Reunion Weekend (or so it felt like it was.......)

This weekend was fairly quiet.  The youth volleyball season started and I put in some work over four youth games.   I played my usual Saturday pick up basketball with my friends and did some shopping both on Saturday and Sunday.   Got a chance to watch plenty of baseball and football as well!

The trend of this weekend was talking to people that I hadn't seen or talked to in a while.  After playing basketball Saturday, I went to the mall to look at a few things.  I had a gift card for a local sports store so I stopped by to see if there was anything I wanted to buy.  It was at the sports store where a former high school classmate was there with his family.  He actually saw me first and we chatted for a while.  Turns out this former classmate lives in a complex where one of my close friends live.  What a small world!

After chatting with the classmate, I wandered around the store a bit longer.  As I prepared to leave the store, I ran into young lady I knew.  The young lady, along with her two older brothers, had gone to the same grammar school I did.  I had coached the young lady's oldest brother in basketball and watched both the other brother and her play during their time at the grammar school.   Even though we were connected on Facebook, it had been years since I had seen her.  We chatted for a little while and then we went on our way.

Then today, out of the blue, I received an email a bit of out of the blue from a married lady friend in Canada.  This friend and I have a very interesting history.   We actually "met virtually" when I was in college in the 1990s.  We had emailed, chatted online and even sent some letters / photos.  However, after I graduated from college, we lost touch.   Several years ago (according my old emails, it was 2008),  this friend crossed my mind.  I still had an email address for her and decided to email her.  Fortunately, she was still using the email address and we corresponded a few times

From my old emails that I have, after our talk in 2008, we didn't talk again until 2009.   Of course, my friend decided to email me today.  We exchanged a couple of emails today and I made sure I got her IM and phone number for future communication..   I feel blessed that we have managed to stay in touch despite the geographical distance between us.   I'm quite thankful this friend decided to reach back out as I had done a poor job in doing so.  However, like anything in life, you go through peaks and valleys.  Perhaps today was a sign that it's time to renew this old friendship that I had.  I'm a believer in having MORE friends than less.

In any case, the weekend wasn't the most exciting in terms of activity but connecting with people was a blast.  Thanks to all the old friends I ran into this weekend.

I'll Pray For You

(NOTE:  This isn't meant to offend, just a thought that came up recently)

A couple of days ago, I was up late cruising around on Facebook.   With some 700+ friends on Facebook, there's a lot of noise on my Facebook newsfeed.  Some of the posts are interesting and some of the posts are not.  This night, I saw something that caught my attention.

A person had posted that they had some issues they had been dealing with.  Without disclosing all the details, this person indicated they were doing to tackle the issues on their own.  I know this person but not particularly well so I was a little concerned when I saw this.   I immediately responded and asked if the person was ok. The person did not respond to my post (or others) that were there.

The next morning, after I had taken care of some morning business, I gave the person a call.  I think the person was surprised but we did talk for a while.  I got their perspective on what was going on, lent an ear and offered advice when needed.

One thing that I thought was interesting was that some others had offered encouragement but also said that "I'll pray for you".   I noted that whenever people have struggles and you're talking to someone of the Christian faith, most of the time, they will say "I'll pray for you".

I'm not questioning the sincerity of the statement.  The majority of people say it with the best of intentions.  They are asking God to provide you the means / resources / whatever is needed to work through the situation you are in.

I hope that people don't overuse this statement in place of providing some actual assistance.   For this particular person, I felt it was better to call them instead of just hoping they would answer my Facebook post.  I don't know if any others called this person besides offering encouragement on Facebook.  It seems an awfully passive way of doing things to just post on Facebook and say "I'll Pray For You".
 
God can and will provide for those in need but perhaps YOU are the person that God wants to provide the assistance!  Don't forget about that.

The Influence Of Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee passed away in 1973 but yet his influence is still felt around the world.  In fact there were one event and two videos that celebrated Bruce Lee:

1. The San Francisco Giants hosted a "Bruce Lee Tribute Night" at AT&T Park.  Fans purchasing special event tickets picked up a Bruce Lee bobblehead doll and there were appearances by Bruce Lee's widow Linda Lee Cadwell and Bruce Lee's daughter Shannon Lee sung the national anthem.
2. Additionally, to promote the event, the San Francisco Giants created this incredible video:  Bruce Lee Bobblehead vs SF Giants
3. Lastly, a musician / remixer took part of a 1971 interview Bruce Lee did and made it into a video (song / mp3 also available for free download):  Be Water My Friend! Bruce Lee Remix

All of these Bruce Lee events got me thinking of Bruce Lee so much that I watched the 1971 interview with Pierre Berton.  By all accounts, this is the only interview Bruce Lee did that was preserved: 

Bruce Lee: The Lost Interview

In listening to Bruce Lee speak with Berton, I realized that Bruce Lee was not only a positive role model for Asian Americans (then and now) but he was also a spokesperson for Asian Americans.  

