What a crazy last year of basketball! I have never had a season quite like this in my 23 years of playing on teams. It started off with my accident in Switzerland in August just before the start of my contract. I missed the first couple weeks and had to wear a mask. My face was supposed to have been healed so I was wasn't wearing the mask in the first game of the season. But the 1st pass after the jumpball, of the first game of the season, I went for a steal and and a guy nailed me in the nose breaking it again. I sat out the rest of the game.
Game 2: hurt my knee in warmups, played half strength, and we lost of 25 at home.
Game 3: broke my nose again through the mask (i got a better mask a few weeks later)
Game 4: dislocated my finger
I then sat out a few weeks. It was tough when I came back because my team had lost some patience with me and things seemed to be different attitude wise with them. I was in pain most days of practice, with the pain centering around my knee. I just couldn't move the same. It caused pain in a lot of other parts of my legs as my body tried to compensate for a weak spot. Countless times in practice this year I prayed "Lord, help me just get through this practice". I had to take it one day at a time. Also I was playing really bad. I had dropped down to the 2nd highest league last year to try and help Sparta win the title and move them up to the highest league. The level of competition was much lower from the highest Czech league, which I had been one of the top players. Now I usually didn't even score 10 points. The high level of play I was used to never really returned the whole season but things got a lot better starting with a friend's visit. My friend and baseball coach Mike Griffin brought his former teammate Joe Trusdale over to look at my knee. Joe was a baseball player from Ostrava working with AIA. He was also a physical therapist. Joe gave me 2 key exercises no one had ever given me before. One exercise, which required me to do something I had tried to avoid since i had knee surgury in 2002, really hit a key part of muscle that I couldn't seem to strengthen. After that I slowly improved. There are many things I could write about the year but I'll won't make this too long.
After 26 regular season games, my team finished in 4th place. 8 teams made the playoffs and each round is best of 5. In the first round against Opava we won in 5 games. In the semifinals against Chomutov we played a team that had a lot more money and really good players but didn't play so well together all the time. My team had cut my pay saying I would not get it back unless we went to the finals. This along with a nice victory bonus added more pressure to win. We won the first 2 games at home, but like the quarterfinals, we lost both games on the road, setting up a deciding game 5 at home. I had decided that i just wanted to win this game and i would be content with the season. I had never been so nervous or did so much score board watching during a game. I played ok, but I missed all five FT's in the game. We ended up winning on a buzzer beater from just inside the 3 point line!
So now we were on to the finals against the number 1 team Plzen. Everyone was so happy to have gotten to the finals (and gotten cut pay restored) we were very relaxed and continued to play better and better as a team. We really gave Plzen a surprise when we won game 1 on the road by 15 points. They bounced back and won game 2. Games 3 and 4 would be at home where we were very comfortable. We knew that if we could win both games we could close out the series and the Championship. Well, it didn't happen that way. In Game 3 we went up by double digits early but got crushed by 25 points. We tried to 'right the ship' and won in game 4, setting up a deciding game 5 on the road. Since I am retiring, I knew that win or loose, this was going to be my last game. A local newspaper came out with an article that reminded us that Plzen had been beaten at home the year before in game 5 of the finals. We were relaxed and focused. In the second quarter, we took command, taking a 17 point lead into halftime. In the 2nd half, they came back and cut it to 7. But we turned on the gas again and ballooned the lead back to 18. Laura had asked me before the game to please dunk one. I had only one dunk the whole year because of my knee. I remember thinking that i would only try it if we were winning by like 20 points, which seemed like it was never going to happen in game 5 of the championship on the road against the number 1 team. Well, there we were up 20 points with 2 minutes to go. My American teammate Ben broke the press and gave me a great pass. I jumped as hard as I could rocked the rim. It was a great feeling to retire with my last shot being a dunk in the championship! I still have great feelings about the year because there was so much hardship but it ended so well.
Here is a video of the celebration. Laura is running out to give me a hug.
During the game. I'm in the middle and you can see part of my mask.
With some friends after the game. (L-R) Jacqueline and Stacy teach with laura and went to Plzen early that day to go to famous Pilsner Urquell brewery tour. On the right is Kelsey who is a stinter with Athletes in Action.
Some happy teammates after the game:
This is Ben Hebl, my American teammate. Last year after the season Ben contacted me about playing in europe. Even though i didn't know him I thought I would be nice and invite him to one of our postseason practices since he was traveling in europe with his girlfriend. He wanted to come back and play for us even though the team would only pay for his housing. Ben was like a gift from God this year. He was a great friend and listener, especially when things were really bad for me the first half of the year. We had many great talks about Faith and life. On the court Ben came up big for us with his clutch 3 pointers.
Me with Athletes in Action director Billy Crossan. Billy helped bring me to Czech 4 years ago as I was doing a 1 year internship with AIA. I have been doing volunteer ministry with him since. He has been a great help and encouragement to me.
1 comment:
Congratulations!! This is an amazing achievement!
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