Friday, December 31, 2010

A blast from the past

Like I wrote in the last entry soon time for Lundaspelen and during the years it has given me lots of memories both bad, god and funny and sad.

I especially remember some things and here is one of them;
Its goes back to when I myself was playing for boys 77 of Lobas and in our first game that year, we where gonna play against a team from Latvia or Russia I cant remember the country or club, but this I remember.

We stod waiting to get out on floor and we saw the team we where gonna play against. They stod there in old jersyes and old old basketballshoes, do you remember these shoes?















But most of them didn`t have converse it was some other sheap brand and of course spoiled as we where we had our expensive shoes and "new" jerseys and shooting shirts.
We we entered the court we got our next chock they really smelled bad, like they hadn`t showered for days, weeks. But I could see that they where good players its pretty easy to see that in the warmups if you look for the right things.

Just before the game would start they came over to our bench with a pin for each one of us and we also got a thing representing their club. I remember how ashamed I felt, really much, there we where expensive shoes, clothes, from a rich country and they where giving us stuff.

Needless to say they absolutely killed us in the game and won by many many points after they game there was a new kind of respect and our hip expensive shoes didn`t mean a thing at that moment. But it was a wake up call I think to many of us to whats important and whats secondary for playing the greatest game in the world.

The only thing that we still can say is even after they hammered us and taught us a lesson in Bball. New respect was there, but I still I felt sorry for the next team playing them cause I think they used chemical warfair as a secret weapon, my good they smelled :-)

Happy New Year!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

New Year Basketball

In the beginning of the new year for me as a bball lover from the south of Sweden its been a tradition for years to play or coach in Lundaspelen, which is one of the biggest youth tournaments in the world.

Its been called the danish championships since so many danish teams participate and many of them also win the tournament. Now I´m a swede living and coaching in Denmark, so I guess I will for the first time play the danish champioships.

Well, I coach boys 98 and we have 18 players and will play this year with two even teams, so this year its more learning to play tournaments and having a good time. We where one of the lucky ones invited to play the nordic champioships in Sødertælje in easter and thats great since all games will be very giving in educational value.e

Lundaspelen is to me winter, cold and great atmosphere in the playoffs. Especially of course in the finals where every year its a great setup and arrangement to get that exciting feeling in your body.
This year will for sure be winter, cold and also great atmosphere in the playoffs.

I hope that my 2 teams play as well as they can and learn a lot by playing and watching others play. Myself I hope also to see some great games, where I can enjoy great coaching and great players.

You can check out the tournament here LUNDASPELEN 2-5 January every year

I also hope to see and talk to old friends/players and coaches during the tournament and for the first time in 4 years I will not work in Lundaspelen as I did when I coached in Eos. To be honest thats very nice to be just a coach and basketball lover again.

But to the people behind a tournament like this I have nothing but the deepest respect since, I know how much work it is to make it this big and all the organazing to get all parts to go as planned.

And to my old players working their ass of in Lundaspelen next year, what are you complaining about!
haha :-) Feels good to be able to say that :-)

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Small pieces of my history

Well, back to my hometown I couldn`t let that opertunity go wasted without getting some past memories on pictures for future lonely days to take a look back at and remember good and bad times.

As a little kid most parts of my life was already then sports I lived on the right in the picture and its was a big backyard with lots of kids living in the area.

Our backyard since it was the biggest of the housing complex in that area became the place to be. Every night and every day when we kids was free from school there was soccergames, wargames, tag or something else happening. We didn`t sit in our apartments very much it was always some activity going on.

My best friend at the time lived in the same building but to the left in the picture and we both played soccer in the local club and both of us ended up in Lobas Basketball club playing bball every day, every week for many years.

My first school was Karstorp south and my passion for basketball wasn`t yet born. 

On schoolbreaks it was soccer or hockey with plastic sticks (yes I´m not proud if it) or some other crazy activity.

In winter breaks it was "toughest on the hill" or last man/women standing, there was a small hill behind the school and to be superior you should be the only one standing on the top of the hill.

Its was fun until a new girl came and beat all of us boys :-)
After karstorp south where I went to grade 1,2,3 it was time for its bigger brother in Karstorps North 
and grade 4,5,6 and here my passion for basketball was born. The founder of Lobas Basketball was one of the gymteachers on that school, but before I got him I had a women that nearly destroyd my passion for sports. The only thing she liked was gymnastics, dancing and always had some stupid earcovers on her head. She couldn`t have liked her job it was clear.
She taught us that in Basketball you could take 3 steps just like in handball and when Jørgen Freiburghaus took over in the 5th grade he became 10 years older directly.

This gym was and still are my favourite gym for basketball and allthought its small it has lots of baskets and is perfect for teaching the foundamentals of the game.

My first basketball game was played here and it was a schoolgame between the classes on the school it felt very big then, but now you wonder how we could play on 4 courts at the same time :-)


Outside my classroom we hade this streetcourt and since most of us played basketball it was easy choice in breaks what was gonna happen.

Shooting around the clock or playing games or dribbling between the legs around the 400m track.

One in my team was the best until a girl came and beat us all and yes it was the same girl that was queen of the hill :-)

I remember sometimes (many times( we where a little bit late since we didn`t wanna stop dribbling or shooting or end the game without a winner. Good times!

After some years we moved from apartment to a house pretty close to where we lived before.

The house didn`t look exactly like this back then it was red and old, but the new owners made it very beautiful.

Basketball and tennis and for some strange reason skateboard was the big interests at this time. But skateboardning disapeared quickly from my life since a really sucked at it.

