Gone Too Long...

   Hello my friends, wow so much has happened since we last sat down and chatted that I just dont know where to begin this story.. Lets start with my Libs not making it to the finals... Well we came up short in our quest to put the New York Liberty back on the map. Don't think that we r holding our heads down in defeat. Each one of my sisters can hold their heads high and say that each step we took together we gained some valuable experience along the way. To lose to such a team like the Atlanta Dream helps us to visualize the potential that we have to be that team next year. After having such a wonderful season, we face more adversity, now that our coach that guided us through every peak and valley that we have encountered this season is moving on to St. John's University, each and every one of us takes what we learned from her and try to perfect and improve on it. I went from New York to Atlanta to Tarsus, Turkey in a week. The trip sounds simple but it really tested me. Though no journey in life is simple, this one was deemed to be anything other than that...

       Leaving home is always hard when you feel like you never really got the chance to settle in. I had enough time at home to unpack the car, run around Atlanta picking up somethings here and there and pack up again for my next journey in this thing called life. Next stop Tarsus, Turkey! Traveling is suppose to be one of the easiest things about this job. Well it proved me wrong, I show up to Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson airport sad and just wanting more time to exhale and enjoy my home but excited about what could happen this year overseas. While waiting for the plane I do lots of eating my last meals! I kid you not I ate something from every restaurant in the terminal, savoring every moment of being on US soil. Then over the loud speaker they say that my flight is delayed... Im thinking no biggie, I have more time to eat and venture to the next terminal and eat something there. An hour and a half passes and I realize that Im going to miss my connecting flight out of Chicago to Istanbul. I proceed to the counter and have the Delta agent look at my flight and the status of the other one and he assures me that Ill make that flight! So I continue to wait, we finally board the plane headed to Chicago. When we get up in the air and are maybe 25 minutes into the flight the pilot comes on and says theres a storm headed our way and we are going to go around it. We made it around it and made it to Chicago, just 3hrs later than we were suppose to. Im frustrated angry and tired at this point because its 11pm EST, Im in Chicago's empty airport trying to figure out my next move. Someone says go to the International Terminal and go to the Turkish Airlines counter and see when the next flight is. I take the train from the domestic terminal to the international terminal and when I get there all counters are closed. Im like thanks my day couldn't get any worse. So I make a few phone calls one of them being to my agent and the other to Turkish Airlines, they tell me to come back to the ticket counter tomorrow they open at 9! Im like great now my next mission is to find a room for the night, I first head to the airport hotel. Standing in line waiting to get me a room the guy behind the counter says they have no rooms. Well just freaking great, next stop the courtesy phones, while there I have to wait behind about 10 other people trying to do the same thing that I needed to do. Finally its my turn, I swear I spent 15 minutes at those phones calling about 20 hotels tothe night. By this time its approaching 1am CST and as you can imagine Im pretty irritated, finally I find a room but its gonna cost me $300 for the night (actually for 7 hours). At this point, I cant complain I pay the money and go to bed thinking that tomorrow will be different. I wake up at 7:30 CST, get ready to head to the airport so that maybe I could be on the first flight headed to Istanbul. I check out and hop on the shuttle get to the international terminal and the Turkish Airlines counter is still closed. No worries, maybe Im just a little early. Needless to say I sat in the airport all day until I called Turkish Airlines and they informed me that there was only one flight to Istanbul every day and that flight left at 10:20pm and to add insult to injury no one shows up to the ticket counter until 6pm. I was heated... I get to the counter and they make me pay $400 because they have a no show policy.. I argued that my flight got in late and thats why I missed it but they didnt care. By this time I just wanted to get on the plane and sleep.. I owed it to myself at this point to upgrade to first class because I really wasnt in the mood to be all crowded in coach.

 
     After that whole ordeal I made it to Tarsus Turkey safe and sound.. My first month here was a trying one and there were many of times I asked myself why am I putting my self through this torture! Being considered a veteran at this overseas thing, I came to Tarsus expecting a few amenities that I thought were standard. I have a 3 bedroom apartment with one small tv(which I have yet to turn on) with no channels in English, a kitchen with no range or stove to cook on! I had to go up to the team apartment where there was a lady that cooked 3 meals for us. I must say I was really excited that I didnt have to cook and clean but that excitement disappeared shortly after I got here and the cook failed to cook any meat for like 3 days straight! Now lets be real an American eating meals without meat = bad attitude! Its kind of hard to practice and play with no meat in your system. Not only was there no meat in any meals the woman cooked portions for a family of 5 but there were 11 athletes attempting to get full. So as we say we had to resort in fighting for portions of food. I once asked why wasnt there ample food prepared for us and I was told that international portions are much smaller than those that Americans are accustom to. WOW! Its a good thing that Im able to cook and make myself a meal because thats what I have to do at least 3 nights a week because either there isnt enough food to get full on or there wasnt any meat! Preseason is over and now we starting to play games!

