Phoenix, Nash, Portland, and more to come

Well readers, I'd have to say the writing bug bit me again. Sorry about that lapse, sometimes it just happens like that. Where do I start. I guess I'll just start from the beginning, no j/k.

Being here in Phoenix is truly a blessing. I have had so much fun just being on the court, trying to get better every day. The guys on this team, the staff, the front office people, they really are class acts.

Some questions I always get are how is it back home with the ticket situation and how is it playing with Steve Nash?

Playing at home for me has been divine timing. Being newly married, all I do is spend time with my wife and with my close friends. It's funny, people said marriage is work but if you truly Love that person it's not work at all. But anyway, sorry I got off track.

Being at home and tickets. I'd have to say that it hasn’t been bad at all because people see me more than just at games. They just take turns, plus most of my people already had tickets so that helps.

The big question: playing with Steve Nash. Well, I'll say this, I truly try and pick his brain every chance I get. He is a two-time MVP and easily, without a doubt, the best floor general I've ever played with or seen. His basketball IQ has to be the highest I've ever seen. The game, at times because of the way he plays, seems so slow and he just takes what the defense gives him. It's our job to be in our spots where we're threats to make a play. The way he takes care of his health is so disciplined. Maybe in 5 or 6 years I'll start on exactly what he's doing, but being here I've really changed my diet around a lot and I have to say I haven’t felt better.

On another subject, I do miss the city of Portland. I'll be back during the summer, of course, rolling in my Lincoln, going to the same ole spots, playing pickup at PSU and University of Portland, doing pilates at Nike, and making sure I keep a watchful eye over the beautiful city from my high-rise.

I've learned a lot about myself this year and we're only halfway through. It's been an experience that I can definitely talk to my friends about all summer.

I have to take a time out and just say that, in all honesty, I can not thank the people who support me either on or off the court enough (I don’t mind if you don’t like my game), whether you’ve supported my AAU team, the Bull Dogs, the MS Foundation, or if you still have my bobble head up in your store -- I truly appreciate.

The NBA and this game for us is short lived and these memories that we have of each other - good or bad - are things that we can always talk about. As I sit on a plane typing this, I can only think about 3 things:

1. I think about thanking God every second for even having the opportunity to be out there playing
2. I think about how can I help our team get better and how can I improve on my game
3. And then I think about what an experience I'm going through, what an opportunity. And if I were to look back to when I was growing up pretending to be Jordan or Barkley on the outside courts, maybe somewhere someone has the updates on 2k7 where I have the 3pt shot above my head and they love using my guy to rain tre balls on unsuspecting opponents, lol.

But anyways people, thanks again for reading. I'm going to keep up, maybe give you guys a weekly blog again telling you about what's going on a little more. It'll help me work on my writing, which I love to do, and it’ll keep the people who read my stuff an inside scoop (sorta) on whats going on.

So, see ya next week.

Resolutions

Well, we're a week into the New Year. I know a lot of people say they're going to eat better, work out more and lose weight. I don't really make resolutions, but I do want to continue to eat healthy and take good care of my body by not eating dairy, no sodas, and definitely try and stay far away from fast food.

So tell me if you guys make resolutions and how you're doing on them so far.

For Dre

Well, it's good that I’ve had a chance to get back on a plane. I took almost a month off from flying and traveling to really get my body right for the upcoming season in the Portland area and I enjoyed every minute.

This was a special occasion: my best friend ex-teammate Andre Iguodala’s celebrity weekend in SPRINGFIELD, Illinois. Yes, Springfield. I knew that it was going to be a rough trip but I kept telling myself that it’s for a great cause and it's your boy and he’d do it for you, which he did coming to my golf tourney in AZ.

So, my flight was to take off at 5:10 in the morning. Yes 5:10 am. I woke up at 4:20. Luckily, I planned ahead. Not having too much to pack, I started off on my voyage. When I got Lasik surgery I noticed that in the mornings after waking up my eyes are dry and I would have sun spots. It also occurs when you're dehydrated, which I was because of all the working out that I’ve been doing these past few weeks.

So, me sitting at the airport at 4:35 am, I can barely see, almost frantically trying to find some water to drink to hydrate not only my aching muscles, but my eyeballs. After about ten minutes I was good to go, back to 20/10. I rubbed my eyes looking at the board to tell me that we should be on time, and the worst thing that you can see is DELAYED, which my flight was. It wasn’t gonna take off until 6:45 so I sat there.

I prayed to God for a miracle and what happened? Free internet in the PDX airport. The time blew by. I looked at all the funny videos from the letter-opening bunny to the daily condensed soup, which I recommend for everyone to watch -- it's hilarious.

I get on the plane sit in my nice comfortable 1st class seat and to my dismay the “bubble gut monster” arose his bubbly badness inside my stomach. What I mean is that I had to lay down a huge fart. If we were outside in the woods or maybe at an all-guys party I would have tore a hole in the universe but I had to hold it. Too many people too soon and I knew it was gonna smell.

As we all do, you just squeeze and hlde it except the flight is 3:30 hrs long. I was in for it. I tried drinking more water. At the exact moment I felt my stomach really start to hurt and from me holding it too long, also giving me a headache, it was the last straw. There was no one in the seat next to me so I was gonna let it ride. I asked the stewardess for two blankets to tame the stinky beast that was about to be let loose on the world. I acted like I was falling asleep, positioning, and...as if God had the best sense of humor ever, a man sits down looking at me straight in my eyes. I have to abort mission. Alpha bravo team cancel that operation.