When Bruce Lee passed away, most people focused on the fact that Asian-Americans lost a visible icon, role model and the best known Asian-American film star.   While representation is important, I feel that losing Bruce Lee as a voice and/or spokesperson for Asian-Americans was probably greater than any movies that he may have done if he lived.  

It is evident from his interview with Berton that Bruce Lee was a thoughtful and well spoken man.  He knew there was some stereotyping or racism in Hollywood.  Bruce Lee knew some projects might not happen because of his "Asian" (or "Oriental") face.  Bruce Lee didn't openly argue against it but he was going to try and break through those barriers regardless.  

Had Bruce Lee lived, he may have been able to change Hollywood for the better for Asian-Americans.  Even nearly 30 years since his passing, there has been no Asian-American film star that has completely replaced Bruce Lee.   Asian stars like Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-Fat came to the United States and did some films but they were foreign born.   No Asian-American actor has fully replace Lee. 

But beyond movies, the Asian-American community has also lacked a visible spokesperson like Jesse Jackson and others for the African-American community.  If Bruce Lee had lived, I could see him BEING that type of spokesperson for Asian-Americans. Bruce Lee spoke his mind and I would be curious to hear his thoughts on the current state of affairs for Asian-Americans.  

There is a small glimmer of hope.  Jeremy Lin of the Houston Rockets suddenly became a household name this past year.  While Jeremy Lin is dramatically different than Bruce Lee in personality and temperament,  Jeremy Lin has given Asian-Americans a VOICE like Bruce Lee did so many years ago.  

Summer Basketball Season Is A Wrap

Been a while but I'm back!  Tonight, my summer basketball league season wrapped after about three months worth of games.  From early June until tonight, I squeezed in 15 league basketball games between my Monday and Tuesday night leagues.  Unfortunately, from a team standpoint, neither one of my teams did exceptionally well and missed the playoffs.

My Monday night team finished a disappointing 1-7 overall.  We had good players but the team chemistry was never quite there.  We did managed to get it together enough for our only win (and I scored 26 points).

My Tuesday night team actually played well throughout the season but finished with a 3-4 record.  We had our chances to win a couple of games against young teams but fell short.  However, the team played fairly well as a whole.  Despite my somewhat advanced age, I managed to lead the team in scoring at 11.4 points per game.

While the teams didn't do well, all the players had their individual moments to shine.  I scored in double figures more often than I remembered in years past.  I guess there is a fountain of youth for guys even if we are in the upper 30's!

So while my Monday night team is done playing, we will help out with scorekeeping and officiating in the next couple of weeks.  So I will remain involved.  I might take some time off from playing too much basketball except for my weekly Saturday runs.  I'll plan to get my exercise via other means (gym, badminton, walking).

But there is no rest for basketball players.  The fall league will start in about a month!

Coaching Is About Making The Tough Decisions

During the summer, I've been playing in two basketball leagues.  On my Monday night league, I was just a player on the team.  The Captain of the team has played in the league for a while but has never been captain or coach before.

After a slow start (zero wins in four games), I told the Captain, I'd help out with the lineups and subs.  Two Mondays ago, I didn't need to interject too much.  The team had only six guys and we all played well enough to win our first game.

This past Monday was an entirely different story.  Unexpectedly, our ENTIRE roster (9 players) all showed up.   I told the Captain I would figure out the lineup before the game.  I made a decision to go with a certain lineup and had the subs planned out.  Alas, neither the starters or the bench lineups worked particularly well and we were down by about 25 points at halftime.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  With nothing to lose, I inserted the starting lineup from two Mondays ago.  I told the guys that we needed to make a run early or the bench was probably going to play the rest of the game.   This group had been successful and I thought we could do better than we did in the first half.

It ended up working pretty well.  The rotation went from nine players to about only six (with a 7th playing briefly) throughout the second.  The large deficit hurt us pretty bad as ultimately lost by about 7 points (79-72 or something like that).  However, we made the other team sweat quite a bit.

On one hand, it was good that we came back.  It's never fun to lose in a blowout fashion.  On the other hand, I felt bad for the guys who sat on the bench in the second half.  After all, it's an adult league and you pay to play.  You don't get PAID to play.   I've been through that kind of situation personally and I try to avoid this when I am coaching.

Safe to say, it was a bit of a weird night and I apologized to the guys who didn't play.  The Captain didn't really have much to say and I think he was ok with my decision to ride the starters.  It is definitely a delicate balance between trying to win and giving out playing time, especially in adult league.

LeBron Wins First NBA Title

I'm not a fan of LeBron James but also don't hate him.  So having James and the Miami Heat winning this season's NBA championship is no big deal.  Congratulations to the Heat for a good season and they will definitely enjoy the championship experience.

LeBron winning the title reminded me of my adult league championship during the summer of 2011.   Some of the guys on my team had never won any type of championship while playing in various leagues.  I was fortunate to have been part of five different teams.  The experience probably helped me to do well last summer as my team won the championship 73-72 in overtime.

