As the final days and hours of 2011 come to a close, I can’t help but reflect on my official slogan for this year, which was “Life is AMAZING, if you allow it to be!”

For me and my journey of playing Michael Jordan 1-on-1, 2011 was beyond amazing and for that I am so thankful!

Having said that, there were definitely some struggles over the last 365 days, but overall it was without a doubt more than I ever could have expected!

Here is a recap of all that was 2011 for mevsMJ.com!

-1st Quarter-

(January, February, March)

Looking back, January seems like years ago.  I began 2011 gaining my first 1-on-1 match-up win (Me vs. Scott Spencer) and feeling like my game was getting stronger and stronger.  Unfortunately then, but rather fortunately I suppose as I reflect now, I got injured on the next to last day of the month (Pop Goes The Dream) and was faced with painful rehabilitation that consumed the next eight weeks, testing me both physically and mentally.

During the rehab, even though I wasn’t playing, some great things still happened!

The very next day following my injury in the most surprising turn of events, I got some Jordan love! (Jeff Jordan promotes mevsMJ.com!)

Over the eight weeks of rehab I wrote 18 different posts including (Dear MJ:  My Letter to Michael Jordan).  Then exactly 62 days after the injury that left me devastated, I made my comeback in the last part of March against now Virginia Tech Hokies freshman Robert Brown, a good friend and the very first player to really believe in what I’m doing here on this site! (I’m Back!!!!)

-2nd Quarter-

(April, May, June)

I gave my life to the Lord when I was 23 years old (Yes, I’m a huge Jordan fan, but no, I didn’t plan that!)  I’ve sprinkled my faith over many of the posts I’ve written on this site and I mention that to say that I always feel that God has a plan for me.  During the injury I believed that and as I went through the second quarter of 2011, HE left me amazed as things began happening so quickly that I could hardly keep up!

April began with me meeting up with a talented young man named Ziarekenya Smith!  He had gained National accliam for his Jordan typeface, pictured to the right.  (God Inspired Designs)

From there, a simple hope filled email returned back to me, someone I now call a friend and mentor, Dave Hopla. (My time with Dave Hopla, World’s Greatest Shooter)

Then, still in April, I took on my first real professional basketball player, in what was the worst showing of my life! (Me vs. Garfield Blair)

May began with another no and then the biggest YES to date! (Nick Anderson Called Me!!!)

While nothing ever materialized with Nick, it was beyond cool having the former NBA player call me on MY cell phone!

Later in the month I had the blessing of getting to know and workout with then one of the top high school coaches in the country and now George Washington assistant coach, Kevin Sutton! (My First Workout with Coach Kevin Sutton!)

June came around, I played much better against my second professional player (Me vs. Andy Gebru) and had my third rematch with Robert Brown (Me vs. Robert Brown – Round 3).

-3rd Quarter-

(July, August, September)

The third quarter of 2011 kept up the momentum with me spending a little time with Tracy McGrady and even getting a shout out from T-Mac himself! (My Time with T-Mac)

On August 22nd, mevsMJ.com turned 1 year old. (me vs. Michael Jordan – 365 Days Later!)

In September I flew to Vegas for Impact Basketball’s Competitive League, where I told Chauncey Billups, John Wall, Rudy Gay, OJ Mayo, Corey Maggette, Jared Dudley and more about my journey to play Michael Jordan and almost had a shootout with NBA Sharpshooter Damon Jones! (Me vs. Damon Jones – The Shootout That Almost Was)

-4th Quarter-

(October, November, December)

In October I switched things up a bit and did my first video post (Where Are You Going?) so that everyone could actually hear me speak!  [Side note:  I often wonder how people sound when I’m reading their blogs/posts.]

A few days later, by reader request, I posted a video of me draining 22 of 24 from the 3 point line. (Is This Why NBA Guys Won’t Play Me??)  So pretty!

