Sometimes I dream

That he is me

You’ve got to see that’s how I dream to be

I dream I move

I dream I groove

Like Mike

If I could Be Like Mike

Again I try

Just need to fly

For just one day if I could

Be that way

I dream I move

I dream I groove

Like Mike

If I could Be Like Mike

Now two years down the timeline.

Soaked with sweat, the result of playing hours of basketball in a high school gym with no air conditioner, amongst the sweltering heat that is Florida’s life companion, I would throw myself into my car.  Imagine Patrick Ewing a few minutes into any game when he was with the New York Knicks.  Did anyone ever sweat more than Ewing?

I would drive down East Avenue, which was the width of two normal streets in most towns today.  It was a reminder of a slower time, when space and land weren’t at a premium.  Just a mile or two from the gym was an oasis or what is commonly referred to as a convenience store.  I would pull my then 16 year old, thin frame, out of my car and mosey into refreshment.

The cool wave of air from the opening of the store’s metal and glass doors would welcome me like Festus would U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon (Gunsmoke).

I though, was there for one thing.

Citrus Cooler Gatorade.

I had read somewhere that Citrus Cooler was Michael Jordan’s favorite flavor and it just so happened to be mine as well.  Merely a coincidence.

Sliding open the refrigeration case door and not finding the Citrus Cooler Gatorade was the equivalent of opening that beautifully packaged Christmas gift and seeing some socks.  You needed the socks and were thankful, but for Christmas?

More times than not though, the Citrus Cooler was there.

In those days, I was probably Gatorade’s number one individual consumer of their Citrus Cooler flavor.  It was my go to drink.

In those days, just like the lyric in the jingle, I would imagine waking up and having MJ’s abilities for just one day.  The ability to take off and soar to the hoop Like Mike.  To be the best basketball player in the World for a few hours Like Mike.

I was a dreamer then and now!

Some 19 years after its original release, Gatorade’s “Be Like Mike” commercial is still one of my all-time favorites.

Anytime I hear that marketing jingle I immediately want to grab a basketball and work on my game.

I know at this point, I won’t be Mike Jordan.

My goal is to merely push Kenny Eller (already thinking more like an athlete with my 3^rd person reference…haha) to be the best that he can be.

I’m now less than a week from Impact Basketball training!  I’m hoping to get a glimpse into what MJ did to become Like Mike!

Sometimes I dream…that he is meeee….

Gatorade’s “Be Like Mike” Commercial

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0AGiq9j_Ak

Note:  I woke up Monday with a sore throat.  Everyone around me has been sick.  Pray for me and my health…please!  I need to be 100% for Impact Basketball training on the 18^th. Thanks!

We were down by one.

:03 illuminated by small red led lights was all that was left showing on the clock.  Out of the timeout the inbounds pass would be from the right baseline beside the basket.

This was my first chance to truly “Be Like Mike.”  I was 17 years old.

Walking out of the timeout, everyone on the court knew I’d be taking the shot.  In this league, in that game, with only a few parents and a couple of friends watching, I was the man.  I had played well enough to earn the shot at the end of the game.

I learned earlier in life that not everyone wanted the last shot.  To some the possibility of failure was crippling.  That always blew my mind because I wanted to shoot every time.  To me the possibility of making the shot far outweighed the other side of the coin.

I always fell back on something I read once in one of the many Jordan books I read as a kid.  MJ said something like, you can’t make a shot you don’t take.  If you miss it, you’ve done it before.  Though if you make it, you win the game!

That always made so much sense to me, so here I was with opportunity one.

As the ref handed the inbounds passer the ball, I prepared to make a quick cut to the baseline from the top of the key.

The guy guarding me had the nickname “bear” and his first name wasn’t teddy;-)  He was very athletic and strong.  I knew this wasn’t going to be easy.

The ball now in the hands of the passer, the whistle blown, I made the cut and got the inbounds pass 3-4 feet from the right baseline.

I had already imagined what I would do moments ago in the huddle during the timeout.