That feeling of winning last summer still resonates even a year later.  The game itself was one of the best I played on as it was a nail bitter.  Some of my teammates from that team still see each other every now and then.  We still talk about that game when we see each other.

So as LeBron celebrates his first NBA title, I am reminded of my team's reaction to winning our title last summer.  Even though the NBA title means more than our adult league championship, it was a great experience to be cherished.  For LeBron, I hope he enjoys this one.  While he will do his best to win more, there is never a guarantee for another one.

20th Anniversary High School Redux

A few days ago, it occurred to me that it had been 20 years since I graduated from high school.   In celebration of this event, let me share some of my favorite memories from high school:

1. During my freshmen year, my high school did not have an athletics program.  Due to demand, the school eventually started a program in my sophomore year.    I chose to run cross country in the fall and was among the first set of athletes to participate in official practices and events for the school. 
2. Along the lines of athletics, my cross country team's first event was a memorable one.   I had run my race as a sophomore and was watching the rest of our team run in the varsity race.  One of my fellow sophomore friend & classmate was running in the varsity race.  At the sound of the gun, my friend took off SPRINTING.  He had run track in middle school but not distance running and he treated this face like a track meet.  Thus he led the 3.1 mile race for about 30 seconds before he faded and the rest of the pack caught up and passed him.    Even though my friend finished pretty far back, it is still a funny memory to remember.  
3. October 17th, 1989.  That date will be memorable for those of us who lived in the Bay Area.  That was the date of the Loma Prieta Earthquake that struck at 5:04 PM.  The earthquake interrupted Game 3 of the Bay Bridge World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics.  It is also memorable to me and my cross country teammates as our team was participating in a race at Golden Gate Park that day.  I had completed my race and was waiting for the varsity runners to finish as well.  At 5:00 PM, I remember looking at my watch and hoping that my mom remembered to record the World Series game on TV.  A few minutes later, I remember feeling something shaking.  I thought someone was shaking the bench I was standing on until I realized the benches were bolted to the ground.  It was then that I (and the others around) that an earthquake had hit.  The rest of the time was a blur.  Many of my teammates lived close to me across town and it was a long few hours getting home.  We had some bonding time though and that was a positive in light of the effects of the earthquake. 
4. I chose to participate in the sport of fencing in the spring.  Unfortunately, while trying to run through the hallway to get some snacks, I tripped and fractured my wrist and my fencing season ended abruptly.  I still hung around at practice and did some drills though never participated in any matches. 
5. While my first fencing season was a lost one, my second season went a lot better.  To be honest, most of the season was a BLUR.  I remember winning at least one match though don't remember much else.  HOWEVER, whatever I did, I did enough to be named an alternative fencer for the All-City tournament.  When one of the three fencers in the tournament was hurt prior to the All-City, I got a chance to participate in my first and only All-City tournament.  I was eliminated pretty quickly but was named Most Improved Fencer during our Spring Sports Awards night. 
6. It may surprise people, but I was not much of a student during high school.  My freshmen year went decently as I remember getting something along the lines of a 2.80 GPA.  My sophomore and junior years were less successful as I barely stayed about 2.0 GPA to stay eligible to play sports.  Yet, my senior year was a revelation.  I stayed about a 3.2 GPA (hitting 3.4 a few times) during my while senior year.  I did well enough to garner Student of the Month as well.  
7. During my senior year, I had one of my best teachers ever.  That same teacher got me into reading a genre of books that I still read today.  The teacher taught english and she did something interesting.  She had the students fill out a form which inquired about things we liked to watch or read (I think).  After filling out the form, she recommended a book for us to read and write a report on.  The book that I was assigned?  The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton.  Even after 20 years, The Andromeda Strain is still easily the BEST book I have ever read.  That might explain why I still like to read sci-fi / thriller books to this day.  
8. My senior year was a successful one academically but also athletically.  I didn't do great on the field but off the field, I had a good year.  I was named the Coaches Award winner for both cross-country in the fall and fencing in the spring.  During the spring awards dinner, I was also named the Athlete of the Year for the 1991-1992 season.  
9. Not being a star athlete, I don't think I fully grasped what the award meant.  To me, the award meant you were "good" at your chosen sports.  But in reality, that was the "Most Valuable Player" award was for.  It took me a long time to realize that the Athlete of the Year was given as I was doing well academically, always gave a good effort athletically and overall was a good role model to other students. 
10. Lastly, I made quite a few friendships during my time in high school, many of whom I still maintain.  There was a long standing one that has faded due to time / distance but was still a valuable one during the time it lasted.  

The Importance Of Role Players In Basketball

In basketball, star players are usually admired and idolized (if you're an NBA player).  However, what most people forget is that role players also contribute to the success of basketball teams well.

While Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and other stars get the lion's share of the credit for their team's success, role players make a big difference between a good team and a great team.  If you think of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, he had a Scottie Pippen as the second star, Luc Longley and others at center, Dennis Bodman to get rebounds and John Paxson and + other guys were the spot up shooters.  Without all of these guys, Jordan couldn't have won his six NBA championships.

The problem is some players don't know their roles or don't want to play their roles.   For me, when I was younger, I was purely a spot up shooter.  I was just put up a ton of shots.  As I got into my mid 20's, I turned into a rebounder.  As I have gotten older, I am going back to shooting but hitting my 12 to 15 foot mid range jump shot.   When I was younger, I didn't focus on defense or rebounding.  I just thought shooting equaled to playing basketball.  It took me years to realize that there was more to basketball.

To be fair, just having role players doesn't guarantee success.  If you have five shooters / scorers but no one plays defense or rebounds, that will prove to be bit of a problem.  Even if flip it around and have five defenders with no offense, that will also be a problem.  

The solution is to have a good mix of stars and role players that complement each other.   Each team will have a different mix and it's up to the team / coaches to determine which mix works the best.

I found this out when I was coaching youth basketball in my younger days.  I never had superstar players with my teams.  However, I had some good players with differing skill sets.  For whatever reason, I naturally knew how to find the best mixes for my teams.  Due to participating rules, I couldn't keep my best mixes in the game all the time.  However,  whenever I could, I would put the best mix in there to give my teams a competitive chance.

It's a little harder with adult leagues, but I've had some success in putting solid teams together.   The reason some of my teams were successful was that people were playing to their strengths and didn't try to do too much.  If players are forced to play outside of their strengths, the team sometimes will not do as well.

As a player, identify your strengths and play to them.  Identify your weaknesses as well and work to improve them OR minimize them.  As a coach, your job is put the best team out there.  Not necessarily the best five shooters, best five defenders, or even your five "best players".  The job is put together the "best team" out there that knows how to work and play well with each other.

There is such a thing as playing too much basketball.......

As I blogged previously, my 2012 spring basketball season with my two teams has been an exercise in frustration in one sense.  However, to be more positive, I have unexpectedly played a LOT more basketball than I would have reasonably expected.

For some reason,  both my Monday and Thursday basketball teams have been playing short handed the past three weeks.  In the past three Mondays, we have had 5, 5, and 6 players.  In the past three Thursdays, we have had 5, 4, and 5 players (yes, we played 4-on-5).  As our leagues playing a running 12 minutes / 4 quarters system, I've played a full 48 minutes quite a bit recently.

I actually don't have any issue playing so many minutes.  I'm in pretty good shape and find ways to get some breaths or rest in to conserve energy.  But what I am realizing is that our league season is long (9 regular season games then playoffs).

Physically, I am doing alright but I am a little mentally tired.  It's tough to get yourself up every week to put a 100% effort in when you're short handed.   Fortunately, the season is almost done and I'm going to put it all out there.

However, playing all these minutes shows me how tough NBA players are.   In most normal circumstances, NBA players play 4 games in 5 nights.  This season, there are 3 games in 3 nights.  Yes, they are professionals and they are paid to perform well.  However, these NBA players are elite athletes while the rest of us are just mere mortals.

All in all, if you ever thought to yourself that you could play HUGE minutes night after night, try it out.  You might change your tune.....

The Origin of Coach41

I go by all sorts of nicknames but one identity I have throughly adopted as been "coach41".  I use it for this blog among other things.  While my closest friends know I use this identity, I don't think anyone really knows the ORIGINS of how coach41 came about. 

Back over in 1998, I had graduated from college and working.   Even though I had graduated, my primary email address was the one I still had from college since 1995.  However, in time, the school informed me that my email address was going to be terminated.  I had to find an alternative email account / address. 

Fortunately, with the rise of the Internet around that time, there were plenty of providers of free email so I went to sign up for an account.  The problem was to decided on an appropriate username.   I'm not sure why I didn't select the username I had from school (maybe it wasn't available).  

After thinking about things, I finally settled on "coach41".  Why coach41?   Two reasons:

1.  

Around 1998-1999, I was still coaching basketball at my old grammar school.  I felt the "coach" moniker still fit me well.  

2.  

Around 1998-1999, cell phones and instant messaging weren't used as much as they are today.  The biggest technology in use this time were pagers.   My friends and I had pagers.  For people who don't know about pagers, people would call the pager and send a number to the pager for people to call them (i.e., 415-210-2121) .   However, someone came up with the idea to use numbers as letters and thus was born the first version of texting.  Some of the more popular messages are below:  

43110 = HELLO

837 = THINKING OF YOU

143 = I LOVE YOU 

6000 171647 = GOOD NIGHT

Unlike today, where your phone number is attached to your text messages, there was no easy way to identify you if you texted the random numbers above.  So, to identify yourself, you would put your BIRTHDAY at the end of the message.   As my birthday was April 1st, I could go with 401 or 41.  I decided to go with 41. 