Mid November, I began working harder and sweating more than I probably ever have in my life! (Me + B Meyer Training – The Man Behind Dwight Howard)

On Thanksgiving day, Eric Griffin and I helped one young man’s dream come true, in what was one of the most fulfilling moments of my life.  (Thanksgiving Day Dreams)

Then the moment I had been waiting for happened!

→Michael Jordan KNOWS!!!←

I‘m still blown away by what happened in the first moments of December, the last grouping of days of 2011!

In what played out like some scene from an inspirational movie, I met Michael Jordan! (Michael Jordan Knows About ME and mevsMJ.com!)

As I wrote when I began this post, LIFE IS AMAZING, IF YOU ALLOW IT TO BE!

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Through all that has happened on this journey, the part I never really anticipated is all of the great people that would come into my life and become true friends.

This mevsMJ.com walk has always been about truly believing that anything is possible with faith and hard work and I really feel that through 2011 that became more eveident than ever!

I’ve always believed in me vs. Michael Jordan and now I’m sure a few more people do too!  That’s a great thing!

For every person that has read a post, for each one of you that has believed in what I’m doing, for those who took time out of their life to help my dream come true, for those of you that I’m fortunate enough to call my friends, I say THANK YOU!

2011 was an unbelievable ride!

Off to 2012 we go!

me vs. MJ…the journey continues!!!!!  Thank you for following along!

Connect:  Twitter (@KennyEller) and mevsMJ.com Facebook Fan Page.

God has a plan for me.

I have no better way to describe what is happening in my life these days than to give credit where credit is due.

In the last month and a half, I just happened to meet the designer of the Jordan typeface, just happened to come across and work with Dave Hopla, just happened to get connected with pro basketball player Garfield Blair, just happened to meet my next 1-on-1 opponent (more on this in a later post), just happened to get a call from Nick Anderson and just happened to yesterday morning meet one of the top basketball coaches in America, Kevin Sutton.

I believe in God and I don’t believe that many things just happen.

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As I said I would in my last post, I’ve been at the gym every morning this week working on my free throws.  Working on getting past the mental block I’m currently battling and moving closer to my goal of 100 free throws in a row.

I’d love to report that I’ve pushed past my personal best of 34 makes in a row already, but I haven’t.  Yesterday, I got to 25 and 29 on two separate occasions before I missed.

Making and missing free throws isn’t what today’s post is about though.  Making and missing free throws was merely the vehicle for what is coming next on my journey to face Michael Jordan.

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Yesterday morning, I stood at the line, and just before I let another shot go, four people began making their way across the baseline underneath the basket.  As the ball swished through the net and down to the floor one of the gentlemen in the group, wearing a baseball cap, smiled and said, “I’ve got it!”

As I looked up to thank him, I realized it was non other than Coach Kevin Sutton.

Kevin Sutton

In his 24 years of coaching, both at the collegiate and high school level, Kevin Sutton has coached 13 players that were drafted into the NBA, Europe or WNBA.  He has also coached and developed around 100 players that went on to play college basketball.

Most recently he built Montverde Academy into a National powerhouse, with an amazing 158-31 record, including a National Championship in 2007.

This year Sutton was also named the Head Coach for USA Basketball’s 2011 Junior National Select Team, which featured players like Austin Rivers, Brad Beal, Michael Gilchrist, Anthony Davis and James McAdoo.

He also has worked at numerous prestigious basketball camps including, Michael Jordan Flight School!

I’m On A Journey to Play Michael Jordan

I introduced myself to Coach Sutton and the people he was with and began telling them about my journey to play my childhood hero Michael Jordan.  I told them what I’ve done so far with training and who I’ve played.

After I was done giving them a brief mevsMJ.com overview and explaining how amazing the journey has been thus far, Coach Sutton invited me to come train with him and a select group of individuals that include current college, top tier high school and even the occasional NBA player!

Working with Kevin Sutton

So starting next Tuesday I will begin another journey within this wonderful journey that is mevsMJ.com.

Next week I will begin working with Kevin Sutton!!

