Nike Trip to Brazil
This has been an amazing summer. From the CP3 Elite Backcourt Camp to the Paul Pierce, Steve Nash, and LeBron James Nike Skills Academies to Jamaica’s JBD Camp, this summer has been one of the most rewarding of my professional career and certainly one I will never forget. But it sure went by fast! And what better way to wrap up this whirlwind of extraordinary events than to travel to Brazil for 10 days with an elite Nike travel team, composed of several of the nation’s top high school players.
Every once in a while, it hits me like a ton of bricks, how fortunate I am to do what I do for living. I mean, this is my job! I live and breath strength training and conditioning, have a burning passion for working with athletes, and have always felt basketball is the greatest sport on the planet. And I get paid to combine all three. Wow. I do my best to not take this for granted. I am very thankful to make a good living doing what I love as well as for all of the remarkable opportunities I have had. Basketball has done a lot for me. It has given me lifelong friends. It has paid for my college. It has helped me meet some of the best players and coaches in history. It has taken me around the world and given me experiences I would have never had otherwise. I am proof that this game can be a vehicle for you to go where ever you want in life. You don’t have to be a pro basketball player for basketball to make your dreams come true. However, always make sure you use basketball, don’t let it use you!
Nike, the undisputed king of elite youth basketball, understands the importance of globalizing the sport and of giving deserving players a very unique, international experience. That is why they initiated this trip to Brazil. Two years ago I went to France on a similar trip. You know who was on that roster? Thaddeus Young (NBA), Javaris Crittenton (NBA), Brook and Robin Lopez (NBA), Chase Budinger (Arizona), Nick Calathes (Florida), Nic Wise (Arizona), Jeff Allen (Virginia Tech), and Jeff Jones (Virginia) – all current and (probable) future NBA players. That should give you some good insight to how Nike predicts this group will turn out: Xavier Henry, Avery Bradley, Keith “Tiny” Gallon, Milton Jennings, Tommy Mason-Griffin, Daniel Orton, Alex Oriakhi, Phil Pressey, and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel. Print this roster and save it, as all of these kids are major Division I prospects and a few of them are sure fire future superstars!
The head coach was Raphael Chillious, one of the nation’s former top prep coaches at South Kent Prep (now works for Nike Basketball) and former standout point guard at Layfayette and professional player overseas. He was assisted my Wyking Jones (also of Nike Basketball) who played at Loyola Marymount as well as overseas. Per my normal job description, I was the team’s strength & conditioning coach. The trip’s liaison was Fabio Malavazzi, a former legendary Brazilian pro player and commentator for ESPN Deportes. Fabio is an incredible man and ensured we got a true taste of Brazil. I can’t say enough good things about Chills, the King, and Fabio, as these three guys represent everything that is right about youth basketball and have a huge impact over the players they work with.
The trip began when we all flew to New York on Thursday August 14th and then, as a group, flew from New York to Sau Paulo, Brazil the evening of Friday August 15th. We flew overnight, which helped ease the 9+ hour flight as almost everyone got a little bit of sleep, although getting comfortable on an airplane when you are over 6’ 6” is not easy.
Saturday, August 16th
Our flight was delayed two hours because of weather, so we arrived late Saturday morning in Sau Paulo and missed our connection to Belo Horizante. The next flight wasn’t until 1:00pm so we ate lunch at the Sau Paulo airport at an SP Burger, a Brazilian fast food joint. Immediately we could tell how difficult this trip would have been without Fabio, as very few people in Brazil speak English very well (Portuguese is the primary language). It was funny trying to communicate with the folks who spoke Portuguese, as all of us did the same thing over and over – spoke very s-l-o-w-l-y as if that would help them understand. It didn’t matter how slowly we spoke, they didn’t get it!
