During my time out at Impact Basketball’s Competitive League, I was once again shown the power of social media and in particular Twitter.

During my layover in Phoenix, Arizona, I sent a challenge out to 11 year NBA veteran and three point sharpshooter Damon Jones.  I knew Damon would be at Impact’s event in Las Vegas, but I didn’t really expect him to respond.

Yet he DID!

What ensued was three days of playful trash talk and challenges as shown below in my twitter feed.  While it may not have ended the way I would have liked, the experience still left me thankful.

September 20, 2011 (The Challenge, Response and Initial Meeting)

I honestly couldn’t believe it when I looked at the notification on my phone and saw that Jones had taken the challenge.  It was early afternoon and I had just checked into my hotel room in Vegas last Tuesday.

Beyond excited, I packed up my gym bag with a change of clothes and my Jordans and then let the world know that Me vs. Damon Jones was on!!

As I took a cab ride over to Impact Basketball’s facility, my buddy DJ got in on the Twitter action and spoke a little trash for me!

Damon’s response had me smiling from ear to ear!  I had come out to Vegas to spread the mevsMJ.com word and minutes into the experience something amazing was already happening!

I watched the two games prior to Jones’ 5:30pm game and awaited his arrival.

As Damon warmed up prior to his game, I walked out on the court (THANK YOU Impact for the VIP passes) towards Jones, and was greeted with a huge smile and warm handshake.  I could tell he recognized me from our online conversation.  He asked in a challenging tone, “You ready?”  I responded, “Always, when are we going to do this!?”  Jones replied, “Right after this game!  I’ll come find you and we’ll do it!”

In the first half of the game Damon was 4 of 6 from downtown.

As he began warming up for the second half he walked right past me and I said, “I see you!” (A modern day way of acknowledging someone’s success)

Jones very sure of himself responded, “Did that make you nervous!?  You still think you want some of this!?”

I told him, “Of course!”

With a puzzled look he replied, “Really!?!?”

Almost laughing I said, “Yeah, because you thought two of the four you made were off!”

Then in what would turn out to be classic Damon Jones fashion he confidently told me, while shooting a three at the same time, “Naa, I just say ‘that’s off’ to throw the defender off!”  With the ball halfway to the rim, he had now turned back completely to me until he heard it swish through and then said, “See!”

I laughed, appreciated his confidence and knew I’d have my hands full after the game.

The only problem is there was no shoot off on Tuesday.  Midway through the 4th quarter Jones had his knees iced and I was almost positive then that he wasn’t going to shoot with me.

He left pretty much immediately after the game.  I of course proceeded to get my shots in and went back to my hotel room to get some rest, but not before calling him out!

September 21, 2011 (The Response, More Trash Talk and a New Shootout Date Set)

Fairly early on Wednesday morning Damon responded to his whereabouts after the game the night before.

30 minutes before Damon’s 3:30pm game on Wednesday, I saw him sitting on the other side of the court a few seats from Chauncey Billups.  Never one to shy away from a challenge (Remember:  I am trying to get a game of 1-on-1 vs. Michael Jordan), I made my way from my courtside seat, on the other side of the court, over to Jones and we had a good laugh as I sat down next to him and we began to talk.

Damon Jones can flat out shoot the ball!  I know that, he knows that and he’ll tell you so in a playful way if you don’t know that!  I’ve watched the guy for years make shots in the NBA, teamed with the likes of Dwayne Wade and LeBron James.  I asked him about his shooting practice and if he counts shots or makes.  As I thought, he said he only counts makes and depending on the schedule would get in 500 makes three to four times a week from various areas on the court.

He told me with a large smile that turned into a laugh, “It takes a lot of work and a lot of trash talk to be as good as me, but keep working and maybe you’ll get there some day!”

Amused and enjoying the verbal jabs, I responded, “I hear you talking, but I don’t see you doing anything!  I’m here!  I’ll be here!”

Jones then asked me, “OK, how long will you be here?  How about we shoot tomorrow at 11am!”

I said, “It’s on!  I’ll be here!”

I then wished him luck and watched the next two games!

September 22, 2011 (The Day of the Shootout and What Could Have Been)

I woke up at 5:42am Thursday morning and while I wish I could say it was nerves about the upcoming shootout, it was not.  That was actually the longest I had slept during my time in Vegas, apparently thrown off by the three hour time change from Florida.

