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From February 21st through
March 3rd, a group from Jordan Brand will travel to
Europe to select 12 players for the inaugural
International Game as part of the Jordan Brand Classic
on Saturday, April 19th at Madison Square Garden in New
York City. The following is a blog and daily photo
gallery from Kevin Foley, who will be along for the
trip.
Vilnius (February 23):
I don't think any of the players were prepared
for the amount of basketball instruction they
were about to receive at the Sarunas
Academy. The day started out at 8 am with
Tim Grover, Michael Jordan's former trainer,
taking the kids through a three-hour strength
and conditioning workout. The drills
tested many the player's limits with strength,
endurance and agility. It was an
incredible insight watching a coaching legend,
who helped the best player in the world, show
these kids across the world tips on improving
themselves as basketball players. The 30
players represented 12 countries here at this
regional site (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia,
Ukraine, Czech Republic, Belarus, Poland,
Finland, Sweden, Norway, Slovakia,
Netherlands). Even though some of
the drills were extremely intricate, it was
great to see the universal language of
basketball making it easy for everyone to
participate. During the lunch
break I had the opportunity to walk into the
town of Vilnius. As you may or may not
know, Lithuania was a part of the Soviet Union
(broke off in 1990) and is located in the
northern part of Eastern Europe. It is a
cold, dark place -- rained all three days we
have been here -- but the people are very
friendly and the architecture is absolutely
amazing. There are some of the most
beautiful churches here. Unfortunately,
not a lot of people speak English and the
language is very different. You can walk
through the city looking at the signs and not
have a clue what any of the stores sell by their
names unless you look in the windows. During
the afternoon session, Ganon Baker focused the
players on skill development and basketball
training techniques. Anyone who has seen
Ganon in action knows that he is a
high-intensity guy. He brought all sorts
of equipment to help them during the drills such
as boxing gloves ('you need to be able to score
in physical situations') and large paddles to
block lay-ups. After the final session of
Ganon's drills, the players are raced to the
water station. That pretty much sums up
the intensity level. In the
evening, we broke the kids up into four teams to
play a series of competitive games in order for
our scouts to be start breaking down the
talent. We will have an all-star game
tomorrow and then four MVPs will be selected to
represent the regional camp at the Jordan Brand
Classic International Game in April. Stay
tuned!!!! |