 
      The games roll around and my team is feeling pretty confident about our chances to win some games and make some noise in the Turkish league. We start the season playing against Botas who has Americans Whitney Boddie, Jolene Anderson, and Megan Frazee. We played terrible as a team, our defensive scheme was non existent and there wasnt enough points being put on the board. Needless to say we go back to the drawing board, the next game is in a week! Fenerbache is the next team on the schedule, they have Diana Taurasi and Penny Taylor. We are clearly the underdog in this match,but what's hard for me to understand even though Im a vet at this overseas thing, is that coaches verbalize and act as if they know we are going to get beat and they dont really prepare us to go to war. Do they not realize that the underdog has a fighting chance to win against the top dog because the underdog is able to make mistakes and play free because they arent suppose to win. O well, we lose and management are going nuts! The turkish players are nervous about things being said to them! After starting the season 0-2 we go on this amazing 4 game winning streak beating teams like Istanbul University, Ceyhan, Kayseri and Samsun! We are feeling good about ourselves and playing with a lot of confidence going into play Galatasaray which host Doneeka Hodges, Seimone Augustus, and Sylvia Fowles. Coach has this great game plan of playing 3 post players and having me play the 5 but bring Syl out to the 3 point line. At this point Im like ok lets see how this works. We start the game great, Im taking 3's and making 3's, the team is just playing with such confidence that we go into halftime down 2. For some reason things change after halftime, could it be that the other team made adjustments and we didnt.. O yea that could be it. To make a long story short, Gala came out ready and hammered us, at the end of 4 quarters we ended up losing by 10 points.. You can say that us Americans were pretty upset because that couldve been a big bonus if we couldve pulled out the victory! O well whats done is done.. I tell you I have been though some things since being over here.
  
     First off I wanna start by saying to PETA if you looking for someone to arrest after this story just look for Dominique Canty or Shanna Crossley. After finally renting a car so that we can escape the city on our day off, we ran into a stinky situation. Well overseas there is usually an infestation of stray cats and dogs, nothing new to us. Well by our house there were tons of cats because my teammates would take scraps to them. Well we had friends in Turkey and we were trying to show them a good time so we were driving back and forth to the mall and the beach for a week straight. So after they leave we start to smell a strange odor in the car, of course me joking I say it smells like a cat!! We let it go on for a couple of days before Shanna and Dominique decide to pop the hood and see where the smell is coming from. What do you know we have a cat stuck in our car burnt to a crisp. We all agree that one day we are gonna try to get it out ourselves before we tell anyone. Despite our efforts nothing works, Nique and I take the car to the gas station(where no one speaks English) and attempt to play charades with them to let them know that there was a cat stuck in our car. Well once they look in it and see the car everyone begins laughing at us and they procceed to try to get it out. They tried spraying water in it to get it out, poking at it with sticks but nothing worked. Finally one guy went and got a plastic grocery bag turned it inside out and reached up in the car and snatched the cats remains out. I lost it, tears falling and the feeling that I was gonna vomit was all over me. After that we asked the guy how much for getting the cat out, shockingly he said nothing, but of course he deserved something. Nique and I give them a couple lira and head home! Christmas break is upon us!
  
     In all my years of playing overseas and all the cities Ive been to, I have never been so ready to go home for Christmas break than I am now. It really didnt feel like Christmas here until a few weeks ago when I purchased a small tree and some decorations. Then the president of the team bought me some Christmas lights and Ive been singing Christmas songs since. The only bad thing about Christmas break is that its 2 short. What can you do in 7 days? Im sure Ill find a way to do a months worth or work in 7 days. Thank God for online shopping because Ive been done Christmas shopping since the 1st of December!

    Well until next time people, Im wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Puhleeze be safe out there!
   

From The Country Side To The Big Apple

   Coming into the 2010 season for me there were alot of emotions. One I was stepping back on the court for the first time since having shoulder surgery! Not only was I coming back from surgery I was leaving a city that I so loved and an organization, staff and players where I found myself coming into my own. Oh Detroit how I miss you! I headed out west and traded in my red, white and blue jersey for a black, gold and red one. Welcome the Tulsa Shock! 