I called Coach Sutton Wednesday afternoon to confirm the time and location for next week and asked him how many times I could attend.

He responded, “You can come as often as you like!”

Life Is Amazing, If You Allow It To Be (My 2011 Slogan)

Wonderful, amazing, life changing things are happening at a rapid pace these non-ordinary days.

I’m telling you…Life is Amazing, if you allow it to be!!!

As always, thank you for the continued support and love!

**Do me a huge favor and spread the mevsMJ.com word by sharing on Facebook, Twitter, or anything else you like!

With two of the “healthiest” soft tacos on my tray that Taco Bell could put together, I grabbed my drink and slid into a one of the many loudly colored booths that make up the in house eating area.  It had been years since I had taken a seat in the most famous fast food taco establishment ever created, yet I was immediately taken back to my early college days when making a “run for the border” was almost a daily occurrence.

I didn’t just happen to stop by Taco Bell to reminisce in the middle of last month (March).  I was there to meet Ziarekenya Smith, pay for the design I had purchased from him and see what the designer who created the Michael Jordan piece shown above was all about.

This is how the meeting came together.

The Beginning:  “The Dopest Pic I’ve Seen!”-Marcus Jordan:

On March 7^th, I saw this on Twitter:

I follow both Marcus and Jeff Jordan, Michael’s two sons, on Twitter and while I don’t always click every picture they post, I had to see what Marcus was calling “The Dopest Pic I’ve Seen.”

I clicked the link, did the iPhone reverse pinch to enlarge the image and was amazed!  It was an image of Michael Jordan made up on only words.  They were words like “Hard Working”, “Dominance”, “Amazing”, and series of words like, “For the Love of the Game”, “I can accept failure.  Everyone fails.  But I can’t accept Not Trying”, and “Never Give Up”.

I was blown away!  I clicked the favorite button on Twitter so that I could go back later and look at it and then went on with my day.

Time To Find A Picture (A series of great events):

Usually the night before any posting I do here, I am typing in search criteria in Flickr, looking for a picture to use for the next day’s post.  Monday, March 16^th was no exception.  I had written a post titled, “What’s Your End Goal” and since my end goal is playing Michael Jordan 1-on-1, I was looking for a picture of greatness aka Michael Jordan.

It didn’t take long and once again I was captivated by the same Jordan image, Marcus Jordan had tweeted about some nine days earlier.  When I came out of my trance, I went from one link to the other before I was typing up an email, inquiring about buying this amazing Jordan Typeface for my home.

I sent the email at 6:13 pm Monday evening and continued the search for who this designer/artist could be.

The next morning I awoke, checked my email and had a response at 1:11am on my purchase.  I was back to trying to figure out who the creator of this was and using his name from the email I found a Facebook page that said he attended Full Sail University, a school that is just 35-40 minutes from where I live.

One thing led to another and three Fridays ago I was downing two soft tacos at Taco Bell, awaiting Ziarekenya Smith’s arrival.

The Arrival of Mr. Smith

As I was waiting for Smith to arrive, I had no idea how old he was or even what he looked like.  I didn’t know much at all about the gentleman who created this mind blowing design of Michael Jordan.  As I sat there, I still couldn’t believe that the person who created this, who was getting national attention for this, lived this close to me and was about to walk through the door.

He arrived right on time; bright red ball cap pulled down flush to some jet-black ray bans, a red backpack tugging at his red Nike shirt that said simply yet emphatically, “Doing It!”.  He was tall (6’4”), young and hip and it really shouldn’t have been a surprise.

He’s Only 19!!!!

Ziare sat down, pulled is Macbook Pro out of his bag and we began to talk.  What I thought might be a brief meeting, one in which I pay for the Jordan Typeface design I bought from him, turned into two and a half hour conversation about his work, his life, his passion.

The 19 year old that created a Jordan design back in September 2010, and was now getting National attention for doing so, was so much bigger than his awe inspiring design.