I knew I would have to get every inch of lift on my jump shot to get the ball over “bear”.  Of course then the ball would go in, the game would be won and celebration would commence.

So I get the ball and go hard right before pulling up with a 10 footer from the right baseline.  As I got up in the air, I was surprised.  “Bear” didn’t jump.  He just put his hands up.  This was going to be easier than I had thought.  As I released the ball with all the hope I possessed, I thought for sure it was in.  Game winners are what I was born to make.  So I thought.

As the horn went off, so did the ball…off the rim.  There would be no game winner that day.

In my basketball career I probably took 3-4 game winners in organized games and missed every one of them.

I made plenty of game winners in pick up games over the years, but never in an organized game.  Having said that, if I were to play in an organized game of basketball tonight and my team was down by one, I would want the shot.  It’s who I am.

The lesson is just like Mike said, you can’t make it, if you don’t take it.  We all miss shots in life, but it’s the ones who keep shooting that make the game winners.

You can’t be great without some sort of risk.

Almost everyone I have told about my goal of getting a game of one-on-one against MJ laughs and thinks I’m crazy.

I understand the perception of the task seems unlikely.  Perhaps it is.

The thing is I can’t achieve my dream of playing Michael Jordan one-on-one if I don’t take that shot.  If I miss and the game doesn’t happen, I’ve missed before.  If I make it though, well, stay tuned.  You’ll see what happens.

Until then, keep shooting!  It’s better to have a life of missed shots, than to never get in the game.

Michael Jordan had a sponsorship with McDonalds and the best way the Golden Arches could take advantage of his staggering fame was to come up with a limited time only McJordan Burger.

I was coming off the bench of the JV basketball team at the time and when that burger came out, it became my pre-game meal.

You have to understand that I had gotten serious about basketball as an eighth grader, when my parents got my brother and me our first hoop.  Making the JV team was a good accomplishment for me and by the time the season began I was the sixth or seventh man, meaning the first or second off the bench.

I had grown to around 5’8” or 5’9” over the summer, so I was average size for a point guard in the 10^th grade.  Size wasn’t really the hindering issue with success on the team though.  No matter how much I practiced, I couldn’t make up for the real game experience the other guys on the team had.  I had never played in a YMCA or City League growing up or even on the High School Freshman team.  My first exposure to team basketball was the JV team.  Looking back, making the team was a decent accomplishment.

I wouldn’t leave mouths agape with my athletic ability, but I could shoot.  Not off the move, I still wasn’t strong enough for that and really had never practiced it.  Just set up three pointers, like John Paxon and BJ Armstrong.  Sounds so dumb now, as I was so ill prepared, but I had taught myself to play so every experience was a learning one.

I remember the first day of practice, the coach had us do left handed layups.  We couldn’t use our right hands, at all.  What?  I had never practiced with my left hand.  It was sad.  It took me quite awhile before I felt comfortable going to the basket (wide open) with my left hand.

There were most likely only a couple of reasons I was even on the team.  One, because I would hustle like there was no tomorrow.  No one would out work me.  The other because I could shoot.  If I had a wide open three I thought it was automatic.  At the time it wasn’t, but I was a better shooter than most on the team.

So the McJordan came out and I begged my Mom to take me by McDonalds as often as possible.  I would eat one or two of them before every game.  If I remember right, it was basically a quarter pounder with cheese, mustard, BBQ sauce, pickles, onions and bacon.  Doesn’t even sound good now and from a nutritional standpoint, I’m fairly certain it wasn’t the best pre-game meal:-)  At the time though, if Mike ate them, and he did according to those commercials, so would I.  Whatever MJ did, I wanted to do.

The burger, like the shoes and the Gatorade never made me a better player, but at the time I believed that they would:-)  Today I realize of course that it was just great marketing.

Some would call the small breaths of air those companies put in my sail, false hope.  I, on the other hand, enjoyed growing up believing that I could one day be like Mike.

It sure beat someone coming to me and saying at 15 years of age, it’s not going to happen kid.