map upside down. Once he realized this he was able to get us back on the right track and on our way. Nothing like mingling with the good old Midwest folks.
Anyway when we finally reached the airport, we made our flight no problem on our way to Boise, Idaho. We finally got a chance to rest for like 5 minutes before we had to go into a hostile environment and play the best team in the league. We lost that game too, wow we were pretty bad early in our road trip. In fact we were god awful!! The bleeding finally stopped when we arrived in Utah for the D-league Showcase. The Showcase is set up to bring all the teams together in one place to play games in front of all the NBA teams and GM's and many European scouts. Each team plays 2 games which are part of your regular schedule we just play all at the same place over a week period. It is pretty much the big event for the D-league season. We were to play LA and Austin. We handled both teams pretty well and got ourselves back on track. I played well in both games averaging 19 pts and 13 rebounds earning All-showcase honors. During the Austin game I played the whole 48 minutes of the game and I must say I have not been that tired in all my life but it was a great feeling to play your heart out and walk away with a win on such a big stage. It was a very good time for me.
After the Showcase we had one more stop on our road trip in Reno. I redeemed my horrible performance the first time through with a 16 and 10 performance but we again were unable to pull out of there with a win. Man we were bad again. I hate being on the road this year. After the game I ventured out to spend some time with some family friends I had not seen in a long time. I met up with the Harrigan family who was celebrating big Mike's 50th birthday. It was great to see all of you!! We for sure need not go that long between visits. Well we are home now and have some great games coming up here in Bakersfield. I never thought I would be so happy to be back in Bako, yea I said it what? Keep checking the website for all your Jam news. Love to All!! http://www.nba.com/dleague/bakersfield/
