On summer, basketball and waiting to get signed.
by Kevin Owens / @Waiting4Godunk
My wife said it best… “It’s hard to write, when nothing’s happening.” Over the past few weeks I have been racking my brain thinking about what the good readers of SLAMonline would be interested in. I am pretty sure my learning of Free Bird on guitar did not qualify as “intriguing”. So, I’m back…Much to the happiness of my fans and the chagrin of the jackasses who leave negative messages on the comment section, “*Cough, Cough, Kiss My A$$! Cough Cough*”…Sorry, still have some meatloaf caught in my throat.
Anyway, I am finishing off an extremely busy summer. For some professional athletes, the off seasons consist of training, womanizing and the occasional run in with the law (wild generalization). I however spent my summer teaching the youth of the Tri-State area the game of basketball.
My average weekday begins around 7:30 AM. I wake up early and eat a solid meal of steel oats before I head to camp for the next few hours. I then proceed to stand on the blacktop, as the sun beats down on to my head, all while attempting to teach the kids the meaning of the phrase “triple threat.” Once the sun drains me of the majority of my energy, I head to the gym to continue teaching basketball lessons for a few more hours. Around this time, as you can imagine, my mind begins to wander and my back begins to ache.
Sadly my work is just beginning. I still need to come home and train as hard as the guys I am currently competing against for jobs. I head off to the gym to work on my shot, run my sprints and throw some weights around. By 8 PM I am both mentally and physically exhausted.
But my summer has not been entirely disappointing. Thus far, it has been filled with weddings, barbeques and the occasional family reunion, like the one I enjoyed this past weekend. It was located in a small Amish town in Eastern Pennsylvania. The Amish lifestyle is very unique. They live by an old fashioned set of rules known as the Ordnung, and some sects are averse to new technologies. I was recently told, by a reliable source, that anything after 1889 was considered by them to be new technologies.
That is why I found it so fascinating when I glanced over to the Amish baseball game being played across from our reunion and saw a metal bat being used. Now I am not a historian, but aren’t metal bats considered a new technology? Apparently Easton has been around for longer than I thought. Honestly, I am not trying to speak ill of these fine people, but they can’t even use rubber on their tires yet they are willing to break their vows in order to add a little extra pop to their Saturday afternoon game.
Other than that, I currently am in the middle of the stressful period I like to call “My Crazy Time”. You see, this is the time of year when many European teams frantically try to finalize their rosters prior to the start of training camp. It’s also the time that I hope all my hard work so far in this off-season pays off. Over the past few years this time of year has been filled with false hopes and empty promises.
Currently, a few teams have an interest in hiring me for this upcoming season, but nothing officially has been offered.
Here we go again.
Everyday I hear about players heading over to Europe to play, yet my name has yet to be called. It’s going to be a stressful life until that day finally comes.
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Kevin Owens is a veteran of overseas professional basketball who also writes for Waiting For Godunk and Hugging Harold Reynolds. You can also catch him on Twitter @Waiting4Godunk.
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