   I was enthused for the WNBA to have the ability to be seen by a new group of fans, but the excitement was short lived. Preseason and training camp came and went. We were working hard trying to learn a new system when there really wasnt a system! I found this a very difficult task for me because as most of u know Im the blue collar player that just does all the little things and play defense. Well in that system I never knew when I was gonna set a screen or when I was suppose to trap this person or even what type of defense we were expected to play. Not to mention Coach Richardson and I bumped heads many of times, over my style of play. There were days when I was in Tulsa that I thought my career was over or even that I had no clue how to play the game that I so loved. I asked for a trade.. I wanted to see if my thoughts that my career was really and truly over. Then came a blessing from above, a trade went thru that sent me to the Big Apple... Wooo hooo New York City.

  Wow Im now a New York Liberty. I couldve never imagine being a Lib because there was such a big rivalry between the Libs and the Shock! I never thought that I could love New York City due to the fast pace style of life, but Ive found my second WNBA home. I think most of the fans here were on the fence about a sworn enemy joining their team but they soon learned to love me. It was clearly a breath of fresh air for me to be reunited with Taj and be able to be in a system that I could be as successful as I was in Detroit. I remember coming in to my first practice as a Liberty player and turning to Taj and saying "I cant remember the last time I set a screen on someone". She laughed but I was serious, I thing throughout my time in training camp and the few games that I played in Tulsa I may have set 1 screen. Now that I have been here a while Im in the thick of things and picking up where I left off in Detroit. Now we are in the money time... Playoffs baby!

  We had a great run to end the regular season but now we are starting a brand new season. Nothing from the regular season matters anymore. We have a tough match up against a very experienced team in Indiana. We cae out strong the first game and Indiana took the L but game two Indiana showed their experience and played much harder than we did. I didnt get to impact the game as much as I would have liked due to the fact I was in foul trouble. It was quite funny to read on Twitter after the game that one of the Fever's fan say that I was called for fouls that I commited 2 years ago. O well I shrug my shoulders and continue to believe in my team. Now for game three, mark my word, I wont be sitting on the bench due to foul trouble this game. I will be out on the court willing my team to a victory. I will be setting screens, crashing the boards, taking charges and playing lock down defense trying to secure my team the victory. This wont be an easy task but guess what neither is anything in life. If you want anything in life its up to you to take the wheel and give it your all. Everyone on my team will be ready, everyone at the Garden will be ready. THIS WILL NOT BE THE LIBERTY'S LAST GAME OF THE 2010 SEASON! Lets Go Libs!

Follow me on Twitter @ppierson234!!

 

New Additions, New City

I've been gone for a while trying to get a handle on the obstacles that life has thrown at me. Well lets take it back for a moment, Tulsa training camp was the hardest preseason workout that I've ever been thru in my career. I mean at one point in 5 and a half days we had 11 practices. Talk about being prepared! 40 Minutes of Hell is no joke, Im sad that I didn't get the opportunity to fully understand the system and enjoy wrecking havoc on other teams. While trying to figure out Coach Richardson's system, we had a disagreement that was hard for both parties to recover from. Both sides tried to reconcile our differences but ultimately it was my decision to make a move and start over new somewhere. I felt as if I wasn't able to contribute to the success of the team and that I was holding them back. Everyone knows that when you are unhappy with circumstances that are presented to you, it can make something you love to do something that you dread doing. That was the point that I was at and I expressed that to Coach Richardson and he made the trade. Im officially a New York Liberty!

Wow, back in the east once again! It really feels weird now that Im on the east coast again and not in Detroit but I couldn't have asked for a better place to be traded to. I received the warmest welcome from the staff and players here that I've ever received. I've had so many Liberty fans send warm wishes to me on Twitter and Facebook. I think New York will definitely a place that I can call my basketball home. Everything happened so fast, I received the phone call from Coach Richardson that I had been traded on Monday morning and about 2 hours later I received a phone call from Blaze (NY Liberty GM) stating that they would like me to leave that night... Whew, I had nothing packed and hadn't figured out anything as far as getting the dogs and my car to New York. I explained that it was impossible for me to take a flight out that evening and I left early the next morning. I get into New York, head to my living quarters, then Im whisked away to my first practice. It was great but yet overwhelming to get out there and have to be on a crash corse on about 50 plays as well as learn what your new teammates like to do. I got thru it and felt better about the transition, Im anxiously awaiting for Friday when I can put on my Liberty uniform for the first time. Not only did I move to New York but I also had to change my number because we all know that Cappie Pondexter wears 23, so I changed my number to 331 I changed it to 33 because Scottie Pippen wore it and he was one of the best players that was known for doing all the little things that helped win games and thats what I want to do for the Liberty. I got a new puppy!

