Lesson Learned

Hello World! I’m back, again writing about my experiences here in Spain. This blog is a little different, but just bare with me. As a kid I never really thought about playing professionally, or even at the collegiate level. My first love, as many kids, was baseball. I was a catcher, obviously I eventually outgrew that position pretty quickly. I always played on the local all-star teams, and was one of the better players in my hometown. As I grew older and grew taller, I moved to play first base…this as I look back was the beginning of the end of my baseball career. I was in my sophomore year in high school and was playing in a fall baseball league. I remember the game like it was yesterday. It was a really cold October night in Statesville. I was playing my ‘new’ position at first, and the batter hit a pop-fly…as it went up I looked at it as every other routine pop fly…but this one was different, for some reason, it was different. I looked up and waited for it to come down, and waited, and waited, and then POP…yep, the ball totally missed my glove and hit me in eye/face/nasal region. Wow, how did this happen? I’m still not really sure as to how it happened, but looking back now I’m glad it did. As soon as it happened, I tried to be a big tough guy, and shake it off. Well, that ended pretty soon, especially when the blood started to flow from my nose. This pretty much spelled the end of my baseball career. I decided that I would play a game where ball didn’t hurt quite as bad. So, at this point, being about 6’5 and an overall big kid, I figured that basketball would be the best bet.

From then on basketball was my primary sport. I played, and played, and played everyday…I loved the game, but I wasn’t really sure how to get better. I started doing a lot of different things to try to expand my game, including waking up at 6am every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to play with a group of old men. At Guilford we have something like this, it’s called the geezer league. These guys were just a bunch men who loved to play the game. I was new to the club, but I think they loved having the youth around. Here, is where I learned a lot, not only about basketball, but about life, and about myself. Lesson one: don’t mess with John..John was about 6’8 and 260 pounds, everybody called him “big John.” He played collegiately in California, and he had been a guy who would come around my high school team to help out a little. Well, John was an extremely competitive guy, and this was one of the best things for me. At first when I just started going, John pretty much dominated me in every facet of the game. He was stronger, more skilled, and just had a better feel for the game. However, as I started getting better, and more skilled..I started to give John some problems. Occasionally I would block his shots, score on him, and then it became more frequent, and eventually it was the norm. John was not ok with this, daily John would curse, kick balls across the gym, and generally just get really irritated with me. This is what learned from John: He was the first person to give me a challenge, and that’s something that everyone needs, a challenge. I had always been bigger than everyone, and typically had my way. He was one of the reasons that I wanted to get better, and as I started to improve, it was feeling that is hard to duplicate. Lesson 2..work hard and you will reap the benefits. One of my best friends dads also played with us in the morning. He was also my High School JV coach, and had an overall huge impact in my life. He started to tell me about his days as a player, and how at first he wasn’t that good, but with hard work he got better. I think he was one of the first to see what kind of player I could or really should be. Here I was a chubby(to put it nicely), tall, awkward kid who liked the game, but wasn’t really ready to make the sacrifices to get where I wanted to go. He started to drill into my head, run, shoot, lift, run, shoot, lift, repeat, repeat…I would go to my friends house and spend the night on weekends, and in the morning his dad would come wake me up, just me, while everybody else slept, and we would go outside and shoot, since he had a full basketball court in his backyard. We worked on free-throws, hook shots, everything. OK…so now we have the working hard part down, how about the reaping the benefits? The first benefit was having the opportunity to play at the collegiate level, something that I had never really given much thought, but fortunately it happened. Guilford is where I continued the hard work part, and I had a vision, unlike in high school I knew where I wanted to be. It might have been considered unlikely, and very difficult especially coming from such a small school, but I wanted to be a professional basketball player. Four years later, and here I am. I’m a professional basketball player; I’ve been so blessed to have family and friends to give me so much support over the years. My college coaches were the best, they pushed my teammates and I when we didn’t want to be pushed, but in the end it was definitely for the better. However, the biggest supporter, and she has been my whole life, is my mom. My mom is my rock, and she is the reason that I wake up and do what I do everyday. I’m not living the glamorous lifestyle of an NBA player, but I do wake up and go to the gym everyday as a job. Not only do I get to play basketball, I get to live in a different country. I get to experience a different culture, see new things, and learn life lessons that I could not elsewhere.

