Thursday, December 31, 2009
Happy Holidays everyone! CJ Wallace of Benetton Basket here, hoping you all are having a great holiday season and are preparing to bring in the New Year/Decade in style. For the first time in several years, I was able to return home for some holiday action with family and friends. It was great to see all the relatives on Christmas, and also a lot of fun to hang out with some of my Atlanta friends for a couple days. My flight back to Italy consisted of a three-hour maintenance delay in Atlanta, a lost bag, and a missed-connection re-routing through Amsterdam to Paris and finally Venice. So, 19 travel hours later, and after filing my lost bag report, I was whisked directly to a practice, where needless to say my body was struggling to perform at its highest level. Still, it was worth the travel struggles to be able to spend the holidays at home with my family and closest friends. But now, it is back to work as our squad prepares for a new decade of basketball with a couple more practices to finish up 2009. After granting us a holiday break, our coaches are doing their best to keep us too tired to even think of a New Year's Eve party!
Speaking of New Year's Eve - also known as CJ Wallace's Birthday - all of you blog readers out there are going to have to have a little extra fun in my name, because I will be sleeping and preparing for two very important games coming up. Yes, I'm being serious here. First, on January 3, we have an Italian League game against Montepaschi Siena, the best team in Italy and probably one of the top few teams in all of Europe. Their team is loaded with guys who just make the plays that win basketball games and do all the little things to be successful. And while I certainly hate them, there is no way I can't respect them as basketball players and even more so as a basketball team. It will be a tough game. Two days after that, in one of the biggest games of our season for sure, we play at home versus Cholet with an opportunity to clinch a qualifying spot for the Eurocup Last 16 round with a win. After our last-second victory in Cholet (See previous Awesome Jubilant Running Around blog for a description), we know that their team will be psyched up for some revenge. So all these practices to bridge 2009 and 2010 are very important. Before the break, I think we had one of our best team efforts in a buzzer-beater Italian League win on the road versus Virtus Bologna. If we can continue to match the kind of unity and energy shown against Bologna (and work out a few kinks here and there), we should have a very good chance to start the new decade on the right foot.
So there ya go, now you see that I was being serious about my calm and peaceful birthday/New Year celebration. But please don't feel sorry for me. Instead, if you are drinking a glass of champagne come midnight, go ahead and have two glasses. If you are kissing a beautiful girl when the clock strikes twelve, go ahead and kiss her twice. And if you let out a big yell to bring in the new decade, give me a little extra effort and pump up the volume a bit. Hey, I'm not asking a lot here, but I will know if you don't include me. Eurocup blog readers, don't let me down!
And so I don't let any of you down, either, I have two song suggestions and a book recommendation. And yes, the songs are holiday-themed.
Literature:
Chelsea Handler - "Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea". I think author, Chelsea Handler, would laugh that I referred to her book as literature, but a super cute friend of mine gave this book to me for Christmas and it is pretty hilarious. I think the target audience is probably female, but even sensitive male basketballers like myself can appreciate her humor.
Music:
Mariah Carey - "All I Want for Christmas is You". OK, obviously this is the best Christmas song of all time. Yes, there are classics like "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" and "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas", which give Mariah a little competition. But all things considered, her pipes are ridiculous in this song, and it is impossible not to snap your fingers and execute a jubilant little Christmas shuffle for the duration of the tune.
Ke$ha - "Tik Tok". This song is so legitimate. If you don't like this song, then you just don't appreciate catchy Top 40 pop classics. Start your New Year's Eve off with this song to get you in a little party mood. After that, the rest is up to you.
Not much basketball to report this time, but hopefully by the time the next blog rolls around I will have reports of Benetton victories to share with everyone.
Have a great New Year, Eurocup readers! I hope 2009 was a great year for ya'll and I wish everyone out there the best of luck in 2010! Ciao from Treviso, and Buon Anno!!!!
CJ
POSTED BY
CJ Wallace, Treviso