While in Tulsa, Hump surprised with a new puppy. I was so excited because I had been really down about the things that I was going thru. We named her Kylie, she's a Chihuahua and the cutest thing ever.

Thats all for now, look for updates after my first game as Liberty and also new pics! Anything else you want to hear about just ask and Ill do my best to answer your questions in the next blog.. I love my fans!!

Transitioning In Tulsa

The much anticipated first day of training camp with my new coaching staff, new teammates, and new city. From the first day that I touched down in T town the people have been so warm and excited about our team being here. As most of you know Coach Richardson is well known for his system called "40 minutes of Hell". My teammates and I were very nervous about what to expect for the first day of training camp, much to our anticipation it really wasn't that bad. His practices are mentally and physically demanding. I say mentally and physically demanding because his system seems to be structured chaos, the only way you can make a mistake is to stop movement, at times we aren't quite sure what we are suppose to be doing. Good luck to all the other 11 teams trying to scout our offensive sets! Now lets talk about getting mentally tough... Coach Richardson has us running 3 laps around the court with our hands above our heads... Whew Im tired thinking about that! All the players that have been here and that are still here will both grow physically and mentally tougher as the course of the season goes on. Well as a veteran this year I have the upper hand on these rookies, as you know we drafted Amanda Thompson and Vivian Frieson. We have a lot of rookies on this years team and the vets decided to hand down duties to the rooks from day one. Well some of the rookies complied with the duties that were placed upon them while others were a little more defiant to the idea that the vets ruled them. So as the days went on and they became more and more defiant the vets were determined to really put the rooks in their place. We stole their car keys and then made them wash all of the vets cars. Yes we even had Marion Jones out there scrubbing the cars down. With all that said, life in Tulsa isn't so bad at all, I have great teammates and staff around me so we will be fine. We are finding our way on the court and we are very excited to get on the court and face another team to see what we can accomplish.. Watch out WNBA because the Tulsa Shock is coming through!

First Official Visit To Tulsa, Oklahoma

The time of the year has come that I must begin to start thinking about my move to Tulsa Oklahoma. Just recently I made my first trip to Tulsa to meet the staff, workout and unveil the new Shock uniforms. I must say I was nervous about this trip because Im a big city girl and now Im having to go to an extremely small city. I was worried it was going to be like when I landed in Lubbock Texas oh so many years ago. I was expecting to see cows, tumbleweed and just bunches of farm land. Tulsa actually is a very nice city, with limited entertainment. The first person that I met when I arrived at the hotel was my new teammate Marion Jones.

Wow, Marion Jones really is my teammate! What a honor it is to have the World's Fastest Woman(to say the least) playing next to me. On top of the sheer excitement that I was trying to contain, the first thing that she said to me after we introduced ourselves was that she follows my blog! DID YOU HEAR THE WORDS THAT ARE COMING OUTTA MY MOUTH? MARION JONES FOLLOWS MY BLOG(little old me)!!!! I guess I have some pressure put on these blogs now huh? Ill be sure to say nothing but nice things about her in these blogs! Okay in all seriousness, she's a very nice woman and Im thinking I cant wait to see her on the court.

Well I got my opportunity to see Marion on the court sooner than expected because the coaches called us in for a workout that very next morning. So Alexis, Marion and myself have us a mini workout that morning. For me it was just great to get back on the court after leaving overseas because of an injury. If I must say so myself, for those who have all these negative things to say about the league and even more so about the Tulsa Shock for signing Marion Jones, this woman is an athlete and will prove to each and everyone of her haters that she's not only a track star but also a basketball player. I know that all my teammates will enjoy playing with her, she's a hard worker and has lots of energy! The Tulsa Shock will surprise plenty of people that are overlooking us! Now on to the new leaders of the pack... This staff is no Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn or Cheryl Reeve!

Umm adjusting to the new style of coaching will be difficult for the players that moved in from Detroit. As most of you know, the coaching staff that we had in Detroit was truly one of a kind. I haven't really heard Coach Richardson get after someone but Im sure its nowhere near how Bill was. I think Coach Richardson philosophy will be difficult for a lot of people to handle! I say this because there is a strategy to all the running and trapping! Not only that, the fast paced game will tire us and other teams out, but my motto is nothing in life is suppose to be easy, so all I can say is that Im going to get out there and work hard on my conditioning and endurance so that Im not my teams weakest link. We look to have a great fan base out here in Tulsa!