So, lessons learned…everyone has problems, and two everyone need a challenge. Being here is a challenge, playing against bigger and stronger players is a challenge, waking up and going to two practices a day is a challenge, being away from the ones I love is a challenge, but this is what life is about, finding a challenge, and not only adapting to the challenge, but overcoming it as well. I think that basketball is a great teacher of life lessons. My whole life I have been challenged, not only with basketball but with everyday life as well. You learn a lot about yourself. You learn how bad you want something, and how much something might be worth to you. You want to be in shape for the season? Run this extra or last sprint. You want to be the best player on the team? How hard are you willing to work to do this? You want to lift two times a day, and play pick up, and go to workouts? The final question is…HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT? If you want it bad enough, you can obtain a lot. At the end of the day, I just want to be the best me I can be. If I can do that, it’s a successful day, no matter what happened if I put the effort into the day to do the best I can, it’s a day that I can reflect upon as a productive day.

If there is one thing that I’ve learned in the past four years is that “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” Haha you might be thinking, ok, well what does this mean? It’s one of the quotes that our coaches would put in our practice schedule as a “quote of the day.” At the end of practice they would ask us…what does this mean? We would stand there and look dumbfounded, and they would say OK, well tomorrow have an answer. I never really understood what this really meant until now. You can’t get something for nothing…you are always going to have to pay the price, are you willing to pay it? That is what you must ask yourself everyday, am I willing to pay the price?

If you stuck with me as I rambled on, thank you!

God Bless

Two Weeks:

9/12/10

Two Weeks:

I’ve been in Spain for about two weeks so far, and for the most part it has been great. The first couple of nights it was hard to get adjusted to being away from home and not being able to communicate regularly with my family and friends, due to the fact that my club has not put internet in my house yet, and I can’t use my Spanish phone to call home. So every time I want to use the internet I have to go outside to the park behind my house and steal a WIFI connection. I draw some attention in the crowded park speaking English talking on skype…it’s pretty funny.

Other than the whole living in a new country, things have been pretty normal. My team is in its first year in LEB Gold, which is the second division in Spain. It’s has historically been a very competitive league, and I think it will be pretty strong this year as well. As a rookie (especially coming from such a small school) it’s a really good opportunity for me. There are two other Americans on the team. They are both older, and have been in this league for quite some time. They have been such a big help getting me adjusted. The basketball part has been pretty easy, it’s a lot like what I’ve done in past seasons as far as training. We have two practices a day, every day! It’s getting kind of old, but I have been promised after the pre-season the workload will diminish a little. A typical day normally consists of weights in the morning, which can be a little “different” as a lot of times we end up doing different types of aerobics…then we have our first morning practice. This practice is mostly for shooting and working on our plays. Then we come back at night and practice for about two hours, it’s a little more intense. The best part about our practices is that we don’t have to run a million sprints! Unlike the past four years at Guilford (thanks coach Parke!)

So far we have had two pre-season “friendly’s.” The first friendly was against an ACB team, which is the top division in Spain. It is commonly thought of as the best European league in the world. I didn’t start the game, but soon after it started, the coach called my name. Typically, I’m not someone that get’s nervous (especially for basketball), but I have to admit I had some butterflies going. It felt like the first time I stepped on the court for Guilford. The game went pretty well, it was close the whole way, but we ended up losing. I had nine points and nine rebounds in about twenty-five minutes. I received a very positive reaction from the fans and media. The next week we played a team in our own league, and I STARTED! It felt like things were back to normal, and I played that way. I felt comfortable on the court, and was able to play my game. The highlight of the night was a put-back dunk I had over another player. It was such a great feeling, and I was happy to know I could still jump after my body had been beaten for the past two weeks full of two-adays, not to mention a practice the morning of the game. I ended up have a double double with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Here is the link to the article in the paper:

http://www.noticiasdenavarra.com/2010/09/12/deportes/otros-deportes/el-grupo-iruna-se-lleva-la-primera-victoria

Other than basketball I keep myself busy with a lot of naps. I love naps, and Spain is the perfect place for people who love naps. Every day from 2pm-5pm everything shuts down for “siesta” time. Sometimes it can be annoying because I have things I need to do, but normally it’s really nice just to relax during this time. The club gave me a mid-2000 BMW, which has a manual transmission. This typically can be a problem, because I normally stall out at least three times a day in downtown traffic. I’m pretty sure I’m the most hated driver in Pamplona. Another problem with the car is it’s too big. Yes, a car, too big for me. In Pamplona, parking is miserable, not to mention that my parallel parking ability is not so great. Having a big car just adds to the problem. So normally I end up parking entirely too far from the gym or any other destination that I’m going to just avoid parallel parking. Other than that, I really have no problems here. I bought a slingbox, which I recommend for anyone who is going to be traveling to a foreign country and wants to keep up with television at home. You just hook it up to the cable box at home, and it sends the connection to your pc wherever you are…it has been a big help in me keeping my sanity.

