LOOKING TO PLAY "ANYWHERE" WILL GET YOU TO PLAY NOWHERE

Where Do You Want To Play?

“I just want to play does not matter where”……

WRONG! It does.

“I just want a foot at the door”

Wrong again. That might get you a broken toe. But sure enough not a rising career.

You want to know where you are going.

No vessel ever arrived at its destination without a map or some guidance to where it wants to go. They never roam around and accidentally hit their destination.

Same with your career. You want to adopt "Ready, Aim Shoot" approach.

You want to express your dreams and aim to where you want to go. Now, there might be more than one way to get there. But if you don’t define where you want to go, how will you ever get there.

Now, I am all about “Aim for the moon so if you fail you end up with the stars.” So lets define your moon.

Furthermore, in the bible it says - “Ask and it will be given; Seek and you will find; Knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).

So who am I to argue, right? So here is how I see it: We need to ask first, than seek and once found knock. But I have learnt you have to ask specifically and add few details, to make it clear and compelling. If you will ask in a general fashion - I want to play professionally - a random ABA team (no disrespect) will come along and tell you - we will pay you $20 for every 10 people you bring to a game. Did that answer your prayers? Yes, it did. You asked too general. So why wouldn’t you ask more specifically and don’t be afraid to dream big. One could say:"I want to play in this and that league and make $100k a season. And win an All-Star game MVP, while at it”/ More specific and far more exciting, right? How does that sound as a target to hit? Well, now we are getting specific.

Now we can ask the right questions. Which will help us go out and seek. Which league is paying $100k? How do I get to play there?

So we have done step one which is asking. Now what?

Now - seeking.

Which league pays this kind of money?

Or

If your target is to play in the Euroleague or any other European competition. You want to seek the countries who send teams to the Euroleague, Euro cup, Champions League and so on.

Lets say Spain. Just for the sake of it. In Spain you can hit both targets. Players are being paid $100k and they have teams who compete in the Euroleague, Eurocup and Champions league. They have 11 teams who take part in the European competition arena, so that might be a good market if this is your goal.

What are we left with to do?

“Ask and it will be given; Seek and you will find; Knock and the door will be opened to you”

Lets knock.

In order to knock on the right doors, we need to find them and then get to them. In the basketball world I found that at this point you want ask for advice- help and network.

If you want to go any deeper on “How to ask for help” let me know and I will send you the free report on how to do it in our business. In this report I share the tools I have used to cross the ocean, come back to the USA and go overseas again, just by sharing my desire with the right people and asking for help the right way.

Back to our “biblical” discussion.

So where do I knock? The mechanics of how are in the report I mentioned above. But let me just intrigue your curiosity and ignite your imagination.

Remember that back in the day all college basketball conferences would mention in their stars’ profile “6 degrees of separation from MJ”?

Somehow people found way to connect, through a friend of a cousin or a long lost uncle who once met with or saw in person…

Your trick is no different. That is how you should see it regards to your market.

Ask yourself -

“who do I know who played there?”

“Who played in my school and went playing overseas? And might know someone who can tell me more.

Find these people and ask them to introduce you. Ask for their advice. Ask them if they know someone who can help you.

Now please consider, especially if you don’t have a close relationships with that person, you want to be polite, positive and ask for advise.. Be clear about what is that you are looking for. They are smart enough. You don’t need to be rude or annoying in any way. If they would know about a specific opening, they will let you know. They got the idea.

Now here is the kicker. Where we all falling short at times. We try 2 - 3 things and when they don’t work - we give up. Or stop trying or life gets in the way.

We give it a shot and don’t follow through.

We all have been in that place.

But we don’t have to stay there.

You want it hard enough?

Good!

Make sure you know why. Why do you want it so bad.

Surround yourself with the right supporting minds and go at it.

And after getting stocked, refused or just out of air - keep getting up, keep trying, maybe change something and then try again.

And be consistent and follow through.

You told a contact you will call again on Wednesday? Make sure to call on Wednesday.

He/She said “keep me posted” Let them now how the call went.

When I just started I set myself a goal of 3 new people every day. I had very little/ few connections. But I was polite, positive and consistent.

That is exactly what I have done. Every day I asked / found /contacted 3 new people, shared what is that I was looking for and follow through when they told me to.

Now, we were talking about Euroleague and Champions league. right? lets get realistic. From a small school (or just no real draft looks) it is going to be hard to get straight to the Euroleague. Rarely that would happen. Not because you are not good enough. Because you need to grow and develop as a pro baller into a Euroleague star.

Remember I started by saying they will be more than one way to get there? That is where it gets diverse. There are many ways to get to the top of Europe. These are your ”stepping up” leagues.

These are the secondary /lower level leagues that are feeding those monstrous level leagues. Lets talk names, ok? Brian Roberts finished at Dayton. He played one season for A.S Galil in 2008 (Where I’ve coached 3 years earlier) and than he went through 3 growing seasons in the German league. After that he scored a contract in the NBA. Now he is back in Europe playing for Unicaja Malaga (Spanish League and Eurocup).

Thaddus McFadden is another great example even better for smaller school guys. A Flint Michigan native, who needed Juco to get by. Played for St. Clair CC. And than at Fairmont St, a DII school. Got it? A flint Michigan, then Juco and than DII.

So he played in the Czech Republic for 3 years. Nothing fancy. And than went to Germany and fail miserably.

Gave up? no. Not this tough Flint guy.

Found his next team and did well again. And than Cyprus and the Eurocup came along and this guy was on the rise all the way to the champions league with Tenerife averaging 12 ppg in the 18/19 campaign. Not bad for a Juco, DII kid, right?

To show you - it happens time and again. Those who stay positive, coachable and never stop looking to improve are the ones that being picked up even after a not-as-good seasons.

Back to our main lesson - Ready Aim Shoot.

Or better yet:

“Ask and it will be given; Seek and you will find; Knock and the door will be opened to you”

Ask - Define what is that you want.

Seek - Find which league/team/ competition you want. And figure out the stepping up leagues which lead to where you want to go.

Knock - communicate with these teams, leagues or people that can connect you to where you want to go.

And we will wrap up with 2 things to always remember -

One - Stepping up leagues are there for a reason. Playing there will help you grow improve and develop as a player and a person.

Two - be consistent pursuing your dream. Day in and day out. It is the hard work we do in private that we get rewarded in public. In this day and age - networking is one of them.

We at “Around The Rim” will be happy to hear how is your journey working for you so far and please let us know if we can be of service.