The people in Tulsa are ready for this new team to come in and bring some excitement. When I say I was only there 2 days and there were tons of people asking if I play for the Shock and telling me they are going to be at the games. I cant wait for the first game to hear these fans get loud and blow the top off of the BOK center. While the fans are trying to blow the top off of the BOK center Ill be starting my process of giving back to the community. I will be getting involved with local youth mentoring programs throughout Tulsa attempting to be a role model that the kids can actually talk to and interact with. I will also try to get them out to the game and try to change their outlook on life! Wish me luck, this is something that I've been wanting to do for a long time and now Im finally putting this thing into action! Im urging everyone to come out and check out the Tulsa Shock because we are going to be exciting!

God Bless America

Whew, I never thought the day would come for me to finally board that plane and head back to the good ole USA! This day didn't come without some trial and tribulations, if it did it just wouldn't be right! On Thursday, March 18th I was given permission to leave Israel and go home (jumps up and down excited)! Here's where all the problems start, I call US Airways to change my flight they inform me that if I want to leave on Friday, March 19th the change fee would be $800(difference in the price of the ticket) plus $250(change fee), I had to sit back and think how bad did I really want to leave Israel! I decided that I would check out my other options, well my other options were slim pickings because the next time that I could fly on that airlines was on March 27th and I had to pay $400(difference in the price of the ticket) plus $250(change fee), decisions decisions! I opted out out of both those options and just decided to purchase a whole new ticket and leave when I wanted. So when all my plans were finalized, my roommates threw me a going away party at our apartment and quite a few people showed up! It was the nicest thing that has happened to me by my teammates overseas. I had a blast and was sad to leave those guys! We will meet again soon!!

So on my flight home, I was so excited to just be on that flight that it was very difficult to sleep! Not only was I excited and couldn't sleep but the guy that was sitting next to me had the worst smelling breath ever. It seemed like it was messing with me, the smell kept finding its way to my nose no matter what I put over my face! Not only did his breath stink, when he fell asleep he slept with his mouth open and kept leaning towards me! How did I ever get so lucky? Usually like 30 or 40 minutes before the flight lands people get up and go to the bathroom and prepare themselves to see their loved ones. You know brush your teeth and wash your face, not this guy he slept the entire time until it was time to get off the plane! Instead of selling drinks and duty free items they should sell toothbrushes and toothpaste especially on these long flights! I really need to start carrying mints and gum on all flights just for situations like this one! Im running off this flight when it land, 11 and a half hours on a flight with someone with stinky breath makes for a terrible flight!

Home sweet home!!! Im going to lay on my sofa and watch every show that comes on until I fall asleep. I miss everything about America and my home! I never want to leave again, sike Ill be gone to Tulsa in a month!

The Revolving Door In Ramla Israel!

So many people think that its all fun and great for professional athletes to travel abroad and experience new cultures but the truth is.... Just as great as it seems we also have to deal with things that are so foreign to us when it comes to this profession. Where o where do I begin? In this profession its both tough on the coaches as well as the players to perform to the best of their abilities due to different circumstances. Well since I've been in Israel(3 short months) I have had 3 coaches! When I arrived my head coach (formerly my assistant coach from 3 years before) was demoted to assistant coach and another coach was brought in! This change occurred all because we lost one game that we should have won and because we didn't have morning practice 2 days in a row! The next coach that they brought in was someone who coached a team that was in last place in the league! That went well for a while until we came up on the task of winning the Israeli Cup. Our opponent was our arch rival Ramat HaSharon(featured Kia Vaughn, Sheri Sam, Laine Selwyn, and Ambrosia Anderson), needless to say it was a tough battle for our team that became even tougher when I went down early in the 3rd quarter with a shoulder injury. My team fought hard while I was out of the game and came back from a 17 point deficit to bring the game within 6. Here's where all the mess starts to happen... Im sitting on the bench in obvious pain but yet cheering my teammates on and Ive got 15 people( obvious exaggeration) in my ear telling me to get back into the game. Im telling them what is a one arm bandit suppose to do out there. Their only concern was to win the game, so me being the person that I am, I enter the game still in pain but just going to hush all the people! I get out there and my teammates start calling plays for me and on top of that I STILL HAVE TO GUARD KIA VAUGHN! O my gosh, I make it thru the game but of course my teammates are concerned about my arm but others are concerned that we didn't win the game! There's no time to ponder on what went wrong in the game because as soon as the buzzer went off to end the game our newly hired head coach quits unexpectedly! So now Im hurt and we have to sit and wait to see who will be our next head coach and we have the next round of the playoffs starting in 2 days! Well after the game I take it upon myself to ask to see someone about my shoulder and weigh my options! Of course they always tell us that nothing major is wrong just rest for a few days, I sit back and think about all the hard work that I put in to get my shoulder healthy after surgery and all the games that I missed this past season in the WNBA and make another tough decision and decide to sit out! This news is like a natural disaster hitting Ramla Israel, I have the fans telling me that Ramla wont take the championship if I dont play, and the organization telling me that I will be good enough to play even if Im not 100%! I stand strong to my decision and I dont play! Well now that my head coach has quit and I've made it clear that I will protect myself and not play, the team must decide who our next head coach will be.... well what do you know, my assistant coach(formerly my demoted head coach) is not back in the driver seat! Who would have ever known? Here comes my second job, I turn from player to assistant coach!

