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Danny Abdia's Race to the Top
"You are no longer a man": This is how it feels to play for the first time in the NBA
Joe Alexander snatched a trash talk from Pierce and Garnett.
Gal Makal was inspired by Nowitzki.
Jaron Blossomgim was surprised by how nice the superstars were.
And everyone realized that as much as they prepared for the NBA, in the moment of truth they discover things you never thought of.
New beginnings, the best league version in the world - soon with Danny Abdia
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Danny Abdia
NBA
Eran Soroka
Friday, September 18, 2020, 5:00 p.m.
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Danny Abdia announces his registration for the draft (courtesy of Maccabi Tel Aviv)
There are things that Joe Alexander wanted to say.
And he did not say.
So with a fashionable delay of about 12 years, he says them now.
"Hey, Scott, I hope you understand that when you put me in the game today, and I'm on the field for the first time as an NBA player, the moment will come when I've been training and preparing for it all these years, all my life. It's all for me.
One day, in about 3-4 months in hope, Danny Abdia will also be on the floor for the first time in an NBA game.
The butterflies will have to disappear, the excitement will have to pass, the announcer will call his name, the fans - on TV or in the stands - will watch intently.
For Danny, too, it will be the moment he has dreamed of for years.
What happens in the body and mind, a moment before?
What is not told to you about this league, and what is told to you and you still do not understand until you meet from the height of the parquet?
On the occasion of Rosh Hashanah, we went back to three new beginnings, of three players - one Israeli, one American, one both - to understand how it feels.
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2.11.2008, Madison Square Garden, New York City
"Are you going with $ 5 or $ 10,000 in your pocket?"
Joe Alexander made his NBA debut at the world's most famous sports hall.
3:01 By the end of the first quarter, he had replaced Richard Jefferson in a Milwaukee Bucks uniform.
With coach Scott Skyles Rocky did not yet have a real relationship, so he left the excited speech aside.
"I was just too nervous, I could not say what I planned," he explains to Walla!
sport.
The forward, currently in the city of Nahariya with Danny Franco, does remember how the then coach - Skyles - came to break the ice before the game.
"I was in the locker room, and Scott came and said to me 'Joe, how much money do you have in your pocket?', And I did not understand so I asked, 'Do you need money?', So he replied: 'I just want to know, you're going with $ 5 or "With $ 10,000? What guy are you?" "He wanted to see if I was ready. He was joking with me."
The Bucks won that evening.
Alexander did not score.
Five days later, in his third game as a pro, Joe met the proud champion from Boston, with two of the greatest trash talkers in the NBA of the current century, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, and that evening recorded his first points as a pro.
He also remembers the meetings with them that season from a distance of 12 years.
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"Joe, do you understand you're getting into Kevin Garnett?"
Joe Alexander (Photo: AP)
"All my family and friends watched the game against Boston on TV, and one time Garnett came on the move to the penalty area and tried to block a pick 'n' roll. I tried to torpedo the move and got into it hard, because why the hell not, I was a big guy. He started. To curse, 'What are you doing?'. After the game my brother calls and says to me 'Joe !! Do you understand you're coming in with Kevin Garnett?'
"I told him, 'I'll do this to anyone on the fucking pitch.' It was funny, but that was my attitude. No matter who I play against, I'll be tough on him."
At another moment, Alexander took Pierce as a project.
"I felt really good about myself, I made a good move and decided to put pressure on Pierce all over the field. I told Michael Red 'leave, I'll take Paul.' So Pierce did a veteran player's exercise and took out an offense. And all the way to the penalty line we go together and he tells me "Yeah shit, you were not taught how to play? Go back to college and shut up already." And he gets punished and he and Garnett keep talking about me. "Didn't they teach him anything?"
Beyond the laughs, Alexander - who went on from the NBA to a career in Europe, including many years in Israel where he also received citizenship - recommends anyone coming to the NBA for the first time to adopt an approach like his.
Do not be blinded even when in front of you the biggest stars in the world, those who a few years earlier only fantasized about being with them on the same parquet.
"If you go to the NBA, you can not be blinded. When you come with the bones and the heart and the adrenaline, you want to eat other people on the field. Everyone who passed by me, I wanted to kill him. To get excited about the stars is for the crowd. If you dazzle them, you will not be in the league "The only time I got excited about a star was when I played in Chicago, and Michael Jordan came to visit us in the locker room."
"When you're there you're not really calculating for anyone."
Gal Makal (Photo: GettyImages)
30.10.2013, American Airlines Center, Dallas
"After the first game, the traffic jam"
"It was against Atlanta, right?".
A stick wave was not wrong.
"I was very excited. In the pre-season I got a lot of minutes - Jose Calderon, the first coordinator, was injured. For the start of the season he just came back, so I prepared myself for not playing much. I did not have a big game, I scored 2 or 4 points (2 of 2 From the penalty spot in 8:51 minutes, with 2 rebounds and 3 assists, to the record), but there was a lot of excitement.After the game I felt the stopper open, and went out to a sequence of good games.The butterflies passed and I felt much more relaxed.For the second game against Houston and Omri Caspi My father, my wife Daniel and my aunt have already arrived. "
In the second game, the 25-year-old Israeli coordinator also met James Harden and Dwight Howard.
In the fourth game he has already played against Steve Nash.
"When you're there you're not really calculating for anyone, at least that's my mentality. I come to bite anyone standing in front of me. "Tig, Ty Lawson, and Mike Conley, who was really hard to keep up with. But yeah, hey, it's fun. Names, stars, high-class basketball."
"There was no game you were in low gear."
Gal Makal (Photo: GettyImages)
What do you see from the height of the parquet that you did not know before, I asked.
