It has been a very busy few weeks for me, seems as if I haven’t seen my beautiful wife and beautiful daughter in ages. I can’t wait to get home on Monday night to see them and spend some quality time with them in Boothbay Harbor. The traveling has been crazy. I left for Spain on the 27th of June and returned stateside on the 4th of July. As soon as I landed I headed up to my weeklong overnight camp for boys.My trip to Spain was an unforgettable one. Jose Calderon and his family, staff, coaches and everyone involved in the camp were great hosts. They made me feel welcome and were beyond friendly. Jose does an outstanding job with his camps and he is there at camp everyday spending time with the kids. Anthony Parker was at Jose’s camp as well. It was great catching up with AP. He was over there with his wife and two boys. Jose now has a son as well, his name is Manuel. They are great guys both on and off the court and I am lucky to have had the pleasure to have coached them. The one year that I was in Toronto was a special season because of the players on the team. Everyone on that team got along so well. The guys were all good guys, we didn’t have any knuckleheads on that team. We also had a bible study that was regularly attended by AP, Joey Graham, Kris Humphries, Juan Dixon, Luke Jackson and myself. After spending time at Jose’s camp I went to Madrid for a few days. Tried to hook up with Jorge Garbojosa who was also with the Raptors and is now playing in Madrid. Spoke to “Garbo” but unfortunately did not get to see him.Landed stateside and it was close to a 100 degrees. It was very hot the entire week with the temperatures in the upper 90’s. On Wednesday it was 102. The kids were great, they worked hard and they all got better. Now they have to take what they learned at camp and continue to work on it. On Wednesday I drove over to Eastern Invitational at Albright College with Thomas J Cirincione or as he is widely known as “Tootie”. Tootie worked the camp with me the entire week and he gave one of his world famous lectures on Thursday night for the staff and campers. If you know Tootie you know that there were a bunch of highlights at camp. Eastern is an unbelievable camp with close to 800 kids and all the coaches come to evaluate the talent that is there. Saw a great number of coaches that I haven’t seen in years.Now I am at the airport getting ready to head out to the West Coast All Star Camp. I will spend two days there and then fly home on the redeye. Once I land I will pick up a rent a car and drive up to UCONN and speak at Coach Calhoun’s camp. I will get home later in the evening, can’t wait.I am so happy that this whole LeBron stuff is over with. I cannot believe that people didn’t have anything else to do than worry about where he was going to play. With all of the media coverage I thought that he was going to announce to the world that he and his “team” came up with the cure for cancer, AIDS and had brought world peace to us. I am glad that it is over with.Thanks to everyone who reads the blog. Take care and God Bless. Count all of your blessings and always give thanks to GOD in all that you do.

Summer has arrived and it is already very warm. Even in Maine the temperatures have been above normal. Global warming in full effect. Arrived home from China last Monday afternoon, should’ve been home late Sunday evening but there was another delayed flight and I missed my connection. It’s always great to get home, even if it was for a day and a half. On Tuesday night I flew to North Carolina and spoke at Wake Forest’s Basketball Camp. Dan Ficke is one of the assistant coaches there and is just starting out in the coaching business. It was my first time at Wake and I was impressed with the campus and it’s beauty. The entire coaching staff was great, they let me use the facilities to get in a workout before speaking. I wish you guys the best of luck. While at Wake I got to see an old friend of mine Bob (Archie) Clark he is an assistant coach with the women’s team and he was the first person to send my daughter a recruiting letter when McKenna was a couple months old. It was great seeing Bob but my visit was a short one. Once camp was over I drove to Lake Gaston to spend some time with my wife’s family who were vacationing at a lake house there. It is always good to spend time with the family. My daughter was happy to see me as we hadn’t seen each other since before my trip to China. It was great to relax for a couple of days and get over the jet lag. Thursday night was game seven of the finals. I was pumped up to watch game seven Lakers and Celtics. It doesn’t get any better than that. I had not watched one second of the finals up until game seven. I ended up going to bed at halftime the game was so poorly played, it was a huge disappointment. Guys just were not playing the game the right way, forcing shots, throwing the ball away, etc.. I thought I was watching an AAU game. Can’t believe Rondo can’t make a free shot. Rajon give me a call, a point guard has to be able to make his free shots. Now that summer is here my schedule gets busy with summer camps. I will be going to Spain to see Jose Calderon and speak at his camp. I am looking forward to this trip and I am excited to see Jose. He is a great guy and Anthony Parker will also be at Jose’s camp. Two of the nicest people that you would ever want to meet. Once I get back stateside I have my first week of camp in the Pocono Mountains. Looking forward to getting back and teaching the kids. Everyone enjoy the summer, be safe, help others and tell your loved ones how much you love them and how much they mean to you. Carole and McKenna I love the both of you and miss you dearly when I am away, but you are always in my thoughts and prayers. Thank you Lord for blessing me with two beautiful women in my life.