We are heading into the first game of the five game series against Ashdod(features Natasha Lacy, Christi Thomas, and Ashley Walker). We are clearly the undersized opponent in this one and everyone has lost faith in us because Im not playing, but I have all the confidence in my team and I know that even though Im on the sideline in jeans I can still contribute! So my team takes the floor and Im looking at our opponent and it seems to me that they think this will be an easy game because we are a man down..... NEGATIVE!!! We jumped out on them early and smashed there hopes of an easy game, they fought back and even regained the lead but that didn't stop us! My duties as an assistant coach was some substitutions and helping calm players down and giving my advice on how to execute on offense and defense(one of my many leadership skills I learned in Detroit studying Katie Smith and Deanna Nolan)! The game goes on and its coming down to the wire... we have about 1 minute to go in the game and we are tied, I have a player at the free throw line shooting 2! She misses the first one and everyone gasps, there is a small problem with the announcer on the microphone, he's screaming in the mic every time we are on the free throw line! Everyone is calmed down and the announcer is relieved of his duties, we shoot the second free throw and its good! Time out is called, My player that missed the free throw is crushed about missing, I simply walk over to her and say no worries we are about to get a monster stop and we ARE going to win this game! She looks at me like yea ok, time out over, they get the ball and what do you know the ref calls a traveling violation, our ball! Im jumping and screaming and nervous all at the same time.. my team is poised and get to the other end of the court and get fouled! We are shooting 2! We make both free throws and now we are up 3, Im thinking we cant go into OT my team wont survive, I look at the scoreboard and realize we are up 3 and if we foul they will shoot 2 free throws and I start screaming FOUL FOUL FOUL! No one hears me, but at the last possible second Noelle Hears me and foul Natasha Lacy just as she's on her way to the basket! Whew close call! She steps to the line for the first one CLANG, she misses it! She makes the next one and we advance the ball, they end up fouling and we knock down to more free throws! WE WIN, WE WIN! My first game as an assistant coach and we win a game that the odds were against us! Wow what an amazing feeling! Now that we won that game I have the task of rallying my girls for another win at home!

I just relived that moment in this blog!! I've learned many lessons in my life and I know that the things that I have experienced from sitting on the bench and learning from great leaders like Katie Smith, Deanna Nolan, Rick Mahorn and Cheryl Reeve will make me a better player and a better leader as I enter a new chapter in my career! TULSA HERE I COME!

P.S. My shoulder is doing good.. Sitting out is a precautionary measure! Definitely have to make sure Im healthy for my first season in Tulsa!

Part taking in the rich culture that Israel has to offer

The playoffs is the time where most teams are at a peak in the season, everyone knows their role and is fulfilling it to their best ability. Well my team has a bit of difficult with that! Everyone thinks that basketball is basketball all over the world and its true in some aspects. Let me try to explain the difference between WNBA basketball and international basketball! WNBA basketball is based on talent, skills and the ability to fit within a system, international basketball is based on your citizenship. If you are an American, you will play 40 mins and be expected to win all games yourself. This concept is hard for the international players because that limits their time on the court. With that said this is why my team has such difficulty! Unlike most teams who have 3 Americans, we have 4 players who have either played in the WNBA or who are currently playing in the WNBA which leaves one spot open for the rest of the team to play! This is one of our major barriers that we have yet to find a happy medium with. Its hard to be a player that is expected to do so much and be so close to the Israelis! I say this because they wanna play just like the next person but their is only 40 mins for them to split between 4 players! Its hard to win a game to advance to the next round in the playoffs and have your teammates upset because they didn't play the mins that they thought they would. But what do I know, I've never been in this position ever in my life (sarcastically speaking). I explain to them all the time that its not about the mins you play but about what you give us when you are out there! We then have this never ending argument about how they cant get into the game because they play for a minute then get taken out of the game (I haven't been there before either)! I let the issue go and tell them to go get a dvd of any Detroit Shock game starting in 2005 and tell me that you couldn't find something to do in those few mins on the court that could possibly lead to more mins the next game! Enough for that needless to say we moved on o the second round of playoffs and have so many more games to come!

