International Basketball Trip – Last Day

July 6

Today is the last day at the camp for me. We worked out in the morning, ate lunch, said goodbye and then it’s off on the 5-hour ride to Athens. My flight leaves at 7 AM so I have to leave the hotel at about 4:30 am.

Had a great workout with the kids. I found out a couple of interesting things about the “closed gym,” as they call it in the camp. It is a small gym with only 1 court. It has a couple of small locker rooms and not much parking outside. It is poorly lit though better than some of the other places I have traveled to. It had about 500 theater-type seats on one side of the gym in the stands. There was a school across the street so my American orientation told me the gym belonged to the school. It had 2 large emblems on the floor proclaiming “2006 ‘The Year of FIBA Women’s Basketball.’” I thought that was kind of odd.

It turns out, the gym was built for the Athens Olympics in 2004. It housed the women’s basketball competition, all the way up to the semi-finals. Once they reached the semis, the competition moved to Athens. As much as we would like to believe how far women’s basketball has progressed, the fact is that the games played on the world’s biggest stage only 2 Olympiads ago were played in a dingy little gym, 5 hours from the main event with little expectation of spectatorship.

My Greek basketball experience was priceless. Basketball is truly a universal language. I do not speak a word of Greek yet I was effectively able to teach 180 kids about the game. From my experience, I don’t think that these kids, though, are taught to have fun. The coaches I worked with are all great coaches and teachers. They love the sport and love the kids. But, their experience as players and coaches are with people who believe that they should be yelling and screaming all the time. They had a little trouble adapting to my approach, having patience, allowing time for kids to correct themselves and motivating them to keep trying. They could not argue with the results once the kids started to understand the concepts they were presented with.

We are all aware there are cultural differences between societies but we have to be aware that when we teach or coach basketball to international players, there are cultural differences as well. One of the coaches told me that the first Greek word every American learns is “Malakas”. When I asked what that means he said “Asshole.” I spoke a lot of basketball with the coaches. They have great knowledge and passion for the game.

For 5 hours I spoke basketball on the ride back to Athens. The coach that drove me back was an assistant on one of the 1st division pro teams and he gave me some insight as to how much pressure Greek coaches are under constantly, at all levels. For all their innovative methods of training, and many are truly way ahead of their time, they are very traditional once they get between the lines. For that reason they approach their teaching the same way they learned and played. One coach said that in Greece, if you don’t play professionally, no one plays after they are 21 years old. So there are no pickup games at the park, no old guys playing at the beach, not fathers playing their sons in the driveways. That is unfortunate because they really love the game.

I loved the trip. I am very tired. There was little time to relax. Even when there was time it was difficult. There are many things we take for granted in the U. S. that are not present elsewhere. The most difficult part of the trip was going into someone else’s home with different values and methods and asking them to assume yours. I hope they had as much fun as I did. Being exposed to my kind of craziness can drive anyone nuts, even if they understand me. Imagine what it is like for someone who doesn’t understand me. I learned a lot. I hope someone came away with something new from me. I hope I get to do it again.

The second part of my trip, to Colombia, has been postponed until August. Just as well. I have some guys I need to start preparing at home.