The Official Site of JJ Redick

Wed, Oct 24th 2007, 20:39

Long Time No Blog

Ok, so let me first apologize that I haven’t posted a blog on here in a while. As you can imagine, things have been pretty busy. I’ll give you a quick run down of my impressions of the first three preseason games, the trip to China, and an update on my hand. Respect.The first week of preseason games we played Atlanta, Charlotte, and Miami. It was an exciting week for me because I missed most of the preseason games last year (and didn’t play in a real game until the 16th game of the season or something like that). Preseason is a weird time because some teams don’t always play their best players a lot of minutes. For instance, Joe Johnson didn’t play much in the second half in our game against Atlanta, many of the Bobcat starters didn’t play in the fourth quarter of that game, and Shaq didn’t even dress for our match against the Heat. The goal of preseason is always to get better and prepare for the regular season- but I’ve already learned to look at preseason records with caution. Having said that, there’s nothing more that I like than winning, so I’m as thrilled as a bag of popcorn fresh out of the microwave that we are 5-1 heading into our last preseason bout with San Antonio.

The China trip was long. What can I say? I was completely exhausted for the first three or four days I was in China. It was a tiring journey and our schedule in China was very busy. There was very little down time so I didn’t really get a chance to experience the Chinese culture as much as I would have liked. One cool thing I did in Shanghai was have dinner at this place that was right across the river from where they shot scenes from Mission: Impossible 3. If you remember- I’m talking about the scene where Tom Cruise had to land on the slanted building, shoot a couple of guards, catch himself on the ledge, and then later jump completely out of one of the windows after stealing the “Rabbit’s Foot”. I thoroughly enjoyed a plate of beef satay while looking at that building. (By the way, did we ever find out what the “Rabbit’s Foot” was?) Nevermind. Shanghai reminded me of a combination of New York and LA. It was very spread out like LA but everywhere you looked there was nothing but skyscrapers like New York. I also shopped at one of the nicest malls I’ve EVER been to. And of course, I hit up the Zegna store.

After Shanghai we flew to Macao. Our hotel, The Venetian Resort and Casino, was on a reclaimed strip of landed so it technically wasn’t in “Macao”. But it was still nice. I didn’t get to play any blackjack or enjoy the city of Macao. Our schedule was too busy. However, just a little fun fact- The Venetian in Macao has the world’s largest casino and is the world’s second largest hotel with over 4,000 rooms. Well, that’s what I was told. I didn’t actually do the research.

My hand is ok. I fell on it while trying to take a charge on Jameer Nelson in practice on Monday. The x-rays and MRI didn’t really show anything so that’s good news. I still have some pain in my hand so I’m going to rest it for a couple of days and see how it feels this weekend. I’m confident that I’ll be back on the court in no time.

Aight, I’ll hit you guys up later this week or something. I promise there won’t be so much time between blogs. Be good.

Two more things:

1) Here’s a great quote I came across the other day-

“Every man has a warrior within him. It is his choice to fight.”

2) Quick top-five list-

MY top-5 favorite rappers of all-time:

1) Tupac
2) Slug (from Atmosphere)
3) Jay-Z
4) Lil’ Wayne
5) Talib Kweli