After working hard its always a plus to party hard, so on Friday here in Israel they have holiday called Purim, which is similar to our Halloween in which they dress up in costumes! So since Im loved by everyone over here and Im so silly, the sports channel here wanted to do something special with a couple mens and women's basketball players for Purim! So I met with the producer, crew and the mens basketball players and found out that my role was to be a costume designer and I had to dress all of the mens players! Can u say hilarious!!!! There was one bit of information that they waited til the last minute to inform me that I would be wearing a costume and they had it already picked out to me! The costume of choice was a DOMINATRIX! I was a good sport about it and put it on, I got into character quick after my make-up and costume was on. I had a blast doing the show, hopefully when it airs everyone who watches it will die laughing too. So on to my own costume of choice for my first Purim party, I searched high and low for the right costume and I found it after 2 whole hours of searching, I was gonna be a Brazilian Carnival Queen! My outfit was banging, my roomies also got into the spirt, they were dressed as Little Bow Peep, a Gypsy, and a Bunny!!! We were one of the few Americans that actually got into the holiday spirit! We even enter the costume contest but we didn't win, Austin Powers won!

Often times we complain about our life being hard but really we are BLESSED and it takes seeing someone in down and out to make us realize that we could have it worst! The city where I play in is known for crime and poverty, the team is the only positive thing going for the people of this city. After shopping all day looking for our Purim costumes, we are driving thru our neighborhood when I spot a young girl who may have been 8 or 9 years old digging thru the garbage near the bakery. I ask my teammate to stop the car so that I could see what she was digging for, it turns out that she was digging for the bread that the bakery had thrown out! Our hearts went out to the little girl, we turned the car around and went back! We tried repetitively to get her to come over to the car but of course she spoke no English and we didn't speak any Hebrew, after she got close enough to see what we wanted, we gave her 200 shekels ($50 USD)! If u could've seen the look on her face it was truly priceless! Moral of the story give from the heart because you never know whose life you might change with just a small gesture!

Jerusalem.. The Place Where It All Started

Well for the first time in over a month I actually woke up and left my apartment while the sun was still shining. Today was destined to be a wonderful day. Why you ask? Today is the day that I head to Jerusalem on a sightseeing venture with Noelle Quinn, my assistant coach Noa Ricanti, Edwige Lawson-Wade and her sister. This day was deemed to be an adventure from the moment we hit the road. All five of us decided to pile in my Mazda 6 (which was the biggest car of all of us) and set out towards Jerusalem, which was only 35 to 40 minutes away from Ramla. Well me are on our merry little way when my car starts to act strange! We all glance at each other like did you hear that? Needless to say we keep going never hesitating to check out the noises, so about 10 minutes before our scheduled arrival in Jerusalem, the car decides that its gonna make the noises louder and not pick up speed at all! Luckily we are near an exit off the highway and make it to a safe destination before the care just completely quits on us. We call the rental car company and they tell us wait 20 to 25 minutes and we will have you another car! As we wait on the arrival of our replacement car we decide to walk the streets and see some of the sights in the village that we were in, we didn't have to go far. On the side of the road there was a stand that was selling some bread and hummus (Israeli dip), we venture over and check things out when we realize they are actually cooking something over there. The Israeli people are very resourcefully, they have made a metal barrel in to some sort of barbecue pit and place a round pan over the top to cook one of the local delicacies. We were amazed by the popularity of this style of cooking because we all know that if we say this in America we would think that something was wrong and never give the food a try. So after we are done exploring we notice that twenty five minutes come and gone and still no sign of a car, after an hour of patiently waiting the tow truck with another car arrives. We all cheer for the new car until we get it off of the tow truck and realize that its a Hundai Accent. Lets see we have 5 people in the car 2 of which are 6' and over and 2 which at 5'9" or 5'10" and a short person in the back! Lets talk about a tight squeeze, Noelle and my knees are in the dashboard while the others are practically sitting on top of each other. All that doesnt matter at that point because we were just glad to have a car to continue our journey up the road to Jerusalem! That joy all ended when we got on the highway and realized that this car is not so great after all because it has no pickup! We were getting passed by all the old people on the road driving 60mph, so that made a 10 minute drive more like 25 minutes.

