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For the
second straight year, a group from Jordan Brand
will travel to Europe -- this time to Vilnius,
Lithuania -- for a two-day training camp with 40
of the top prospects in the world from March
4-9. Ten players will be selected as the
Most Valuable Players from the camp and they
will travel to the United States in April, along
with six players from other regions of the world
to compete in the second annual
International Game as part of the Jordan Brand Classic
on Saturday, April 18th 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.
Travel
Day (March 9): I am sitting in the
Copenhagen Airport at the moment in
Denmark. We left Vilnius this morning at a
very early hour and took off in a very bad
snowstorm. I now know the job that I would
never want in my life -- the de-icer guy who is
up on a crane at six in the morning at the
Vilnius Airport preparing aircrafts during
winter weather. I do not think it could
get much colder than that job. In fact, of
everyone that I tipped this week -- he is the
one guy I would really want to thank for
his service. We
took off at 6:50 am for Denmark -- and I slept
the entire flight. I woke up in time to
see the Öresund Bridge as we were
landing. It is a two-track rail and four-lane road bridge-tunnel
of almost five miles across the Öresund strait
which connects Denmark to Sweden, I
actually watched a special about it on the
Discovery Channel a few weeks back. It was
pretty cool to see from the air. Then I
turned my attention to Marc who is traveling
back with me -- who kept falling asleep and
almost laying his head on the shoulder of a very
uncomfortable woman next to him. Good
times Our
layover in Copenhagen is about four hours so it
gave us the chance to catch up on some sleep,
emails and meals. I had a "danish"
danish -- and it was fantastic. We found a
quiet room which is totally silent other than
the fact that they pipe in very loud airport
announcements every 30 seconds. Our next
flight is nine hours long to Washington, DC and
then another five hours to Phoenix. I am
not sure if I will have time in D.C. to update
the blog because I need to go through customs,
but I will have a final entry later
on. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now
that was a long flight. However, I
would like to give Scandinavian Airlines a lot
of credit because it was much more enjoyable
than I ever thought it would be -- plus I slept
for more than five hours of the nine-hour
trip. I just can't believe I still have
five more hours to go! The airline had
some pretty cool features including individual
movie screens with about 15 different
selections, plus video games and a view from an
external camera at the front of the
airplane. It was pretty cool to watch yourself
take off -- and then it became slightly nauseating.
By the way, I loved how the airline said that
you had to fasten your seat belt, could not
smoke ... and no one was allowed to sleep on the
floor. That's a new one. Final thoughts on the trip to come a little
later when I get to Phoenix. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well,
I walked in my front door around 9:00 pm, over
24 hours after I left my hotel in Vilnius.
Overall the air travel was not as bad as I
thought it was going to be -- especially because
I slept another 4+ hours on the final leg.
Sorry I did not post any more photos, but the
majority of my day was looking at the back of
the seat in front of me. Not very
interesting. As
I look back at the trip, I know that there are
so many people to thank for such a successful
week. Obviously our group worked very
hard, so all of the folks from Nike and Jordan
Brand deserve a lot of credit - especially
Gentry Humphrey, Ilona Wiley and the architect
of the program, Mike Hackman. Our European
contingent of Susan Mulders and Marin Sedlacek
were tremendous in selecting the initial group
of players. The coaches - Raphael
Chillious, Ganon Baker and Chris Thomas -
carried the camp each day and gave the players
such an incredible experience. And in
Lithuania, we could not have done this without
the help of Šarūnas Marčiulionis, Linas Kvedaravičius,
Egidijus Mikalajūn and Raimonda Rutkauskaitė.
Your staff was truly first-class and you all
really stepped up in so many ways to make this
event happen. And back in the U.S., thanks
to Shaun Krislock for his tech support on the
web site all week. So
I am off to bed to get back in the right time
zone. It was a week that I will never
forget in my life. I was very fortunate to
meet so many incredible people along the way and
I received emails from around the world in
response to my blog. The best moment of
the week? Seeing the faces of the MVPs
when they were announced to the crowd at the end
of the All-Star Game. To some of them, it
is the break that will give them the exposure
for a successful basketball career and the
potential to make a lot of money for their
families. Looking back at 2008, one of the
MVPs from Lithuania was a 6-9 forward named Jonas Valanciunas
who many people got to see in the Jordan Brand
Classic International Game. Jonas used the
opportunity to star in New York and sign a deal
with a EuroLeague Team -- and was recently voted as MVP of U16 European Championship.
Jonas led his team to Gold averaging 14.3
points, 11.1 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in eight games. He registered
a double-double five times. Hopefully
another success story can come from these 10
prospects. And that's what this is all
about. The Jordan Brand Classic Tour is
designed to help the players identify their
weaknesses so they can improve their game, give
them the tools to succeed through our
instructors and provide an opportunity for them
to succeed. Basketball is truly a global
language. Thanks
again for following along and check back here
for next year's blog! -
Kevin |