"To a lot of outsiders it looks like the regular season games are in second, third gear. But still the intensity is very high, and at least here in Dallas there was no game you play in low gear. I played with Monte Ellis and I did not understand how a skinny guy like him flew 200 mph up and down. The pitch, goes into refrigerators and chins that are bigger and stronger than him, and does it every game, every game.
When you see how many players like him do that, there must be some catch here.
I got the token that they probably have some tricks. "The
Malaga coordinator today also had an interesting conclusion, although then came Anthony Davis - who met him in his first training game in the Mavericks uniform - and gives it a roof." On the one hand people might be surprised to hear, but much more It is easier to make points in the NBA than in the Euroleague, Eurocup or Spanish league.
With all the space, a player like me does pick-and-roll and can get to the color for a second, then you can throw or give a bow delivery to the chin.
On the other hand, in Europe if you moved a player you are probably already in the basket, and in the NBA thanks to athleticism they come back to you out of nowhere.
We played against New Orleans, I did pick-and-roll, I split the guard, I saw the basket, Davis and my defender were already left behind, and suddenly he reached out, grabbed the ball with one hand and snatched it.
I was amazed.
It is etched in my memory to this day. "
"In the second game I was already put in a rotation."
Jaron Blossomgim (Photo: GettyImages)
5.12.2018, Quick Loans Arena, Cleveland
"was a difficult road, and everything paid off for me"
at Jaron Blossomgayim, Alexander's friend of Nahariya today, the first game was against one of the greatest teams in history.
Although the first minutes came in Garbage Time, Blossomgim stepped onto the field for the first time with Steph Kerry and Kevin Durant from Golden State sitting on the bench opposite, who walked to a 105: 129 victory.
"When I walked into the hall from the locker room, I was stunned," he tells us.
"Everything I worked on, my way to the NBA that was hard, it all paid off for me."
A year earlier Blosomagim had been selected in the second round by San Antonio, and played in the uniform of Austin Taurus, their development league team.
At the beginning of the 2018/19 season he was traded to Canton Charge, the Cavaliers' development team, and a month later played for the first time in the major leagues.
The Cubs in the season after LeBron James' departure for LA were already on the fast track to the lottery, and very quickly Blossomgay realized he was going to get a lot more regular Moroccan opportunities in his position.
"In the second game I was put in rotation, I was a bit shocked by the amount of minutes. Also by the speed and level of talent, but I adapted quickly. The Cubs believed in me and my game, and it was a really fun experience."
Jaron, then 25, was thrown into the deep water and opened with a five in four of his 27 games in the Cubs uniform that season.
"I played in 3-4 positions, and I had to keep Yannis Antocompo, Kwai Leonard, Bradley Bill."
Maybe this is the league that has changed and the players have become more friends and less enemies, maybe they just don’t produce trash-talkers like Garnett and Pierce anymore, but the forward doesn’t remember too many curses and psychological warfare from the other side.
"I was surprised by how nice the opponents were. Myers Leonard from Portland complimented me on my athleticism and game, Gordon Hayward from Boston said coach Brad Stevens loved my game. 6 years ago I was in college and played in one of his camps. From there we met."
"It's easiest to say that speed and athleticism are the things that are hard to adapt to, but for me it was mostly everyone's size," he recalled.
"I'm a pretty big, strong guy, 2.01 meters, and I come to the NBA and people my height play as coordinators or shooting guards. So talented, they look like a different world. And yet when you're in the NBA, on a team staff, you get minutes of play, that means for me I have skills, I have values, I have a future. "
Get some more free tips.
Danny Abdia (Photo: Danny Maron)
December 2020 / early 2021, however unknown, unknown city
"Treat you like God" The
future of Danny Abdia is supposed to take shape two months from today, November 18th.
In draft predictions right after the lottery the prevailing estimate was that he would be selected somewhere between Chicago IV, Cleveland Fifth and Atlanta VI, though this week already bloggers from Minnesota (first pick) and Golden State (pick 2) suggested going for Danny.
The 2020 playoffs have probably done wonders for skills and values like passing ability, team spirit and good defensive foundations, while the other stars in the draft have actually gotten lower: no-shooting coordinators like Lamelo Ball, defenseless scorers like Anthony Edwards, or "huge" chins like James Weissman, already Everyone packed their bags and left the bubble.
Wherever he goes, Abdia gets some free tips here, ones that can be worth their weight in gold.
Stick, for example, won to play alongside Dirk Nowitzki, and such a star can dictate the level of intensity to the entire team.
"First of all he is an amazing man, you can see it through the screen. His calm demeanor, his modesty, he is not one of the vocal leaders who hand out instructions and grabs everyone by the shirt to instill motivation. He, in his silence, makes others around him better."
On the other hand, not everyone gets to share a locker room with the Hall of Fame actor.
Sometimes you just have to go and catch the veteran players on the team, as Blossomies says.
"The ones who can help you the most in the beginning are the veterans. We had Tristan Thompson, Kevin Love, Channing Fry. I was young and they saw me, gave me tips and helped me. Always listen to your veterans - there's a reason they're there. Find a veteran player, You will learn from him every day as much as you can, and most importantly you will continue to believe in yourself - otherwise, they will not believe in you. "
Alexander mentions that on the parquet life is still relatively simple compared to what happens off the field.
"The main thing is that you are treated like God. Everything changes. Your relationships, people want to get into your life, you are no longer a human being. It takes time to understand that and adjust yourself."
And here's one last tip: "Every player has a team. A personal trainer, a family member, someone who can talk to you. Put these people on a plane, arrange an apartment for them and take them with you. People who have succeeded in the league on the field, have their own team."
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