We finally caught our flight and went straight to the Hotel San Diego, a very nice hotel. Everything in the hotel seemed “American” except you had to use your room key to access your room’s electricity. Once you opened the door there was a slot next to the light switch where you had to put your key in order to access any lights, TV, or air conditioning. It only took me 30 minutes to figure this out! I would have called the front desk to ask after flipping switches on and off with no result for about 5 minutes, but they didn’t speak English either! Once we got unpacked we took a chartered bus to the Minas Tenis Club for practice. This club was ginormous! It is the world’s largest health/country club with over 70,000 members! It was like a college campus. There were games being played in the arena so we practiced in one of the side gyms. Since we only had nine players, I got to lace up and play, which is always a thrill for me. Here I am, in my early thirties, getting a chance to run hoop with future NBA stars, like a fantasy camp. Are you serious, this is my job?!? Practice was OK, the guys played hard, but you could tell the 24 hours of straight travel took its toll on them. After practice we headed back to the hotel to eat dinner. Here I was introduced to my new favorite drink, Gaulana. I am not a soda guy at all, but this stuff was good! I think I drank it at every meal.
Sunday, August 17th
After a nice buffet breakfast we headed back to the arena to play our first game against Fluminense FC (from Brasilia) at 10:00am. Their team played hard, but was severely outmatched at every position, as we cruised to an easy 70 point win. Xavier Henry, our all around best player, had 29 points and scored at ease from all over the court. We were playing international rules and the 24 second shot clock kept the game moving at a fast pace. After the game we went out to the outdoor pool to hang out. Despite being winter in Brazil, it was 80 degrees without a cloud in the sky. Absolutely perfect weather. The pool area was packed! The only place I have seen a pool more packed was the Rehab pool party at the Hard Rock in Vegas. The kids had fun trying to spit game to the girls, which was almost impossible given the language barrier. All the girls could do was smile and giggle. But at least our guys tried. After the pool we went to a famous Brazilian Barbeque, Porcau, which had some of the best food I have ever had in my life. In addition to a 5 star buffet, waiters came to the table every few minutes with a different meat on an iron skewer which they would hand slice on to your plate. They had chicken, lamb, and every type of beef/sirloin you could imagine… all marinated, salted, and cooked to perfection. After lunch we headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap. We then got the guys up and took them to a local dance club so they could see some Brazilian nightlife. It was definitely different than the clubs in the US, as they played Brazilian music all night long and everyone (except for us) put Dancing with the Stars to shame! Our guys continued to try to mack on the ladies to no avail. At least they were persistent.
Monday, August 18th
After breakfast we took a bus ride to a local orphanage to play with the kids. This, as expected, was extremely rewarding, not only for the foster kids, but for our group as well. Seeing kids with no families is heartbreaking and reminded us how lucky we are. We had an absolute blast and the kids were thrilled. They did a few local dances for us and gave us each a homemade “arts and crafts” present. Later in the day we held our first coaching clinic for club and pro coaches in Belo Horizante. There were numerous coaches in attendance and our drills were very well received. I have been speaking at clinics across the country for years now, but it was a new experience for me having to be translated as I spoke. I would basically tell the team of demonstrators what I wanted them to do and why it was important and then Fabio would translate into Portuguese. The kids who demonstrated did a phenomenal job. I was swarmed by players and coaches when it was done and gave out 40 business cards in less than 60 seconds! As soon as the clinic was over it was game time. We played the Minas Tenis Club’s team. They were much better than the team we played the previous night. They had an incredible 16 year old point guard who could do it all. He was a great leader, had the ball on a string, saw every play one pass ahead, and got everyone on his team involved. I would love to see this kid play in the US, and I am sure I will, as he will most certainly end up on a major college program’s roster. Our guys started off slow, but then cruised to a 40 point win. Avery Bradley played well on both ends and ended with 29 points. Both Coach Chills and I knew our guys were going to come out slow as they were kind of goofing around in warm-ups. We told them after the game, it is not who you play, it is how you play and a real professional prepares the same way for every opponent.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Today was an easy day, a day off from practice and games, so we took a day trip to Oura Puerta (historic area of Brazil) and got to see a famous church and museum. The best part of the trip was listening to the kids freestyle and rip on each other in fun, which if you know high school kids, is just a part of their culture. One of our players told another player his “feet looked like he played soccer with hot rocks when he was younger” to which he shot back “yeah? your breath smells like the inside of Bernard Hopkins’ boxing gloves.” This stuff went on the entire trip and was absolutely hilarious!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
We woke up pretty early and caught a 10:00am flight to Sau Paulo. It was a short and easy flight. We had an hour bus ride to the Hotel Atlantica and got to see a lot of the city. Belo Horizante has about 4 million citizens and Sau Paulo close to 21 million (making it the second largest city in the world, behind Mexico City). To compare, Sau Paulo has twice as many people as New York City! The Hotel Atlantica was big time! We ate a magnificent buffet lunch when we arrived and then had several hours of free time. The outdoor pool, where I chose to hang out, was gorgeous. Around 3pm, Anderson Varejao, a Brazilian native and player for the Cleveland Cavaliers joined us with Lloyd Pierce, the Cavs Director of Player Development. At night we went to a professional soccer game and saw the pro team from Sau Paulo win 3-1. The stadium held 78,000 and was the size of most US football stadiums. Soccer in Brazil is religion and their players are national icons. Professional soccer is played year round. Can you imagine if pro football or basketball was played in all 12 months?
