I flew home directly from Bali to the states (a travel total of 44 hours, including layovers, that took me through Perth, Brisbane, Los Angeles and Phoenix) to surprise my parents and head to the cabin for Labor Day. The one single thing I missed most while being away, aside from family and friends, was spending time on the lake at my family’s cabin in northern Wisconsin. It is simply my element.
After spending time at home for a couple weeks I ventured down to Raleigh, North Carolina for two months to reacquaint myself with the Athletes in Action Fall Tour. AIA is a fabulous organization I have become involved with in the last couple years and I greatly enjoy what they do for us players, on and off the court, as well as what their mission is beyond basketball. I hung out with a great group of guys and played a lot of basketball. I also fell for sweat tea while being in the south.
I returned home in time for the holidays and to celebrate my mother’s milestone birthday! It was great to spend time at home and be able to be around the family and friends I missed while being away. I spent a week in Colorado visiting my younger sister and hit the slopes at Breckenridge for a couple days to get the snowboarding fix I had been looking for the last couple years. It was like riding a bike, and the mountains might be my second element.
While I was home I was coaching the Jefferson High School boys JV/Varsity teams and working out to prepare for a return to Australia to play for the Wanneroo Wolves. I was planning to depart towards the end of January or the beginning of February but all of a sudden things began to change. Two weeks ago I was sitting in Romano Gymnasium watching the UMD Bulldogs get beat in double overtime and catching up with fans of the program I had not seen for a while. I told everyone I was returning to Australia at the month’s end, but little did I know a couple days later I would be boarding a plane for Taiwan.
Wednesday afternoon I received a phone call asking if I would be interested in playing in Taiwan. I was very open to the idea and was excited about a return to Asia, a continent I have traveled extensively they last couple years. I was told I would get more information in the coming days, but the team would want me there ASAP as I would be replacing an injured player and the season was still quite young. That evening I found out the team wanted me and that I would have the contract to review in the coming days. I planned to depart Sunday or Monday. Thursday came and I had agreed to the contract and was sitting on the bench during the JHS game when I felt my phone ring. After the game I checked my voice mail and the message revealed that I was to be leaving the next day to arrive in Taipei to play on Sunday. I was shocked.
After spending Thursday night and Friday morning sorting through all my belongings to put my life for the next 9 months (I will go straight from Taipei to Perth) into a duffel bag I was ready to leave. After lunch with my Mom and Dad, I was off to the airport. I was both excited, as I was off to play basketball, and sad, as I did not get to say goodbye to my friends.
6 am Sunday, Taipei: I arrived at the airport after 24 hours of travel. Taipei is 14 hours ahead of US CST. I was greeted by the team manager and a player that took me straight to the hospital for a physical to clear me to play. From the hospital it was straight to the pre-game shoot around and finally to breakfast – I was starving. After eating I was brought to the dorms in which the entire team stays at. I unloaded my gear and tried to rest for a short period – as the game was only a couple hours off.
I awoke after a short nap and collected my uniform and gear for the game. The team, The Bank of Taiwan, has a Nike sponsorship and my uniform has a lot of Chinese characters on it, but my name on the back is in English and it says, “JOHN.” There was a bit of a mix up in that they thought JOHN was my surname. In the box score I am referred to as T.John for Thomas John, Thomas being my middle name. In Chinese culture they put their family name first, followed by first and middle name. Thus, John Thomas Vaudreuil actually translates into Thomas Vaudreuil John for us Americans.
Some of you might be wondering how the first game went, how I coped with the language barrier, how I ran the offensive sets and how do you play after a long flight like that. Well here is how it went: We lost the game to KKL 66-63. We were trailing by double digits for the majority of the game, but put a run on in the 4th quarter. We play 4 – 10 minute quarters with a 24 second shot clock and an 8 second back court rule. The language barrier is huge, despite some of the players speaking very little English, the coach speaks zero. I sit in the huddle and have a translator describing most of what the coach says. There will be periods where what the coach is addressing does not pertain to me, this results in silence from the translator. This is an odd feeling as I feel like I am on the outside of it all. Offensively, since I did not know any of the team's plays, we kind of just played – pick and rolls, screen and flash and I just posted up. There weren’t a lot of offensive sets used, despite the team having them, as the coach was going to wait until we had a practice to go over them. I played relatively well, but missed some shots I normally make. I finished with a game high 20 points and 6 rebounds.
Taipei Times Article:
After the game I was pulled into the media room. Here again I had a translator. They asked a lot of questions about what I thought of Taiwan, how my flight was, how I expect the season to go, etc. I did not really have a lot of answers as I had only been in the country for a few hours, the game was close but I had not seen how the rest of the league was, I was not really sure of the players on my team and what their strengths were and I was just happy to have ground beneath my feet after the cramped flight over.
After the formal television interview, the games are broadcast on ESPN, I was pulled aside to do the newspaper interviews. The same questions were asked first, and then the personal questions came. “Do you have a girlfriend?” “Are you married?” “Do you like Taiwan girls?” “How about this one? (point to girl)” It was fun, but at the same time a little uncomfortable.
I have now been in Taipei for one week. I am still fighting the jet lag and the large amount of basketball has not helped. It just continues to pile up on how tired I am. In this first week I have played 4 games (going 2-2) and on days we do not have a game we practice twice (8 am and 6 pm). My body is sore and quite exhausted. I feel like a not so well oiled machine right now. It is an intense schedule to battle with as I try to adjust to everything, but with time it will all iron itself out.
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