It is long overdue that I write an entry to brag about my amazingly talented wife! She has supported me in my career and followed me around the world, somewhat putting my basketball career ahead of her own photography career. Despite moving around the globe every season, she has managed to build her photo resume into something pretty extraordinary. Aside from all her personal artistic photography, she has been hired this past season in Japan and all this summer in the U.S. to shoot for many different people and companies. Families, baptisms, models, sports supplement companies, newspapers, sign companies, dance festivals, etc...her career as a professional photographer is taking off! Below are a number of her photos that were published nationally while she was hired by the Japan Times Newspaper to cover the entire Japanese league for the 2011-2012 season. I am so proud of what she has accomplished so far in her career. Like me, she made a career out of her passion, which is something to be admired! I know that this is only the beginning of great things to come for Dominika!
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Check out the Dan's interview about life and basketball overseas in the latest Marquette Magazine! Meeting up with other Americans abroad is always fun! A while ago I was invited to join a group for wives and girlfriends who have the same basketball lifestyle as we do. The group is a great resource for those going to new teams, new countries, having babies abroad or just having a much needed venting session. (If you are interested in joining and are a wife or a girlfriend of a player please message me!) I was fortunate enough to meet a couple of great friends through the site and in March we all decided to meet up in Tokyo. Its always fun meeting up with those that you have been talking to for months via email but never met in person, a part of you feels like you totally know them but another part is excited to meet new people. The six of us along with six kids met for lunch in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo at a great Indian restaurant. We talked and laughed for hours until the servers gave us a nice hint to go somewhere else. It was truly great to meet up and be a part of such a special group of ladies! Let's hope for one more Tokyo meet up in the future season! Talk about a small world! April and I met in Germany when her husband and Dan played for Ratiopharm Ulm together. We instantly became great friends and met up all the way across the world in Japan. It was an amazing experience! Small world indeed! I messaged Julie about a year ago because I heard she was a photographer in Tokyo and I wanted to know how she adjusted her business practices upon moving to Japan. She was very helpful and is a very talented photographer, check out her website. I never thought we would be able to meet up in person! Talking about nerdy camera gear was a great bonus! The next day a couple of us met up at Yoyogi Park. The park is huge and attracts an interesting crowd on Sundays; hippies, hipsters, teenagers practicing dance moves, fashion subculture fans, and Tokyo Rockabilly Club were all out in full force. The random people actually reminded me of a State Fair crowd where people from all walks of life come out one week a year to celebrate. Definitely fun to people watch! We were in the park on the one year anniversary of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami, at 14:46 there was a moment of silence and the Japanese national anthem was played over the loud speakers. Very surreal experience.
Below is a photo of Hanna (Ana's daughter) enjoying her lunch while listening to the national anthem. We have been meaning to blog about the last trip in Japan for quite some time but with our crazy summer schedule we lagged behind. Round one of the playoffs brought us up north to the City of Akita. Our good friends, the Takahashis were gracious enough to let us stay with them at their family owned restaurant, the "Viking." My teammate Ken grew up in Akita, and invited us to a couple private dinners at their authentic Japanese eatery. Before dinner one night, there was a mini festival going on outside. We got to experience a fun Japanese twist to a street festival. Pictured below are some of the activities we gave a try, including goldfish and baby turtle fishing, some bizarre foods to try, and random kid toys to purchase. My teammates kids loved it, and I enjoyed winning a baby turtle for Joe Takahashi! Below is a picture of the Takahashi family and I in the entrance of the restaurant where they have a shrine of their first born son, Ken's professional basketball career. It reminds me of my parent's house as they love to show their support for my career as well as my siblings. Dominika was taking the picture, but they were very good to her, letting her stay with them for the weekend. We made life long friends with the Takahashi family, and loved to get an inside look at their family life.
Check out a video of Dan competing in the 3 Point Contest during the BJ League All-Star Weekend in Saitama, Japan. Dan starts shooting at the six minute mark. Today, Dan and I went to check out the new Super Sports Xebio by the Nagamachi subway stop. Xebio is a sports store similar to the American Dick's Sporting Goods. This particular location just opened up in the last month and is only a few steps away from the Sendai 89ers training gym. Not only that, it's also where the new Sendai 89ers home arena will be located. No more three home gyms, just one great one! The store also had an awesome basketball section featuring the Sendai 89ers!
Very cool! My coach in Japan brought me a book he was reading, finding it in a Chinese book store. It was none other than Tom Crean's "Coaching Team Basketball: A Coach’s Guide to Developing Players With a Team-First Attitude." I remember receiving this book when I was at Marquette University. It's fun to say I'm a character in a book, and to see it internationally printed in another language is also pretty cool! I'm of course biased, but I certainly recommend any basketball buff to give it a read. I learned a lot at Marquette about what it takes to not only be a player, but to be a winning player. Being about the team and not about yourself is a huge part of that. I would not be successful playing now as a professional had I not embraced that idea.
Proud of my hubby! He was listed in the top ten former EuroBasket Summer League performers!
Click on the image below to read the full article. This is a little past due but Dan and his teammate Take Shimura received, The Japan Times' Offensive Players of the Month for February. Woohoo! Click on the image below to read the full article.
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