Greetings from Beijing, China. I have been over here since June 3rd doing camps for NIKE. Last week we did a camp for 26 Chinese girls and this week NIKE is doing the All Asia Camp for boys. This was the first NIKE girls camp and it was very well done as all the NIKE camps are. I am sure it will become a staple for NIKE. The All Asia Camp has been going on since 2000 and it has gotten better every year. The talent, coaching, competition seems to improve each and every year. This year the NIKE pro athletes that are here are Andre Igoudala and Tyreke Evans. In the past NIKE has brought over Rajon Rondo, Aaron Brooks, Paul Pierce, Ben Gordon, Jason Richardson and Nate Robinson. Basketball is HUGE in China and it continues to grow. It is amazing how many Chinese play basketball. The coaching staff consists of Tates Locke, Dave Severns, Miles Simon, Jarinn Akana and myself. This is the first time to China for Dave and Miles. Needless to say they are very impressed by the Chinese culture. Dave Severns was over early too, for the girls NIKE camp. The camp starts off each day with Blair Donovan putting the guys through stretching and warmup drills, from there the kids break up into their skill work. Jarinn takes the bigs, Miles the point guards, Dave and Tates the wings and I have the shooting guards. The kids drill for two straight hours and then they split into their teams. There are six teams and they will play three sixteen minute games against different teams. Then it is time for lunch. After lunch the kids come back to camp and Blair loosens them up again. Then we put them through shooting stations and shooting competition for a half hour. Then the kids break up to their teams for a team practice/team concepts. The one thing that we all try to emphasize  is to pass the ball and after passing cut hard or set a screen. Every kid here loves to dribble the ball, drive the ball out of control. (N0t much different than the kids back in the US). They do not know how to play without the ball. (Just like the kids back home). After the team practice it is time for another set of three sixteen minute games. The kids love to leave their feet when passing and don’t seem very interested in defense. The coaches all have translators and we don’t have a clue as to what they are telling the kids. We have to trust that they know what they are doing and that they are telling the kids the same thing that we are telling them to say. Camp ends on Saturday and then I will head home on Sunday night. I love China, but I am looking forward to getting back home stateside and seeing my daughter McKenna. Talking on the phone just doesn’t do it for me. Thanks for reading, may the GOOD LORD BLESS YOU, YOUR FAMILY and FRIENDS,

It has been a very busy May for me. I started out in Missouri working out the Willard kids and then returned home to Boothbay Harbor for a couple of days. On the 5th of May ( Cinco de Mayo) I was at the Casco Bay YMCA in Freeport, ME working out a couple of kids. Then I headed out to Portland, OR for two days and did a clinic for Tim Sonners. The turnout was very good and i look forward to my return. After the clinic in Portland I flew to LA to work out Raymond Brothers (agent) guys. I was working them out for the week at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks. The guys worked hard and improved each and every day. Flew back on the redeye but it did not leave until the next day. FOURTEEN AND A HALF HOURS LATE!!!! I don’t even want to think about that again. Home for a couple of days and then I was off to Butte, Montana to speak to a group of kids and parents. Montana is very beautiful and I only wish that I could spend more time there. Many thanks to Brodie for having me come out. Got home from Butte, on the 20th late evening and had to leave on the 21st early morning for Naples, FL. The good thing about the trip to Naples is that I will have a traveling companion, my daughter McKenna will be with me for the entire stay in FL. My wife Carole will meet up with us in Naples for a couple of days. McKenna and I stayed in Naples until last night. While in Florida we stayed at my good friend Mike Stevens house and worked out his sons Michael, Matty, Shane and Courtney Nelson. The gym at Mike’s house is nicer than some NBA teams practice facilities. Arrived home and the weather was very Florida like. Today it is around 88 degrees in Boothbay Harbor. Here until Friday and then I am off to Denver for my Memorial Day shooting camp and I will also get to see my main man BIG BILL, also Mark Sharpley who has been running the camp for the past 1o to 12 years. So needless to say I am glad to see this month come to an end. The CELTICS are up 3 games to 1. I did not think they would still be playing. The WEST will be very interesting with the LAKERS and SUNS tied up at 2 a piece. Everyone take care and count your blessings. PRAISE the LORD.

Sitting in the President’s Club at Newark Airport getting ready for my flight to Portland, Oregon. Once I get to Portland I will head over to see my main man Mike Hackman. Then I will get to my hotel room and watch game three of the Cav’s and Celtics. This should be a good one. I have a two day camp in Oregon and I am really looking forward to it. So many years have passed since I last did anything in these parts. When camp ends on Sunday I will be flying down to LA to workout some players for Raymond Brothers. I will be there until late Friday night when I take the red eye back home. The toughest part of any trip is leaving McKenna and Carole behind. It is even more difficult this time because Sunday is Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mom’s out there. I sure do miss my mom but I know that she is in a better place. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of her. Also tonight and Saturday McKenna is performing with her ballet group at the high school. Carole’s going to record her performance, thank God I got to watch her rehearsal last night. Make sure that you tell your mom how special and important she is to you and most of all tell her that you “LOVE HER.” Moms are the best.