I knew he knew I was a basketball player just looking at me smiling wanted to talk about something so bad I could see his body language look for any opening. I wouldn’t give him any. I put the two blankets over my head and fell asleep hard waking up to move around, adjusting my poor intestine, holding all that stinky air. I was mad. Compound that with exhausted from being up so early and you have a grouchy 7-fter.

When I woke up he looked at me almost like he had been staring at me the whole 2:30 I had slept. I was sorta creeped out, but took no mind to it. I grabbed a piece of gum. I knew my breath was gonna be minty fresh. I offered him some, being polite, not knowing I was gonna release the bubonic plague upon my nostrils.

The only thing I can think of that would compare to the stir fry of terribleness that was his breath, would be when you leave old broccoli and lettuce in the fridge for a couple months, if you can imagine that. I was shocked, gagging for any type of untainted air. I offered again like “are you sure, I have plenty.” He was sure. Maybe next time I need to have a slew of flavors for him.

I knew I was in for trouble when he started asking me questions about basketball. It’s a funny situation when people try and talk to you about basketball but they don’t know any of the terminology. I don’t mind usually, but today he was just off. His questions went something like this, "so … you guys have a lot of human acquisitions this year?” I'm thinking to myself, what does that mean, “oh, the draft, yeah, we drafted a couple good guys this year.”

He asked me: how many years you been playing? I responded two in NYC and this is gonna be my 2nd year in Portland. To my amazement I have never had anyone ask me this he said "how many years you have left, 2 or 3?” I was taken aback by that one so I gave him a smart-ass answer. I said, naw, 12-13 yrs probably.” He didn’t know what to say and thank goodness it gave me a chance to turn the little fans on above me to full blast. This pattern continued for another 10 minutes until the plane was about to land.

After getting off the plane, I ever-so-cool strolled around until I finally reached my next plane which was a little dinky one. The flight to Springfield is only 27 mins. The greatest things about that situation is that I got a chance to walk outside, where if not for the loud airplane engine's roaring blowing wind everywhere, my fart would have really left a bad taste in peoples mouths (LITERALLY). I felt better though. My head started not to hurt.

So I get on this plane that must've been made for small people because I had to bend all the way over even to get in. While I was inside I felt like I was inside a kiddie tunnel chasing some kids around. When I sat down I was praying hard that I didn’t have to sit next to anyone because even though I was in the bulkhead seat it wasn’t doing me any good. I could catch a hard case of tendinitis sitting in that crunchy seat with another human being. Luckily I do Pilates and I'm somewhat limber.

To my horror the other biggest human being had my other seat (he was 6’2", stocky, 195) so we gave each other the death stare because we were both thinking the same thing. After five minutes of us both moving our legs around like members of Cirque du Soleil, the lovely stewardess had even more lovely news for us. “Excuse me, sir," (she was speaking to the three biggest guys who happen to be sitting in the three best seats), "we're going to have to ask you guys to move to the back because of the weight distribution."

So looking back to the little dinky plane, I said, hey, at least I can get my own row (which in retrospect is one normal seat). Once we got back there, no lie, it was a smell not as bad as dragon breath from the other flight but almost as bad as making a cologne from an old porta potty. I looked around in dismay as all my senses started to shut down due to the shock of the wee wee smell. The other guys around me already had shirts over there noses.

I thought that we were getting attacked by someone using biological weapons. A porta-potty bomb was dropped on the back of this plane going to Springfield. I was like, if Andre wasn’t my best friend man, I would have walked off that plane and went back home. LOL. When the stewardess came she came about three rows before me, that’s six rows before the bathroom and she was like “woah, that smells” and I said yeah, like hot horse piss, lol, the fellow outcast. I definitely got a laugh from that.

She locked the door almost like there was some type of monster inside. She put locks on the door that I've never seen on a plane and sprayed air freshener. I’m surprised she didn’t light a match, lol. Well, I figured let me try and catch up on some sleep before I have to go play in this game, me not knowing how I was going to play. Big guys usually aren’t the most exciting guys in the world to have at celebrity games. We land like a metal albatross. If you don’t know how they land, look it up on You Tube, lol.

I emerge from the airplane with one thing in mind, to enjoy my time in Springfield, which I definitely did. Our team won. I got MVP. I had 4 pts at half, then ended up with 33. I decided to try out my new toys and that’s the 3-point bombs, which I was droppin' like they were tic-tacs in the magma-mouthed dude on the 1st plane.

I really had a good time. There were a lot of great people who came out to support him and hopefully he can do some really good things for his community. I know he will.

So, thanks to Andre for having me and Ill try and keep my reign of MVP next year.

Training & More Questions

Some people have asked about my training. I've started boxing and doing pilates to get my body in the best form and shape possible. It's extremely important to work on my skill sets and athleticism so I can be as flexible and explosive as I can be.

I'm working out five days a week, staying focused, and doing the right things.

During the summer I have a chance to answer comments a lot better. Any questions or opinions you want me to address, please write before season starts.