Combine #1 and #2 and that's how coach41 was born.  

Even though I haven't officially coached a team in about 6 years, I have retained the "coach41" identity  It doesn't seem to be frequently used on the Internet and uniquely mine.  I'm fortunate to be able to register the domain name as well.  

Hope you enjoyed the history lesson!  

Old Man Still Got A Little Game

Over the weekend, I inched a little closer to being a middle aged man (aka celebrating my birthday!).  I had a pretty relaxed weekend.  I watched a basketball tournament and caught up with a young person I have been mentoring a bit.  I played a little basketball myself and had a nice dinner with some folks.

Today, it was back to work and after a busy day, I went to play in my Monday nigh basketball league.  My team's been struggling a bit but we finally broke through with an exciting 83-82 win.  I contributed heavily with 18 points (7-17 FG, 4-6 FT's).

Though most professional players don't played into their late 30's / early 40's, there are plenty of amateur athletes who are able to play at a pretty good level for many years.  When I got hurt back in 1999-2000 during the prime of my athletic life, I thought I would never get back to level.  These days, while I am little slower and less athletic, I still can pick my spots and do well (like tonight!).

Playing like this into your 40's require both mental and physical preparation.  Mentally, you can't subscribe to the fact that you are "too old".  You have to say to yourself that you can do it.   Physically, you just have to keep playing and stay in shape in general.  I've been fortunate to be abel to do both.

A guy in our league is 53 and is still playing pretty well.  He's a little slow and not mobile but can hit a shot.  I would be happy to be playing well into his age and beyond!

Basketball from a different perspective

A couple of days ago, I blogged that in my twenty years of adult league basketball experience, I had seen just about everything.   Today, I learned something about basketball that I didn't realize or understand.

A couple of weeks ago, I had planned some activities with my friends.  Alas, the plans had to get adjusted to later due to logistical issues.   With my original plans changed, I made new plans.

As I was suddenly free this morning, I made plans to visit a young high school basketball player I knew.  Even though I had officiated her games quite a bit, I had actually never just watched her play as a spectator.  As it turned out, she was playing in a tournament this morning at a gym close by to my house.

For some backstory on why I was visiting this player, read this blog entry:

Behind The Whistle:  Encouraging Players As An Official

The main plan was just to watch her play.  However, I wasn't going to just watch and leaveI.  Knowing the tournament structure, I knew there was some down time between her team's games.  I figured we would have some time to talk as well.  I wanted to know more about her struggles during the high school basketball season as we had not discussed in detail the last time.

So after the young lady's first game, we took a few minutes to talk a bit.  In sharing her story, she opened my eyes to her experience as the last player on the bench of a high school basketball team.    It definitely WASN'T what I was expecting.

While I have played years of adult league basketball, I never played high school basketball.  I just never really good enough to make my school team.  I've known plenty of people who have played high school basketball but only really talked to one person about their experience.  That one person was a guy friend who played one year of JV ball and was a bench warmer throughout.

For the young lady I visited today, her experience sounded like a combination of politics and poor communication.  I won't share her whole experience as that is for her to share.  However, it really opened my eyes to the high school players WHO DON'T get to play a lot.

There are kids who are good enough to make teams but aren't good enough to play regularly.  In this young lady's case, she is a talented and skilled player but yet somehow got buried on the bench for reasons not entirely clear.  In many ways, this is almost the same problem Jeremy Lin had, except the young lady didn't get much of a chance to show she could play this past high school season.

As someone who didn't play basketball in high school, I always wondered how that experience would be.  I did play other sports but none were as high profile as basketball (or football or baseball).  This young lady's experience shows that just being on the team isn't always glamourous and can be a frustrating experience rather than a rewarding one.   

It is unfortunate that the young lady had to go through the experience she did.  However, she has a good head on her shoulders, has great parents and goes to a good school overall.  She has a lot of support and other basketball activities (via her club teams) to fall back on so she will be fine.

However, I did tell her that if she never needed anything, she could always reach out to me.   I know that I lean on friends quite a bit and having extra support is never a bad thing.

Basketball can be a humbling and frustrating experience

I've played organized league basketball for over 20 years and have seen just about everything.   I've been on both ends of the spectrum and everything in between.  I've been on winless teams that lost every game by 15 points or more.  I've been on championship teams that went undefeated.   I've been on teams that won some / lost some.  So you can say I have some perspective.   Winning is nice but temporary.  Losing sucks but also temporary.

Yet, this spring season has been surprisingly frustrating for my Monday and Thursday basketball leagues.    Combined my teams are 2-11 (0-6 Monday, 2-5 Thursday).   The record doesn't particularly concern me as all teams make the playoffs.

My Monday team has grown since the early part of the season but we have fallen into a pattern of bad 2nd halves.  We compete and play hard but when the going gets tough, some guys start going one-on-one and the game goes downhill.