Hope everyone is enjoying the excitement and interesting story lines of the first round of the playoffs. In Boston you have KG getting suspended. Cleveland you have Joakim Noah talking about the city of Cleveland and “who would go there to vacation.” He is also talking about KG. Interesting character who went out and had a huge game. Not crazy about his shot, but he does play hard and rebound. LeBron is a monster, there is nothing that he can’t do and when he is hitting his jump shot it’s all over for the opponent. On Saturday there was a great piece on about LeBron and how quickly he accelerates and tracks down blocks from behind. Every year he gets better. LeBron is just too fast, too strong, too powerful and explosive for anyone to match up with him. Orlando has Superman and shooters, JJ Redick has really been solid and should get paid next year. Charlotte plays hard but I don’t think they have enough fire power and they are very young to make any noise in the playoffs. What a game Brandon Jennings had against Atlanta, unfortunately he did not get any help. Milwaukee has been hit with the injury bug two key players out Michael Redd been out forever and Andrew Bogut for the playoffs. Now the Bucks don’t have any inside scoring on a consistent basis to upend the Hawks. Josh Smith has had a very good year. Some say he is flying under the radar, but with his hops he could never fly under anything, he sure could jump over it though. In the west we have the champs versus the young guys from OKC. Kevin Durant struggled in game one, he did not shoot well due to the defense of Ron Artest and will have to step it up for OKC to win a game in this series. It was good to see the big fella back in the middle. Bynum looked very good on his return. Dallas and the San Antonio should be a very interesting series. The two Texas teams battling it out. I am rooting for Dallas because of my guys Caron, BWood and DSteve. After what they endured in Washington over the last season and a half they desrve to go far in the playoffs. Denver and Utah looks interesting after Utah held on to win in Denver, but I don’t think they can overcome the loss of AK and Okur, too much size to lose. Utah will play hard as Jerry Sloan accepts nothing else. My thoughts and prayers go out to Coach Karl and his family and friends. Then there is Portland and Phoenix. Portland came up big in game one especially Andre Miller, can they repeat their performance? I don’t think so, but they are up one game at this point. It is amazing how many teams have to play with some of their top players being injured. To all of the injured guys I wish you all a speedy recovery and hope that you all come back stronger and better than before the injuries. Take care and God Bless you all.

    Hope everyone had a very nice Easter. I sure did. The weather was fantastic and I got to go to church with my wife and daughter. Can’t ask for more than that. March Madness is over and Duke wins another one as does the UCONN women’s team. Congratulations to both of them. The NBA is winding down and the playoffs will begin shortly. It will be interesting to see who enters the draft. What agents will the guys sign with and then see who’s stock rises and who’s stock drops during the workouts before the draft. I am looking forward to the playoffs as I always am. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out.Things should also be interesting this summer with all of the free agents. Where will they go? Will they stay? There is always something going on with the NBA. That’s what makes it such a great game, there is never a dull moment. After the draft there is the summer league. Never understood why the NBA has it there, when they are so anti-gambling. I guess if they had it somewhere else the players wouldn’t want to go. Maybe I will do an NBA shooting camp in Vegas. Will let you know about that.Enjoy the next couple of months and let’s see who ends up playing for the championship this year. Will it be the Lakers and Cavs? Remember the summer time is when you make the most improvement in your game. As always look forward to working with players speaking at camps and running my camps this summer. Hopefully our paths will cross. Take care and God Bless.