Ahhh we made it to Jerusalem finally and I have my camera in hand all ready to snap a picture of everything! The first thing we see after getting out of the car is this building with writing all over it. I know what you are thinking, its just graffiti, we see it everyday in the states but actually it was a building that had been up for a hundred years and when it was taken apart the first time the builders wanted to make sure that every stone was put back into its exact place as before so they numbered every single brick! Can you imagine how long that took to put it back together again? Next stop was inside the walls of the Old City, we are making our way through the crowded streets trying to make our way to the next stop, but we cant quite make it there in a timely manner because every shop owner along the way tries to drag you into his store to have you purchase any and everything within his store! Geez can I please see the sights before I start spending my money on things that I don't even know the meaning of? Whew, I make it out without purchasing anything, I'm one of the few survivors that can actually say that. Next stop the area where Jesus met his mother for the last time, where his body was brought after being taken off the cross and bathed, and also the cave where his body lies. You want to talk about a chilling experience, well this is it! As we enter this area, in the front entrance was the place where the people brought Jesus after being taken down from the cross to be bathed. Noelle, Edwige and myself had the opportunity to do what some many others wish they could do and that was to place our hands on the very place that Jesus laid his head for the last time. Behind the place where they bathed Jesus, there was a mural of his last moments before his burial! Its so amazing to actually see these events in one picture. Next step was to view the place where Jesus met his mother for the last time, the area was beautiful, everything was a shiny gold and just a marvelous sight to see.. Now to the what everyone comes to Jerusalem for, thats the place where Jesus' body was laid to rest! It was an experience that you cant describe what emotions are going through your body as you enter the cave where his tomb is and actually get to kneel and pray before his body.

As I sit here and try to describe the sights and emotions that I was experiencing, I feel them going through my body all over again! All in all this was my favorite trip in all my years of playing professionally overseas. I KNOW that Ill NEVER forget this trip ever in my life! If you get the chance you should come experience and gain the knowledge that I have from visiting Jerusalem.

Another Day Another Challenge

As the world turns, everything in Ramla Israel seems to be turned upside down after their beloved Women's Basketball team suffered a playoff loss at the hands of a team that they have deemed less talented than their squad. After that loss we have several meetings about how we were an embarrassment and shouldn't have lost and what do we need to fix for the next game. Needless to say we were also told that we spend too much time hanging out and not enough time thinking about basketball, so we were kind of put on curfew (yea right, Im 28 years old). Well my roommates and I decided that we would abide by the rules that have been placed for us and we slept the day away until 9:30pm. Suddenly, we all find ourselves wide awake and unable to leave the house to do anything, so we decide to make a dance video. The video turned out great and we really learned a lot about ourselves that night. Well we came into practice the next day more focused than ever before. We came up with a game plan to contain Mistie Williams and Edwina Brown and ultimately a game plan to win the game!

Game Day people Game Day!! Everyone on the staff is nervous about the game and directing their nervousness on the players but this is when I step up and remind everyone that we have prepared for this moment and this game will be ours! Well tip- off comes and we come out blasting shots and following our game plan to a T!!! Im in my zone, giving my team all that I have and so are my teammates. We win the game by 14 points and everyone is so happy but Im exhausted. I played 39 minutes had 35 points and 17 rebounds all the while battling Mistie Williams who is way strong than I am! So now that we have that victory under our belt we move one step closer to the Israeli Cup title! Now we have a day off.... what am I to do with my time off... SLEEEEEEPPPP!!! On Saturday Ill be sightseeing in Jerusalem with my teammates and assistant coach. Pictures will follow but for now enjoy our dance video!

Playoffs in Ramla Israel

Playoffs begin with us matching up with a team from Jerusalem! This was deemed to be an easy game for us but we all know how the game of basketball is so unpredictable. Well with that said the game turned out to be much tougher than we had prepared for! Battling Mistie Williams in the post with no subs while trying to contain Edwina Brown's penetration along with a host of players that are capable of knocking down 3's at any time proved to be to much for my squad to handle! We lost the game by 2 points and now everyone in Israel thinks its the end of the world because such a great team with great players lost to a lesser team. As I try to explain to them that its not the end of the world, as I recall the Detroit Shock didn't win every playoff on their quest to their 3rd title. The killing part about this playoff loss is that its a best of 5 series, we have 4 more opportunities to beat this team 3 times. On this Thursday we play Jerusalem (yes the same team that we are playing in the playoffs) in a single game elimination game for the Israeli cup. We have a big task ahead of us but we can handle it, thats what we get paid for to win the big games. Stay tuned for so much more!