My Thursday team is just undersized.  The past two or three weeks, we have basically played with 4 guards and 2 forwards.   Offensively, we don't have enough role players.  We have 4 to 5 guys on the floor who want to shoot.  Unfortunately, I include myself in this group and probably get frustrated when the ball doesn't come my way.

The issues I see with both my teams is chemistry.  Most of the guys have never played with each other before and some guys feel they need to carry the load to get the respective teams on track.   This is fine at times but sometimes result in the majority of shots going to certain guys.

On a personal note,  I admit to being concerned with playing with two teams of guys I have NEVER played with.  In the past few years, I've played with teams that had some new guys but some other guys I have played with.   This proves tough as the new guys don't know my favorite spots.

I've had some decent games but also some games where I feel I didn't really get the ball enough.  Last Thursday, I believed I scored 11 points.  I shot 1 of 2 from the free throw line and shot 5 of 6 from the field.   Making 5 of 6 shots is a good percentage but why I didn't shoot more?  I didn't my usual energy and was content to shoot when I got the ball and not force shots.

Unfortunately,  I was semi frustrated that the ball didn't come my way enough.  Even the opposing team commented after the game that I was hitting my shots but wondered why I didn't shoot more.  The answer is I play within the flow and sometimes that flow just doesn't come my way.

All in all, basketball is fun but sometimes can humble and frustrate you.   I was openly frustrated tonight but will get over it.  I'll play with some friends on Saturday and then get ready for the final weeks of league games before the playoffs in a couple of weeks.

What Happens When Linsanity Ends?

Actually Linsanity ended when Carmelo Anthony returned from injury.   However, any chance of Linsanity returning when out the door when New York Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni resigned today.

The Knicks blew out the Portland Trail Blazers as Jeremy Lin had 6 points, 6 assists, and 6 turnovers in 24 minutes of play.  What might raise eyebrows is that Baron Davis had 10 assists in 18 minutes of action.  The scary thing for Jeremy Lin fans is that the new interim coach (Mike Woodson) may not favor Jeremy Lin as much as D'Antoni.

What happens next to Jeremy Lin remains to be seen.  However, as I wrote on a message board yesterday, Jeremy Lin has learned more about the BUSINESS of NBA in the past few months (being waived by the Warriors, Rockets and now the coach quits).   Also, big money players like Carmelo hold a lot of sway over how basketball should be played than just the coach.

Best wishes to Jeremy Lin as he navigates another challenge in his career.  I do have confidence he will be fine.

Guard / Forward / Center

For those who are familiar with basketball, the three positions in a game of basketball are guard, forward and center.  The guard and forward positions had sub positions (point guard, shooting guard, small forward and power forward).  If you're playing high level basketball (NBA, college, top high school teams) your position generally reflects the skill set you bring to the game of basketball.

However, in most adult basketball leagues, your position if sometimes determined by height / weight as much as skill.  If you're a big and tall guy, you're usually going to be a center or power forward.  If you're a decent shooter / ball handler / reasonably tall, you'll probably be a shooting guard / small forward.  If you're a guy who can dribble and pretty short, you'll be the point guard.

Drilling down even further, Asian adult basketball leagues are a little more different.  There aren't any Yao Ming's running around though you'll get a few 6'3" or taller guys ever now and then.  But the reality is that most player fall between 5'6" and 6'1".

For me, I happen to stand around 5'10" and generally an shooting guard / small forward on offense.  I usually defend point guards, shooting guards and small forwards on defense.  For our Thursday night basketball league this sping, I am probably the tallest guy on my team.  With the other teams having tough post players, I end up guarding the perimeter AND the post players.

Last night, my team played my friend's team in our league.  My friend is 6'1" 180 pounds.  He can post and has some guard skills.   Seeing I was guarding him, my friend tried to post me and I had to battle just to keep him away from the basket.  Alas, I got into foul trouble and later switched to guarding the point guard.

It was definitely a rough night on the court as my team lost 78-72.  I scored 14 points but was somewhat beat up banging with the big boys inside and chasing the guards outside.  I don't mind the challenge but being an older guy, I can't bang like I used to.

Good Learning Lesson For Jeremy Lin

By now, everyone knows that the Miami Heat beat the New York Knicks 102-88 tonight.  Jeremy Lin was harassed the whole night and played his worst game since became a starter two weeks ago.

As I write this though, I am not particularly disappointed or upset by this performance.  Like many fans, I have been glad that Jeremy Lin has shown Asian-Americans can compete at the NBA level.  It would have been good to do well against a championship contender such as the Heat.

However, I think this bodes well for Jeremy Lin's future.  As it's well documented, he was a small guy entering high school and grew to 6'3".  I'm pretty sure it took a little while for Jeremy to adjust to this.  At Harvard, he didn't start until his sophomore year and he didn't really break out until his junior year.

Jeremy Lin has shown that he is able to adjust and adapt his game over time.  Tonight will be a blip and he will be much better off the next time the Heat and Knicks meet.   Not many players (even highly drafted ones) can simply get on the court and do well.  Jeremy Lin has done pretty good over two weeks.