I left the meeting motivated and inspired!

I had to write about and do my best to let more people know about the young man from Detroit, Michigan with no car, nor any desire to have one (he’s afraid it might take away from his time designing), the guy with a design factory lodged inside his head (as I saw when he showed me other things he had done), and the man who sprinkled God over ever single part of his life during our meeting.

Ziarekenya Smith may only be 19, but has the wisdom of someone more than twice his age, and more dedication and determination than I have seen in anyone in quite some time.

He’s beyond focused on achieving greatness just like MJ and just like Jordan, Smith is about to be very special in this World.  Here is a little of our conversation from that Friday in March.

Me and Ziarekenya Smith (The Designer of the Jordan Typeface):

me:  How long have you been interested in design?

ZS:  I’ve been interested in designing since I was toddler.  I always had a thing for creating things when I was little.

me:  What made you want to do the Michael Jordan typeface?

ZS:  It’s really self explanatory.  First off it’s Michael and secondly God gave me a vision.  Plus Michael really motivated me as a designer.  He really lives up to hard work, dedication, passion, determination, resiliency and love for the game. I treat and look at designing in that way.

me:  Where did you get all of the text used for your creation?

ZS:  A variety of different Jordan sites.

me:  How long did it take you to design the Jordan piece?

ZS:  15 hours a day for 4 days straight, with little procrastination breaks.

me:  Were you ever able to see MJ play in person or on TV live?

ZS:  I wish I had, but no.

me:  Have you been surprised by the response your MJ work has received?

ZS:  I really have.  I knew it was a good piece, but I never knew it was good enough to catch this many people’s attention.  I just thank God for allowing my work to flow around the internet and to hit all the right places.

me:  What does it feel like to have Marcus Jordan tweet about your design??

ZS:  Most wonderful feeling ever just seeing him tweeting saying this is the dopest picture yet he has seen of his DAD!  It really touched me, I was very honored, because who knows how many designs he has seen of his DAD and yet he said that mine was the dopest!  It’s the best feeling ever!

me:  Do you think he showed his Dad (Michael Jordan)?

ZS:  I hope so, but eventually time will tell!

me:  This has made you sort of a celebrity around campus, I’m sure.  How does that feel?

ZS:  Sort of.  I just feel like I need to live up to the hype.  I don’t want people to think “Oh he just got that one design piece,” no I want to show people I actually do this.  I live and breathe designing everyday, and I’m not a one hit wonder.

me:  Have companies tried to hire you since this went National on Yahoo Sports?

ZS:  Nope, but one of my instructors from “Full Sail University” recommended that I redesign a EA Sports NBA Elite 12 game cover, because he knows the assistant director at EA Sports. He said if you design it i’ll submit it EA Sports for them to check it out.

me:  What message would you have for anyone who wants to create killer designs like you?

ZS:  Just Do It!  Make sure you have a passion for it first, make sure this what your heart desires and make sure you don’t consider designing working.  If you check off on all of that, the possibility of you becoming a great designer has no limits!  That’s just half the part and I don’t know where y’all at in religion, but God has been everything to my designing life.  That’s how my skills as a designer developed at a fast pace.  I just believe in God, believe in myself, and am just working hard every day designing, putting in major hours each day designing.  I’m dedicated and just want to be the best at what I do. I’ll end it with this, the more hours you put into your craftsmanship which is designing will determine weather you’ll be successful at designing or not.

me:  Your official logo is God Inspired Designs.  Where did that come from?

ZS:  The vision came to me at Feb 5, 2011 at 9am in the morning after I got done reading the Bible. That’s where it came to me because I always put God inspired designs at the end of my caption on my designs. So that’s why I decided to make “God Inspired Designs” my official logo till my life ends. The second reason why I wanted to be “God Inspired Designs” is that I finally realized in life it’s not about me at all, and I refuse to take credit that is not mine. I want people to know God gave everything to me in life:  my idea’s, tools, my determination, etc.  I just wanted to embrace God’s name and show people that he is real and not a myth, so when I become successful I don’t have to say it was because of man, I can say it was God, nothing more nothing less.

me:  What does God mean to you, your life and your designs?

