Thu, Aug 23rd 2007, 20:26
Hey, everyone- what’s up? I apologize, it’s been a while since my last blog. Sometimes it’s hard to blog while I’m on the road. I just spent five days in LA and eight days in Vegas so I’m still kind of recovering from being on the West Coast.
First of all, I took some of my family members to Paradise Island, Bahamas in early August. What a blast that was. The ocean was clear as can be and the weather was terrific. It’s funny, my brother and I (we flew in a different flight than my sisters) were in the middle of a torrential downpour on the way from the airport to the resort. People were running through a foot of water in downtown Nassau. By the time we got to the resort, the sky had opened up and there wasn’t a cloud in sight for the next four days. We got lucky. Everyone that went with me called it “the best vacation ever.” It definitely was fun, but what made it great was that we were with family. I’ve come to realize over the past couple years that nothing means more to me than my family. They are my backbone. The best story from the trip involves my brother. He was leaving the bathroom area at a club and he bumped into the singer Jewel in the hallway. My brother told her he was a big fan and she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Haha. She’s beautiful in person, too. She had a table next to us at the restaurant Nobu- which by the way ranks in my top-five restaurants ever.
My USA Basketball experience ended a couple days ago. I had no qualms about practicing with the “Select” team and going against Kobe and Michael Redd. For me, as a second year guard, it was a great opportunity for me to get used to guarding these elite players. My position features some of the best players in the league and if I want to play then I’m going to have to challenge myself to check these guys. Vegas also provided me an opportunity to catch up with some old buddies. David Lee, or D-Lee, from the Knicks, has been my friend since I was 15. We used to talk about going to the same school, but he really wanted to go to Florida and I really wanted to go to Duke. Anyway, it was good to chill with him for a week. He’s a good dude.
I’m going to take a little bit of time off now, it’s been a long summer for me. My body needs a little bit of down time. The NBA season is so different from the college game- it’s so long and there’s games almost every night. It’s definitely a grind. I’ve had the chance to play a decent amount of golf the last week. In fact, I’m really starting to enjoy it (except I have a bit of a slice haha). My brother and I played the Ocean Club Course in the Bahamas and I played the Wynn Course on our off-day in Vegas. I’ve improved a good amount this summer, considering I just started playing in June.
I know in the last blog I wrote that I was reading Into the Wild. Well, after finishing it, I realized that it’s probably the best non-fiction book I’ve ever read. For some reason, I don’t know why, the book has affected me. Anyway, Sean Penn directed a screen adaption of the book and the movie comes out next month. Emile Hirsch stars in it (you might remember him from The Girl Next Door or Alpha Dog) and Vince Vaughn has a small role, too. Even if you haven’t read the book, definitely go see the movie. It’s supposed to be really good. Oh, and also, I would say Superbad is one of the funniest movies ever. My brother and I saw it the night I got back from Vegas and it’s laugh-out-loud hilarious.
Aight, I wanna start ending my blogs with a “top-five list”. You guys can make suggestions on what you want the top-five to be. For example, maybe you want to know my “top-five actresses” or my “top-five right handed pitchers of all-time”. You let me know. Today’s top-five is my “top-five actors”:
Brad Pitt, Ed Norton, Shia Laebouf, me, and Vince Vaughn.