After playing in the rookie-sophomore game tomorrow, Jeremy Lin will get a break from playing and prepare for the second half of the season.  He'll have a chance to practice with his teammates, work on improving his game and be ready to help the Knicks for their playoff run.

Asian-Americans Love Jeremy Lin because........

Asian Americans are loving Jeremy Lin / Linsanity as evidenced by the tweets, Facebook posts, blogs and memorabilia being purchased at huge rates.

While the major media outlets are taking the angle that Asians love Jeremy Lin because he is breaking stereotypes (true), there is another angle that hasn't been covered as much.   Asian-Americans also LOVE basketball just as much as other people.  In fact, China and the Philippines love basketball just as much as any other country so there are probably more Asian basketball fans than any other ethnicity around the world.  Having Jeremy Lin be Asian and playing basketball is a dream come true for many Asian-Americans.

Focusing on Asian-Americans though, the love of basketball is evidenced by the various leagues, tournaments and Asian-American teams that exist up and down throughout California (and also in some other states).

Up in Northern California, there are at least a dozen organizations that host upwards of 8 to 12 youth basketball teams for boys and girls from 2nd to 12th grade.  These organizations host a tournament circuit year round that sometime include teams from Southern California.  The Southern California teams also do the same thing.

For adults, there are various leagues that have been around for years and years.  The longest standing leagues is the Nisei Athletic Union (NAU) that originated back in 1931.  Originally catering to Japanese-Americans, the league is now open to both Chinese and Japanese Americans.  Another long standing league in the Chinese Christian Union (CCU) Summer Basketball League.   The CCU Summer League has been around since the 60's or 70's and had it's start in Chinatown.  The league featured primarily Chinatown churches but began to expand in the 1990's.  This past summer, the league had over 70 teams from churches around SF and the Peninsula.  These are the long standing examples but other leagues such as the Dream League (SF Bay Area - 10 years) and others give Asian-Americans opportunities to play in a competitive basketball environment.

Beyond leagues, there are various tournaments catering to Asian-Americans.  Rather than playing a 2 to 3 month "season", organizers host weekend tournaments in various locations around California and other cities.   WHile most of the SF Bay Area / Northern California tournaments usually feature local teams, there are some tournaments involving teams from other states.

Two of the longer standing tournaments are the Las Vegas Invitational which is primarily a Chinese/Japanese tournament which features some 15 divisions of 6 to 8 teams each.  Most of the teams are California based though some of state teams join the fun every now and then.

One large tournament (32nd year in 2012) that is organized in the East Coast is the North American Chinese Invitational Basketball tournament.   Held every Memorial Day Weekend, the tournament shifts locations every year.  In 2012, the tournament will be held in Canada.  The most interesting aspect of the tournament?  It features teams from all over North America, Canada and even from China.  The majority of the teams for this tournament come from the East Coast (Boston, New York, Philly) and Canada but West Coast teams (LA, SF, Arizona) have also made treks to compete in the tournament.

The point in all of this history is that Asian-Americans not only like Jeremy Lin but they like basketball.  Yes, there will be the bandwagon fans who only follow basketball because of Jeremy Lin.  But there are also basketball fans who liked basketball before Jeremy Lin and will continue to like it after the Jeremy Lin noise has died down.

Racial Awareness Thanks to Jeremy Lin

At the moment, there is a quite a bit of discussion of ESPN's decision to use the headline "Chink In The Armor" on their website.  The headline was describing the New York Knicks loss to the New Orleans Hornets on Friday night and likely a reference to a big weakness in Jeremy Lin's basketball game:  Turnovers.

However, the term "Chink" has some negative connotations in the Chinese American community and that caused a minor uproar.  ESPN removed the headline and apologized for it today.

Personally, as a Chinese-American, I don't think the headline "Chink In The Armor" was meant to be offensive.  The headline (or phrase) is generally used to indicate weakness.  However, it just so happened to be describing Jeremy Lin and so I see why people would be offended.

Regardless of what you think of the ESPN uproar, I think that Jeremy Lin's sudden rise has sudden given Americans (and the entire world) to an inside look of what Asian-Americans have to deal with.  There have been quite a few national newspapers which have discussed this.

While Asian-Americans are a large part of the American culture and society,  many non-Asian Americans do not know the history of Asian-Americans and the stereotyping and racism that was faced by Asian-Americans over the years.

From the Chinese Exclusion Act to the Japanese Interment Camps to Vincent Chin, there is a history of Americans viewing Asian-Americans as foreigners or a threat to their society.  Yet, when racial politics are discussed in America, it is usually a Black or White affair.  Asians (and even Latinos) are not part of the discussion.

Jeremy Lin is bringing an awareness of the Asian-American community that should benefit everyone in the future.