ZS:  Everything I mean everything for example the day I put myself first before God that’s the day when my success will end.

me:  When do you graduate from Full Sail University?

ZS:  March, 2012.

me:  What would be your DREAM job?

ZS:  Working at Nike or having my own Company.

[flickr video=5480357522]

(This is a video Smith created to show his love of Nike.  Simply titled, “I Love Nike”, this might just be the kind of thing that lands him his dream job with the brand.  If you can’t see the video, click this link to watch it \”I Love Nike\” (Video))

me:  You also play basketball correct?

ZS:  YES! Love it!!

me:  Do you think you could take me on the court?

ZS:  Yes!  Show me my opponent!  Lol.  

me:  I love your confidence!  I will remember this when we play!!  Ok, what had you rather do:  Hang with Friends or Design?

ZS:  My life is backwards, hard work now to become successful, and have fun and play later when the mission is complete.

me:  What do you think that says about you?

ZS:  Victory is my only option Failure is not.

me:  OK, another one:  Date with Rihanna or Design?  Haha, sorry, had to:)

ZS:  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Designing! because I know it will eventually pay off.

me:  Anything else you would like everyone to know about you?

ZS:  As a Designer I just want to impact the world! Give this world hope and show people if I can make it, they can as well.  Just believe in God and believe in yourself and anything is possible I guarantee.

God Inspired Designs

I left my meeting with Smith feeling like I had just seen Michael Jordan back when he was at Laney High School.  Back before the World knew his name, but the people around him knew he was special.

That’s exactly where Ziare is at this moment.  He’s relatively unknown today, but that won’t last.  This Jordan piece, which is gaining momentum, could be just like Michael’s game winner at UNC, a launching pad to superstardom.

For the bright eyed Smith, who refuses to put his name on his designs these days because as he says, “If it’s good enough, people will find you,” his desire to be the Michael Jordan of design, could have people one day wanting to be the Ziarekenya Smith of whatever it is they do.

He’s special, no doubt.

I drove home following our meeting, picked up my iPad and opened my Bible application.  As I read, I couldn’t help but reflect on how God has led me.  How a tweet led to a meeting, which led to a lengthy conversation about the importance of God in both of our lives.

Smith’s Michael Jordan typeface, proof that it truly is a God Inspired Design.

Smith’s Future is DOPE!

Right now Ziare is just focused on finishing school and becoming the best designer that he can be.

After that, well we all shall see.

After multiple meetings and interactions, I can tell you this.  The young man, who reads the Bible daily because as he says, “If I have time to do everything else, I have time to read the Bible,” has a Future that is as DOPE as one of his God Inspired Designs.

Remember the name Ziarekenya Smith.  He’s about to BLOW UP!

Purchase Your Very Own Jordan Typeface ($7,000)

If you’ve got $7,000 to spare, you too can have your own 36×48 Jordan Typeface hanging on your wall.  Until then, I will remain the only person in the WORLD (other than Smith) who has one!

Now that’s DOPE!

More of Smith’s Designs and Photos:

Ziarekenya Smith’s Contact Information:

Portfolio | Email | Twitter | Facebook Page
(clickable links)

Note: Special thanks to my bro Ziarekenya Smith for the time and insight!  I hope to announce our joint project in the coming weeks!  Shhh, its a secret!!  Stay tuned!  [hint:  helping=exclusive gift]

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My Comeback Update:

So I made my comeback last week against one of the best ballers in the country, Robert Brown!  Then Saturday I got in three games of 1-on-1 against some normal competition and went 3-o.  I still have a ways to go to get my wind back, but I AM SO THANKFUL and feel SO BLESSED to be back on the court again!

me vs. MJ…the journey continues!  Thanks for following along and helping to spread the word (hint, hint )!!!