Still, I jumped out of bed, ordered a nice breakfast and sent out a tweet in an attempt to confirm my upcoming shootout with one of the NBA’s best!

I arrived at Impact’s training center around 9:35am that morning.  I caught the last few minutes of Coby Karl’s workout and watched the first few minutes of Eric Bledsoe’s workout before deciding to see if I could go get some shots in on the open half court prior to Damon’s arrival at 11am.

My buddy Karol got in on the action and based upon Jones’ response, I wanted to be as ready as possible!

With the guys at Impact being cool with me using the court, I grabbed an NBA ball, headed down to the other end and began shooting around 10:45am or so.

Then around 11:30am I got the following message from Damon.

Disappointed for sure, I continued to get my shooting work in, changed clothes and then enjoyed the day’s games and DJ’s Twitter response.

Could I have beaten Damon Jones in a shooting contest?  Who knows!  All I knew was that the experience would have been great and I would have without a doubt done much better than Damon ever would have expected.  I know I can shoot the ball!

I ran into Jones as he was leaving Thursday evening, having just made 10 three pointers in his game.  He wished me the best on my journey and told me to stay in touch.

As I’ve learned with this experience that is mevsMJ.com, sometimes the journey outweighs the final destination.  Even though Damon had backed out, I couldn’t help but feel thankful for the experience.

September 26, 2011 (NBA Ball and More Damon Jones)

One of the first things I did this past Saturday morning when I got back from Vegas was look into getting an NBA ball.  When I got waxed by Garfield Blair in 1-on-1, we used his NBA ball and I was thrown off a bit by the different feel (not that the ball would have mattered in our two games).  Then at Impact I got to use the ball the pro’s use on two seperate occasions for extended periods of time and decided that if I’m going to be playing NBA guys, I need to get used to their ball!

I sent a quick text to one of my contacts and Monday I had my official NBA ball!

I of course had to let Damon know and assure him that we WILL have a shootout ONE DAY and I will be coming for his self proclaimed, “World’s Greatest Shooter” crown!

Thank you Damon Jones!

I want to thank Damon for his kindness and availability.  Sure he backed out twice (Damon, did Rudy or OJ text you that I was popping those nets Thursday morning?? Haha! :-D), but he could have easily done what so many others do and never even responded to my initial challenge.

Will we ever have a shoot off?  Only time will tell!

What I can assure you is that if there is a next time, I will be even more prepared and ready!

LET IT RAIN!

me vs. MJ…the amazing journey continues!

Sitting in the last of a long row of folding metal chairs lining the sideline of the court I studied the footwork of Rudy Gay, Roger Mason and Jared Dudley as they went through their morning court workout with the founder of Impact Basketball, Joe Abunassar.

My eyes red and heavy from lack of sleep the night before did their best to paint mental canvases of the player’s execution on each drill.

In an empty gymnasium just off the Las Vegas strip, on a Wednesday morning in September, I was being shown exactly what the best do to get better and I couldn’t have been happier!

John Wall

Forty-five minutes into their workout in walked one of the most electrifying point guards in the NBA, John Wall.

The night before as I was shooting around on the court after the games, I dribbled up to John as he walked across the hardwood floor and playfully asked, “You wanna play some 1-on-1?”

With a slight smile he responded, “I’m too tired right now man.”

It made sense.  He had just dropped over 40 points in the game some 20 minutes earlier, hitting the hole like the roadrunner.

Now less than 12 hours later he was back in the gym ready to work on his game.

As he walked down to the court he took a seat in the chair directly next to me, kicked off his slides and began putting his shoes on.

We talked briefly about my journey to play Michael Jordan before Rudy, Roger and Jared came over to greet John, having just completed their workout.

Me, Roger, Jared, Rudy and Stephen Jackson

Because John had chosen to sit next to me out of all the empty chairs, I soon found myself next to Roger and Rudy, who had taken seats next to John before he proceeded to begin his workout.  Then Jared pulled up a seat at an angle on the other side of me and for the next 30 minutes or so I listened as they talked shoe contracts, music, and what players were leaving to play overseas.

Then in walked Stephen Jackson and as he was giving handshakes to the guys, because I was there with them he reached out to me and said, “What’s up man!”

Wearing my Jordan Six Rings shirt, Jackson noticed and said, “I have the white one, but I haven’t seen the black one.  I like that!”

It was all quite surreal to say the least.