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Today we visited another orphanage. This one was much larger and was kind of a combo school – recreation center – orphanage. There were hundreds of kids, mostly elementary school age. We walked from classroom to classroom to say hello and then spent most of our time out in the courtyard playing with the kids and signing autographs. The kids went crazy for autographs. We were signing hats, shirts, and even arms! I laugh when I say “we”, because for some reason these kids wanted my autograph too! I signed well over a hundred autographs. It felt cool to be a rock star, even if only for an hour, and even if they were young kids who didn’t speak a lick of English! We had the rest of the afternoon off and then headed to our game against Pinheiros Club. Again, our guys came out sluggish, which was to be expected after two days off from playing, practicing, or even shooting. Our guys played hard and won by 30. Avery Bradley had 21 and Keith “Tiny” Gallon was unstoppable in the post and finished with 20. One thing to keep in mind is that our group is a hand selected team of All American caliber talent. Each of these guys is used to dropping 30 or 40 points any given night, so it is normal to have some chemistry issues when we were playing against teams that have played together year round. Overall, our guys did a great job. I also forgot to mention that because things can get pretty hectic in Sau Paulo, and we are traveling with high school age kids (and an NBA player), Nike hired two full time security guards to escort us everywhere we go. That is just another example of how Nike Basketball does things right and spares no expense for its players!
Friday, August 22, 2008
We had off all morning so we got to watch USA beat Argentina in the Olympic semifinals. At 4:30pm was our game against Athletic Paulistano. They were by far the best team we had faced. We were down at halftime after another slow start, but got fired up after Coach Chills’ halftime speech, and ended up winning by 14. Avery Bradley continued his stellar offensive consistency and led the team with 25 points. Xavier Henry, who was ranked by ESPN as the #1 player in the nation earlier in the week, finished with 23, including 5 three pointers. Phil Pressey was a defensive menace and pressured the ball 94 feet, all night long. We ended the trip 4-0 and got contributions from everyone.
While we all had an amazing time in Brazil, a once in a lifetime experience, I think everyone was ready to head home. Many of these kids have only slept in their own beds a handful of times since mid June, having gone from the NBPA Top 100 Camp to Position Skills Academy to LeBron James Skills Academy to Peach Jam to either Orlando or Vegas to the Global Challenge to Brazil. And most of them start school Monday! Oh well, the price of fame I guess.
I certainly enjoyed this trip and want to thank Nike Basketball for giving me this opportunity. I also want to thank Coach Chills, the King, and Fabio for all of their efforts. I really had a blast talking hoops, talking about life, and really getting to know those guys.
If you would like to contact me about this blog, my MVP Vertical Jump Training DVD, my training and/or camps and clinics, please email me at Alan@StrongerTeam.com. I will respond as quickly as possible!
Train hard. Train smart.
Alan Stein, CCS, CSCS
Vertical Jump Expert