March Madness is here and I am sure everyone has their brackets filled out. There also is talk about the NCAA expanding the field in the future. If the NCAA expands the field it will probably be the end of the NIT. Money is what this is all about, everyone wants to go to the “Dance”. Will there be another “Cinderella” team like George Mason a few years ago? I feel that there are already enough teams in the field of 64 who should not be there, what’s it going to be like with more “bad” teams being in the tournament with no shot of winning. Now the selection committee won’t have to worry about who they leave out and other teams won’t have to worry about making the tourney, because everyone will be in the tourney. Once they expand it they will continue expanding it until everyone gets a shot at the tournament. What happened to “earning it”? Enough of the college madness. Strange that it actually ends in April. I have the chance to go again this year, but I would much rather spend time with my wife and daughter over Easter weekend. Years ago I would never have missed the chance to go to the NCAA Final Four, but now my priorities have changed. The NBA has it’s version of March Madness as well. The New Jersey Nets are trying to win a few more games so that they don’t go down with the worst record in NBA history, they already own the most losses in a row with 18. These are not records that you want associated with your franchise. Other teams are trying to make the playoffs and others are trying to position themselves for a higher seeding in the playoffs that will begin in April and end in June. The NBA season is long and so are the playoffs. Speaking of Madness how about the weather, it has been crazy. Here in Maine the weather has been outstanding 50’s and 60’s of late. The weather in Florida has not been much warmer. Yesterday I took my daughter to Old Orchard Beach to run around and to hang out in the park. There were alot of people out enjoying the weather. I, too have been enjoying it, taking the Harley out for a spin. Never thought I would be riding a motorcycle but I must say that it is alot of fun and it clears your mind and you are out of reach from others, no cell phone, emails, etc.. Everyone needs some time to themselves. Enjoy the Madness but enjoy and cherish your loved ones more. They are what you care for and what you would do anything for. Pray for your loved ones and others that need them and remember that prayers never hurt.

Just returned home on Monday evening from a trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland. I left on Wednesday the 24th of February at 9:30 pm and arrived in Belfast on Thursday morning. It was a very short trip but it felt like I never left. Everyone involved with St. Gall’s makes you feel special. It was great seeing all of my former teammates and friends. Thursday night we all got together and had a couple of pints and plenty of laughs. On Friday I had an Ulster fry over at Pattie”s and Kathy’s. It was just as good as I remembered it to be. Then Kathy took me on a tour of the city. Belfast sure has changed since I was last there. The city center is no longer closed off with check points. They have a large ferris wheel next to city hall and it does not fit in with the architecture of the city. Friday night was the old timers game and it was a blast seeing everyone. It seemed like old times at Andersonstown, there was a very nice crowd at the game. Unfortunately there were a couple of injuries, hopefully nothing was too serious. After the game we all went back to St. Gall’s for an unforgettable evening. It was a night that you didn’t want to end. The turnout was something else. There are so many people to thank for putting on the basketball event, I don’t know where to start and I am sure that I will probably leave someone out so I am just going to say thanks to everyone in the entire organization and I would also like to thank everyone for having me over and putting up with me. Saturday I was up and off to have lunch with Ed White who plays for the Belfast Tropic in the Premier League. Years ago I had the opportunity to work him out when he was a young kid. Most of St. Gall’s was off to Dublin for a Gaelic Football match which St. Gall’s won and now they will be playing for all the marbles on ST. PATRICK’s DAY. It doesn’t get any better than that. Saturday I did a couple of clinics one for Claire Mckee who was a former player with St. Gall’s and then I did a clinic for Breda Dick who was the best female player in Ireland. They both do an amazing job with there programs. Keep up the good work. After the clinics I went to dinner with a couple of teammates and then it was back to Micky and Marie’s for an early night and a good sleep. Sunday came and it hit me that I would be going back home on Monday. Sunday we had a great luncheon at Bernie’s club, it was sad when it was time to leave. Back at Micky and Marie’s we watched Saving Private Ryan and it seemed like 1982 all over again sitting there with two of the greatest people in the world who opened up there home to me and have been like a family to me. I love you two very much and miss you dearly. Take care and God Bless to everyone in Northern Ireland. I hope to be back soon and bring my wife and daughter back to meet the friendliest people in the world.

There was alot of talk about alot of trades that didin’t happen. There also was alot of activity too. In Washington DC, the Wizards cleaned house. They got rid off two all stars and some very professional guys. I am so happy for DSTEVE, Caron Butler, BWOOD for going to a winning team in Dallas. I know that the losing was wearing on them. Now they are with a playoff team and I expect them to do well there. Then there is Antawn Jameson going to the Cleveland Cavaliers. This is a blessing for him, Antawn has a chance to pay with LeBron James, SHAQ and a shot at a title. He must be ecstatic. I am sure all of the guys will be positive influences on their new teammates. Dominic McGuire gets to go out west to Sacramento, I am happy for him as he is a California guy.  The only guys left in DC from when I was there are Andray Blatche, Nick Young and JaVale McGee. I wish nothing but the best for Mike James who is waiting for a buyout so he can move on to another team. Mike is another veteran who works his tail off. Good luck to you as well. The season is coming down to the last month and a half, as always it will be an exciting time to see who makes the playoffs. Well I’m off to Belfast, Northern Ireland to play in an Old Timers Game with my teammates from when I played over there in the eighties. I never thought that I would be in an Old Timers Game because I never thought I was Old or considered myself old. What was I thinking? Time doesn’t wait for anyone. Hope everyone that plays in the game has fun (which they will) and avoids injuries (not sure about this). We are definitely not in the shape that we used to be.  I return from Ireland on the 1st of March I will keep everyone posted on my trip. Take care and God Bless.