I’m Trying To Get A Game of 1-on-1 vs. Michael Jordan

Over my three days at Impact Basketball’s facility I told Chauncey Billups, John Wall, Corey Brewer, Jermaine Taylor, Rudy Gay, Jared Dudley, OJ Mayo, Damon Jones, Kenyon Martin, Corey Maggette, Marreese Speights and Dahntay Jones about my journey to play MJ.

They all for the most part were very supportive wishing me luck on my quest.

While I wasn’t able to get anyone to agree to play me, I did get some encouraging feedback and at one point was shown a move by John Wall.  I’d describe it, but Mr. Jordan might be reading!  Oh, what the heck…it was his patented spin move!!!  How cool is that!?!?

On another occasion as I was shooting one evening, I did a little hesitation dribble towards Chauncey Billups, prompting him to say to me in an encouraging tone, “Oh, that’s what you’ve got for Jordan!”  I then ran right next to him on the court, launched a NBA 3 pointer over him, that swished, to which he said, “Nice shot!”

In all, to list every single interaction with a player would take much more than a single blog post and for some reason I’d like to just keep some of them for myself.  All I can is, it was an amazing experience for sure!

Impact Competitive League Action

In my time in Vegas I watched eight fairly intense games of NBA basketball.  I’ve never been closer to the action, including my days in TV, as I was last week.

With a couple hundred people there to watch daily, I could hear the trash talk, the shoes squeak and all that falls between the two.

It was awesome!

For the fans that did show up, they got an up close and personal look at a group of NBA guys that just love to play ball.  Stripped away was all the formality that has become today’s NBA.  Left was a group of highly skilled men that love the game and appreciate the fans, even interacting with them at times during the games.

I also saw numerous players sign autographs and stop to take pictures after the games.

Shooting In Front Of NBA Players

Thursday morning as Eric Bledsoe was working out on one end, the other half of the court was open, due to Coby Karl having completed his morning session.

Always equipped with my Jordans, I walked down and asked if they mind if I shoot on the other end until the next workout began.

After getting approval, I proceeded to get some shots in for the next hour and 15 minutes in front of the top trainers and players like Rudy Gay and OJ Mayo.

At first, to be honest, I was a bit nervous.  I had just watched Bledsoe make almost every shot he took and now I was shooting with an NBA ball, which is a bit different than what I routinely use, in front of a group of basketball’s best.

The adrenaline was sprinting through my body, but after a few minutes I found my rhythm, took a deep breath and was fine.  I honestly don’t know if they watched much of what I did, but I know they heard that net pop, haha!

What I Learned Watching NBA Guys Workout

They are so freaking good!  Like in all walks of life, some go harder than others, but the consistency is amazing!  The footwork, the elevation, the fluidity and ease at which they move, the conditioning, the explosiveness and their ability to make the majority of their shots was so inspiring!  They are so efficient on the basketball court!

There is such a gigantic difference between them and most everyone else that plays basketball and getting to see them workout further proved that and blew my mind.

They made me want to work even harder because I know now how great you can actually be at the game I love so much.

My Impact Family (Thank You!)

Last year I reached out to Impact Basketball and told them about my dream.  Matt Hiller who trained me some 11 months ago has been like a brother to me and I can’t say enough good things about him or Tom Carollo who hooked me up with VIP, all access passes to the Impact League event.  Great men, no doubt!

Impact Basketball truly is a class act organization and I’m so happy and thankful to have them on my side.

I’d like to thank Impact Basketball creator Joe Abunassar for his hospitality as well.  Very much appreciated!

I also want to thank every single person at Impact Basketball for having me and for their kindness.  Means the World to me!

More Impact Basketball In My Future

I’m actually looking to possibly make another trip to Vegas next month for some more hoops!  I simply can’t get enough!  There is talk of perhaps putting on another two week league in late October and that has me already wanting to book some airline tickets!

While those details are being worked out, I will without a doubt make my way back down to Sarasota to work with Matt and Tom very soon.

Life Is Amazing If You Allow It To Be!

I’ve been saying all of 2011 that “Life is Amazing If You Allow It To Be!”  This is just another example of that and for it I’m so thankful.

Never be afraid to go after your dreams!  Amazing, wonderful things are waiting for you, if you just take a long stride and believe!

me vs. MJ…the now cross country journey continues!  As always, thank you for following along!

Full Video Recap of Impact Basketball’s Competitive League Series

httpvh://youtu.be/ZneQFX2kZho

 **Check Back Thursday For…Me vs. Damon Jones (The Shootout That Almost Was)