Time for grade 7,8,9 and new school once again in Pilang. The school has grown during the years and most of what you see in the picture wasn`t their back then and today its from younger grades also and much, much bigger.I got a new gymteacher and he is propably one of the best leaders I have had during the years and he had simple aproach to all the boring stuff in gymhour, do what you can do, try what you cant do and then do sometiing you wanna do. I shot a lot of freethrows :-)

Back then the "rule" in Lobas was the older you got, the more practises you got in the big gym Pilængshallen which was huge (thats what we thought back then).

I`m propably one of the people who has spent most hours in that gym after Jørgen Freiburghaus during my years as a player and coach. In summertime a had keys to open and shut the gym, so me and fellow basketball lovers Ted Cedermarker and Rickard Nilsson hooked up the stereo many many times and played 1vs1 and shot huge amonts of shots it was no accident that a was a really good shooter and yes I`m proud of that atleast I was good at one thing :-)




We moved from our house to a apartment close to the beach and here I spent my highschool years and by now basketball was if not 100% of my life at least 99%.

I went to Malmø Basketball Highschool, but it wasn´t for me at all I knew to much of the game already (how you should practise) and I ended it after one year.


When I was ready to leave the nest I bought a apartment in Lomma acutally the apartment that was responsible for me finding the greatest game in the world watching super channel at my great grandmother apartment and I bought it from her, when she got to old to live by herself.

This place was freedom and my basketball headquarters for some years before I left my hometown for other basketball adventures.

Lomma will always be in my heart and also Lobas Basketball Club allthought for many years I felt mostly hate after being treated very badly, by people without a clue about sports or basketball.

Any coach out there who recognize that haha, well I know we are many and I think its a shame that clubs dont treat there coaches better and at least try to be honest with their coaches.
Lying and misstreating coaches always bites you in the ass in the end and those wounds will maybe never heal. To be honest is the one of the few things that doesn`t cost anything and at the top of my life rules.

This was some history.....maybe not interesting for you, but for me and thats whats counts since its my blogg :-)





If I just was a little bit younger....

....I would stay up all night long and enjoy.

7:00 PMET Binghamton vs Marshall 01:00CET
7:00 PMET Bucknell vs Loyola (MD) 01:00CET
7:00 PMET Fairfield vs Florida 01:00CET
7:00 PMET Kent State vs Morehead State 01:00CET
7:00 PMET Minnesota vs Wisconsin 01:00CET
7:00 PMET Siena vs St. Bonaventure 01:00CET
7:00 PMET Union Ky College vs Liberty 01:00CET
7:00 PMET Western Carolina vs North Carolina-Asheville 01:00CET
8:00 PMET Ball State vs Valparaiso 02:00CET
8:00 PMET Central Baptist Coll vs Arkansas State 02:00CET
9:00 PMET North Carolina vs Rutgers 03:00CET
9:00 PMET Providence vs Syracuse 03:00CET
10:00 PMET Pacific vs Cal State Northridge 04:00CET
10:00 PMET UC Davis vs Cal State Fullerton 04:00CET
10:00 PMET UC Riverside vs UC Irvine 04:00CET
10:00 PMET Philadelphia Flyers vs Vancouver Canucks 04:00CET
10:30 PMET Hartford vs California 04:30CET
11:00 PMET Long Beach State vs UC Santa Barbara 05:00CET

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Christmas silence has....

...been a big part of my daily life lately, just relaxing and visiting my family in Sweden and thats why My World Of Basketball has been taking very little of my time.

But I can never totally stop doing something with basketball, when I`m free from practises or work there are nobody that beautiful living to make me totally just be normal.

So I have been free since the 23th of december and I`m of course watching games on TV and online and searching the net for great basketball stuff. I have came across some great links and my digital library becomes bigger and better.

Watched the hyped game between Lakers and Miami and I have to say Dwayne Wade did impress me and he has done that in other games also this season. He is carrying that team and if he stays healthy they can make it to the final and maybe also win it, but I believe more in Boston, Lakers, Spurs to win, but liek I wrote if D-Wade stays healthy they have a chance, but if he goes down they are in deep deep trouble.

Lakers are just like Boston cruising the season along and waiting for the playoffs, but still I was very surprised that Lakers played like they did on the pick and roll that was just horrible. Zenmaster Phil maybe just doesn`t give a flying f*ck right now, but that was very ugly. I would be very surprised if thet try to go out in D-Wade again and "hedge", double or whatever they tried to do next game. Thats the wrong kind of player to do that as he proved in the game time after time. He sliced that PAR defense like Jack the ripper.....

Have watched some swedish league games since I came home and can come to the conclusion that tactically we are miles behind, talents are coming but our seniorlevel plays like they are their own coaches and run their own offenses. I`m not just talking about setplays but choices fo shoots, choices of passes and choosing the tempo, when to run and not, inside/outside game using the posts and reading the pick and roll are just some where we are miles behind.

In defense I cant really see somebody being a specialist and it doesn`t look like teams are trying to shut down a shooter on a team with that pain in the ass defense its more just straight up man to man or normal zon.
I havent seen all teams but defense is not trying to make offense change to something else it looks more like they are just accepting and reacting to what they do.

In offense I miss very much and I have written about that before and that are more plays for certain players if you dont have plays for some players you can as a coach make them totally useless since they are not creators, they need a play or somebody else to create for them. To get your players out of a set to do what they are best at....could be shooting, 1vs 1, pick and roll, inside and so on...why have insideplayers if you will not use them as a coach?

Why have the best 1vs1 player in the league if he/she doesn`t get to play 1 vs1 out of a teamconcept in games. Why have the tallest player in the league standing at the freethrow line like a statue, when she/he can only score close to the basket.
Why play fast when you are slow?, Why play slow when you are fast......

Why stay up when I should sleep :-)