Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Au revoir swim trunks, bienvenue yoghurt ferment
I arrived in France to begin my stint with Chorale Roanne in early August. Three days after touching down, we had the weekend off due to a mandatory coaches clinic. I had time; so I thought a great way to become acclimated to the city was to pay a visit to the community pool. Seconds after entering the pool area I was confronted by two lifeguards. I figured that I must be kind of a big deal, in town a total of four days and people already know recognize me...nice. Soon after, with no knowledge of French, I realized that they were not asking for my autograph, but somehow I had done something wrong. After a few minutes a security guard (not a lifeguard, I guess they need security for these types of situations) came up and with passable English told me I could not swim because my bathing suit was too large (and thus, according to them, unsanitary). I would have to switch my suit for a Speedo, he said, or else I couldn't swim. I kindly told them that I left my Speedo at home (a lie, of course) and that if I could just get by this one time, I would wear the right bathing suit next time. They huddled up again and it seemed to be going pretty well and they came back with a very fair compromise. The one lifeguard had an extra Speedo in his bag and said I was more than welcome to use it today. I have to say that was a very gracious offer, but I politely declined, feeling uncomfortable with the idea of wearing another man's Speedo. (I have always been a boxer guy and never did swim team). I thought it odd that for sanitary reasons wearing a large, brand new bathing suit, was a "no-no," but sharing tiny undergarments with strangers was no problem, but I did appreciate the kindness on the part of the first non-basketball related French people that I encountered. That day cemented my feeling that being able to blog on Euroleague.net this year will be a blessing because now I will get to put on paper some of the odd things that always seem to happen to me, on and off the court.
Wow, since you already know what I underwear I prefer, and you want to know name. I am, as I hope it says somewhere above, Adam Hess. This is my fourth season out of the College of William & Mary. I played my first two seasons for the Czech Republic powerhouse Nymburk, which now competes internationally in the ULEB Cup, but was in the FIBA Europe Cup during my stay there. This past season, I moved to the Artland Dragons of the German Bundesliga. The total population of the town of Quakenbrueck, where we played, was under 14,000 people. We created quite a fuss when our team made it to both the cup and playoff finals. Made both, but couldn't finish: we lost by two in the cup and 3 games to 1 in the playoff final series. This season, I thought…well, if you can't beat them, join them. So I finagled my way onto last year's French League champion and Semaine Des As winners, Chorale Roanne.
Due to our team's success, we have qualified for the Euroleague and I am now considered a rookie again because it is my first season playing internationally at this level. So the first positive is that being considered a rookie makes me feel young. I am only 26, but my teammates think I act like an old man with my stretching habits and warm-up stiffness. The team is led by our coach, Jean-Denys Choulet, a man who loves a fast-paced offense and blues music. He believes in getting us in shape on the court, which means lots of running and shooting in practice, but no running on a track. Our coach's style is known all over France and you saw the jealousy in other players' eyes when they faced us during the preseason. They're not jealousy because we were the champs last year, or that we qualified for the Euroleague, but because Coach Choulet promotes a free-flowing offense, similar to the Phoenix Suns. Most players dream of playing in this type of system. Shooting the first open shot is not widely promoted anymore…and frankly it should be. I don't care what anyone says, I would rather see a 108-107 score - to randomly choose one of our preseason results - than a 62-53 defensive battle. Purists will say they love the low scores, defense wins championships, blah, blah, but mostly what you see as a fan during a defensive battle are a lot of missed shots, turnovers and fouls. Of course nothing is prettier and I am not being sarcastic, than holding the ball for 23 seconds and hitting a cutter just as the shot clock expires for a layup; but players are so good and coaches scout so well, that those are rare occurrences. Our team is not opposed to slowing it down and using the shot clock. Other teams get used to us running and it seems to confuse them when we take our time, allowing us to surprise them with a backdoor cut or an open three. The preseason proved to me that our team will be able to score. Since we know how to do that, Coach has shifted his focus to defense. We also need to make some stops if we want to be successful.
Coach was fortunate enough to be able to retain, WWF-look-alike Marc Salyers, who has numerous French Championships, MVP finals trophies, and much international experience…not to mention a former playboy model girlfriend who definitely boosts our team's coolness points. He has put up video game-like stats in the preseason and we need him to be a leader because he's been there before. Keeping up with the theme of scoring, we have Brion Rush, who proclaims he is not a shooter, but a scorer, and has averaged 20 or more a game for several seasons. Kendal Dartez, a leaping wizard, recently jumped over one of our junior players in practice, making me question if I am no longer needed in this profession. If guys can just jump over the opposition to score, why would you need a shooter on the wing? Kendall is hurt now, but watch for him flying over when he gets back. Our point guards are young, but have a wealth of experience. At only 19, Marc-Antoine Pellin was an integral part of last year's championship squad, while Pepe Poupet has a streetball-type game that translates well to our team's up-tempo style. Rounding out the French players, we have Pape Badiane, who I didn't meet for awhile when he was playing for the French National team. Having heard in his absence that Pape has quite a collection of TV shows on his computer, I became his best friend the moment we shook hands. Raf Wilson, who didn't miss a jump shot in September, is young, but seems to have soaked up knowledge from his father, a long-term French League pro. William Soliman, our soft-spoken big man off the bench, has an array of post moves and doesn't realize that when I call him "Will I am" that it is just his name pronounced differently! Throw in some junior players and high-flying Roanne lifer Laurent Cazalon and that is our roster.
Oh, I am also on the team. I like to help my team win, I like to be efficient and I like trying to be an all-around player. I will take the easy way out and say that I cannot predict how we will do in either the French League or in the Euroleague, pleading ignorance, and knowing that any cocky thing I say can and will be used against me. I will say that our team is coming along well and the preseason was used to get to know each other's games, to learn how to play together and to get in shape. Some programs put unreasonable pressure on teams during the preseason. My biggest complaint so far is that, after a return trip from a preseason game, one of the junior players (he knows who he is) left a partially finished yoghurt container upside down in the back seat of my car. Luckily, I didn't have to smell it the next day, because we were off and I didn't go anywhere. But that only meant that it spent an extra day melting and fermenting (or whatever yoghurt does) into the seat. The unfathomable stench will probably last all season.
Anyway, the pressure will surely build, as it should. Every French team will be gunning to get last year's champion while every night in the Euroleague will be quite a challenge. Maybe we are not sure which pressure to feel: one night we are the big champions every one wants to beat and two nights later we will be the new guys playing against some perennial power from another country. Whatever the case, I will not make outlandish guarantees, but a good goal would be to compete like we belong. Like we belong amongst the top French clubs and like we belong in the Euroleague!
POSTED BY
ADAM HESS - ROANNE, FRANCE