This week we have three more pre-season games. Hopefully I’ll perform well in all of them. I have been so blessed to have this opportunity, and I am going to continue to try to make the most of it. I miss everyone back home, and it’s really hard sometimes to think about not seeing my friends and family for so long. However, I just look at this as an opportunity to continue my dream and I get to play basketball for a living, it doesn’t get much better than that! Next month my Mom is coming to visit, and I’m really excited for that. It’s going to be nice to have her around for a while. It’s going to be fun to share some of my adventure with her!

God Bless!

You can keep up with me and my team at basketnavarraclub.com and please send me your skype contact information at tyler_sanborn. You can also email me at sanbornmt@guilford.edu haha ok I’m done!

SPAIN

9/2/10

Well, since my last post so many things have changed in my life. Firstly, I don’t live in Greensboro anymore for the first time in four years, and two, I don’t even live in the same country for the first time in my life. It’s has been quite a change for me..

My last night in the USA was spend packing and re-packing(thanks mom), and spending time with my family for the last time for a while. Friday morning I woke up and feeling pretty unsure about the situation loaded my luggage into my moms car, and we headed to Greensboro. I decided that I should have a “last meal” since I didn’t know if I would be able to buy the things I liked in Spain. So, I decided on eating at chipotle(one of my favorite resturaunts). Then it was time to head to the airport, where I said my last goodbyes, and walked through security trying to hold back tears. It was the first time that I actually understood the significance of not being able to see my friends and family for such a long period of time, this was something that I had always been able to do. As I sat in the terminal in Greensboro, I thought to myself “what am I doing?”

My first flight was to Philadelphia. That one was not too bad, but the next flight however was miserable. As I boarded the plane, I figured that I would be little cramped and uncomfortable. As I walked further back and saw my seat I almost fainted haha. It was about the size of a elementary school’s desk. I sat down, and my knees were literally up to my chest. This was not going to work, so I quickly started to look for a new seat. Fortunately I was able to find two seats beside each other that were unoccupied. This was a lot better, but still very uncomfortable. Fast-forward 9 hours I land in a sunny Madrid, Spain. Now onto the next problem, I haven’t slept in almost 24 hours, and I had a 8 hour layover in Madrid. Plus, I don’t have my boarding pass for my next flight. I am supposed to find the airline desk, and have it printed off after retrieving my luggage and going through customs. Wow, I didn’t know it was going to be this confusing, not being about to understand except about half of what was going on around me didn’t help either. Well I find my luggage, and get a cart and proceed to the terminal gate to get my boarding pass. Oh wait, of course my flight is not in the same terminal, instead it’s at another terminal about a mile bus ride away…Great! So I find the bus, load ALL of my luggage onto it, and head to the next terminal. I get there, find the airline, and get my boarding pass. Now, finally time to relax! FOR EIGHT HOURS…Finally my flight to Pamplona takes off, and I’m headed for my new home.

When I finally landed after some 20 hours of travel, I am greeted the President of the team, multiple team representatives, and the press. From there they took me to my new home, and I’m finally be able to get some sleep. As I laid there in bed, I strongly considered the possibility of going to the airport and buying a ticket home. I just felt terrible, so homesick already, I didn’t know if I would be able to do it. However, from there it got a lot better, especially when the basketball started. I met my American teammates, and they very cool and fun. They are older, so I think they can teach me a lot about being a professional in Europe. The basketball is good, we have practice in the morning followed by lifting and running, and then we have another practice in the evening. They really aren’t that tough, it’s just a lot of time in the gym. I’m not sure how long the 2adays will last, but it’s look like at least until our first real game in October. Which is pretty much a bummer for me, since I’m a fan of getting an adequate amount of sleep, or more. Today, we went running through the park, which looked over most of the historical part of Pamplona. This is where they have the running of the bulls every year. It is a really beautiful city, and there is a lot of history and culture here. I think as I learn to find my way around, and find out more about the city, it’s going to be a great place to live!

This is a picture of my arrival to Pamplona:

One of the highlights of my week was finding a store named “Carrefour” it’s basically the Spanish Walmart. There they have everything, and I’m pretty sure this is where I’ll do most of my shopping during the year. It’s so hard to get around in the city though, because not only are there a lot of scary drivers, but I’m not used to the parallel parking or the multitude of traffic circles. Spain is a fun country, but I really miss my friends and family back home. It’s funny to think about the things I have taken for granted for so many years, and now that it is not readily available to me, it’s hard to live without. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot this season, a lot about myself especially, and hopefully I’ll play well and we as a team will win a lot of games. It’s certainly going to be a great adventure!

God Bless!

If anyone would like to email me to catch up, since I don’t really have a phone to call the US…my email is sanbornmt@guilford.edu

Or you can skype me: tyler_sanborn