The Waiting Game

First off, apologies to the six of you outside of my bloodline who actually read this, as I was terrible at keeping up with my blog this season. With that being said, I promise to do a better job at posting this year. 

The summer is always a crazy time for us, and this one's been no different. D arrived back from Italy just in time for my mom's wedding (and unfortunately the funeral of my grandfather). We typically stay in the US for the majority of the summer, as the thought of another transatlantic flight makes me want to, well...die, however, this year we needed to head to Lithuania for D's sister's wedding. After her beautiful wedding and a short trip to both Barcelona and Paris, we headed back home to Florida. 

D's sister was such a beautiful bride

Our family at my mama's wedding!

 It's always difficult for us balancing our summer schedule between traveling all over the US to see our loved ones while still fitting in time for me to work on my business and for D to train and work on his game for the upcoming season. Needless to say, our lives are far more hectic and busy in the summertime than they are for the entire basketball season. 

Summertime can be extremely unsettling for overseas basketball players and their families in general, as it begins the period I like to call "the waiting game". The end of the season and start of summer marks the time where we must decide our next move for the following season. I always have friends and family ask about free agency in Europe and how it works so hopefully I can clear it up for you. 

D's agent is in contact with teams across Europe and they reach out to him with offers that he then presents to us to choose from. This can be an extremely stressful period, as you're pretty powerless over the entire situation. If you're lucky, you'll have multiple offers to choose from and can get it out of the way early on in the summer, however this isn't always the case. I've had friends not know where they were going until late August some years, forcing them to pack up and move within a day or two. 

Luckily D was contacted by a few teams early on this Summer and toward the end of June we signed a contract with a team in Giresun, Turkey! We had a great experience the last time we lived in Turkey, although with a different team,  so we're hoping to enjoy it equally as much this time around. Typically when we're in the negotiating stages with a team, we immediately google the city to find out as much as we can about them. This is often a hilarious time that we get a lot of laughs from. "Well, I know this place looks terrible but it is the chestnut capital of the world, so that's super cool, right?!" I'm also the member of a Facebook group full of basketball wives where we all exchange questions and information about all the teams. It helps to know what you're getting into before arriving. (True story: We once researched a team and couldn't find anything about the city besides how to order a mail order bride from its borders....needless to say we didn't sign there). 

Here are some images of Giresun based on my [not very] extensive Google Image Search:

 

 

As this will be our fourth season overseas, we've learned so much and come so far since we started this journey three years ago. My main priority when we first moved overseas was to live in a great city. Not knowing much about European Basketball, I automatically assumed the best teams would be in the best countries & cities and the worst teams would be in the less desirable areas. Boy was I wrong! I now go into every free agency, still hoping to live in a great place, but with a much wider list things to prioritize. Our list typically looks like this:

1. The Overall Basketball Situation. This is the most important factor for us and what we take most largely into account. This can encompass everything from expected playing time, the coaching staff,  management staff, quality of the leagues the team plays in, etc. 
2. Financial Stability of the Team.  Sadly, a lot of teams in Europe can be delinquent on making payments, so it's absolutely essential to do your research and be sure the team is going to be financially secure and able to consistently pay on time. 
3. Teammates. Unfortunately, this one is pretty impossible to predict until arriving, unless you already know someone on the team, but having great teammates & families makes so much of a difference. With an awesome group of friends around, even the most uninteresting city can be a blast. 
4. Location (including weather, proximity to an airport, quality of the apartments we're given). Although no longer #1, this is still a huge priority. We spend over 9 months overseas every year and love living places with a lot to see and experience (not to mention our friends and family are way more likely to come visit when we live somewhere desirable to tourists). You can be in the greatest place on Earth, but if basketball isn't going well, or you don't have friends to be around, it really defeats the purpose. 

**(some other factors that aren't quite as important, but still of high priority include: accessibility of various hot sauce brands at the grocery stores and the availability of retro Jordans to purchase.)**

Congratulations you have your list, now pick 1-2 of those things to make a reality. Unfortunately, no team ever aces all of these factors, so you have to weigh your options and decide which one works best for you based on your own needs. Additionally, its super hard to predict many of these things until actually showing up for training camp. A city can look great, or terrible for that matter, via google images, and you could be pleasantly surprised upon arrival.. or quite the opposite. 

D's short summer will come to an end in just 2 weeks when he'll head over to Turkey for training camp. Fortunately, I've already been in touch with two wives who will be on our same team next year so I'm exited to meet them and have them for support. I'll keep working until late September and then fly over to join D in Giresun! Turkey was definitely the most interesting and different place I've ever lived, so I'm sure there will be no lack of material for the blog this season. Stay tuned for updates on this next chapter of our lives. XOXO