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!