What Jeremy Lin means to Asian-Americans

As a long time Jeremy Lin fan since his senior year (2006) in high school, I am extremely happy that the outbreak of "Linsanity".  Even though I thought he could be a "decent" player in the NBA, I never thought he would do as well as he has.  Jeremy's break out has also galvanized the Asian-American community and I would like to talk about some of the reasons why.


JEREMY LIN IS THE FIRST TRUE ASIAN-AMERICAN MALE ICON SINCE BRUCE LEE


Even though Bruce Lee has been dead since 1973, he is still one of the mostly widely recognized Asian-American celebrities in the world.  No Asian-American (or even Asian born) celebrity (actor / athlete) has completed filled Bruce Lee's shoes.  Well known Asian-American actors such as John Cho and Daniel Dae Kim currently have good followings but don't have Lee's star power.  Asian-born actors such as Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat and Jet Li also have their own following but their Asian life experiences don't resonate with the Asian-American population in the States.

The last Asian celebrity that rivaled Bruce Lee was Yao Ming.  The 7'6" giant was born in China but spoke solid English and showed a different side of Chinese cultural.  Despite Yao's ability to shift between the Chinese and American lifestyles, he was still an Asian born athlete who's life experience didn't reflect what Asian-Americans go through.

Enter Jeremy Lin.  The Palo Alto raised kid had to fight through many years of coaches and teams not recognizing his talent and ability.  He had to fight through racial taunts and stereotypes of what Asian-Americans males should be.  Lin is not as angry outwardly as Lee was, but you can see the fire in his eyes when things go well.

Jeremy Lin is not quite on the level of Bruce Lee just yet.  However, the impact in the past couple of weeks is similar and this impact could GROW as the months and years go by.

PEOPLE FROM ALL WALKS ARE SUPPORTING JEREMY LIN


When the Golden State Warriors signed Jeremy Lin, it was thought to be a marketing ploy to cater to the large Asian-American population in the Bay Area.  When he didn't do well (and eventually got cut by the Warriors and the Rockets this year), the assertions seemed to be correct.

It is now Week 2 of "Linsanity" and we've got people from all walks of life following and supporting Jeremy Lin.  Is it NOT JUST an Asian-American fan base.  It includes Blacks, Whites, Latinos, other professional athletes and even some actors / actresses.

Jeremy Lin's rising star should be a sign to the American business and entertainment worlds that Americans will support of other ethnicities besides White / Caucasian.   In the music industry, it was only recently that an Asian-American group, Far East Movement broke through with their #1 Billboard  hit "Like A G6".  However, while their other songs received some attention, none have duplicated their success.  Prior to the Far East Movement, there have not been many mainstream Asian-American musicians.  There are a lot of underground singers and groups but not many are known to the general American public.

In the movie and TV industry, there are quite a few well known actors including the aforementioned Daniel Dae Kim and John Cho.  While Cho has had some lead roles with Harold and Kumar, none of the movies were huge multi-million dollar hits.  Kim and other American born actors have solid roles but are still not considered as the main lead actors.

However, Jeremy Lin's sudden emergence and the fan response shows the world that people will support anyone IF they have the talent.  I believe that Jeremy Lin's sudden rise to fame will open the eyes of other industries to consider looking at people's talent beyond the color of their skin.  It may take some time but Asian-American lead actors and mainstream musicians should eventually appear and became as normal as an Asian-American NBA player.

ITS OK TO BE SMART AND ATHLETIC


I've blogged about this before.  Jeremy Lin was a good student in high school and college.  Now he's playing in the NBA.  In many ways, he is living many Asian-American male's dreams. There are certain parents who rather their kids focus on their studies instead of sports.  I am the believer that both things can co-exist.  Now I have an example I can point to in Jeremy Lin.  If I ever have kids, I can say "if Jeremy Lin can do it, so can you".

There's probably more things I can write about, but I'll leave it for now.  Enjoy the Linsanity.

Jeremy Lin: WOW!

As I have blogged about Jeremy Lin before, it should come as no surprise that I am a fan of his career.  I remember reading about him during his high school days, followed him throughout his college career and was thrilled when the hometown Golden State Warriors signed him to a contract.   Alas, Jeremy's NBA career hadn't taken off as anyone expected and many people wondered if he would ever get a chance to show his skills. 

However, even the most die-hard of Jeremy Lin fans would have never expected Jeremy Lin to do what he did in the last two games.  He led his team to victories over the Nets and the Jazz.  He had career highs in points in both games (25 / 28), assists (7 / 8) and minutes (36 / 45).  

I don't think it's completely sunken in for Jeremy Lin OR his fans.  I think most of us fans would have been happy if he played 15 to 20 minutes and became a consistent bench player.  Instead, in two games, he has been the star, outshining his more heralded teammates. 

However, if you look at Jeremy's career in high school, college and even D-League, Jeremy has always been a leader of men (or teams).  In many ways, we shouldn't be surprised at what he did the last two nights.  He has done it before after all.