May 29, 2009

Travelin' Man (Devin Harris)

I just got back from a great vacation in the Islands. I come out here one or two times every year -- Caymans to be exact. Spent some good quality time with my friends, cleared my head a little bit, got refocused so I can come back to what I like to call reality.

I’m still not readjusted from the time difference after going to China last week. My sleeping patterns are all messed up. But obviously the goal of a vacation is to do nothing, and now it’s trying to get back into the swing of things, whether it’s working out or anything. I was working out before I left for China, but I’ll be back at it Monday in Dallas, where I’m visiting family. I’m looking forward to spending time with my nephew; we’ve got a daily regimen we like to do. And it’ll be good seeing my brother and my other family members.

It surprised me that the plane ride to China wasn’t that bad! And the food was actually pretty good. Those are the two things I was worried about the most, and ended up being two things I actually enjoyed. The plane ride, 12 hours from San Francisco, I kind of breezed right through. Once I got there, I was wondering about what would I be eating – I’m not a big Chinese food guy. But I found some stuff I liked. They had some American stuff, and some of the Chinese stuff they had, like the breakfast food, was similar to ours, just with a different kind of flavor to it. So it wasn’t too bad.

Yi told me a few places he thought I would like. Obviously the big things that everybody goes to are the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. But also some other places that I went to. The Great Wall was tremendous. It was a sight I’ve never seen before. I would recommend that to anybody who goes that way. You have to make it the first thing you see. The Forbidden City, I would recommend people not go to see the whole thing in the same day, which I chose to do. It was a little tiring, but culture-wise that was something that intrigued me. All in all, there was a lot of stuff that I wouldn’t have been able to see if I hadn’t made the trip, so I’m really glad that I did.

Me and Brook spent a lot of time together, probably more than we did during the season. I got to see a little different side of him. Obviously we’re going to be playing together for quite some time, so I’m really, really glad I got to spend some time with him off the court, see what he’s like on an everyday basis. It was weird to see him without Ryan for once, but he had one of his brothers, so it was just like his buddy was there.

The driving out there is like New York traffic times 100. They cut each other off like you wouldn’t believe – near accidents maybe five or six times a ride. But everybody does it, so I guess that they’re more accustomed to it.

At the Adidas Nations camp, they had a couple players I noticed . One guy, who was from Australia, was actually pretty decent – probably the most skilled guy in the camp. A point guard that they had was really good, and they had one team that was really good – played very well together, had a lot of energy, had a lot of enthusiasm and pretty much brought it every time they were on the court.

I picked the former coaches’ brains a little bit. But probably Eddie Johnson’s shooting tips for three-pointers are what I picked up the most as far as the basketball side. Those are secrets. Secrets!

Where Amazing Happens
I’ve been keeping up with the playoff scores. We didn’t get to see a lot of the games during the week, but I get to see the highlights on the Internet, the interviews, stuff like that. It’s looking like Orlando and probably the Lakers.

I’m surprised at how close the games have been. If you look at the first couple rounds –Cleveland’s First-Round series was pretty much a blowout game every game; Denver had a 60-point win against New Orleans. But now Orlando-Cleveland has been close games every time out, and the Lakers and Denver, someone’s only won by double-digits once.

There have been a lot of Kobe vs. LeBron commercials. I’m not going to come down on a side though. Nope. I’m not going to. Can’t say anything that will come back to burn me next season.

(Al)Most Improved Player
Obviously I thought I had a better shot to win. Didn’t happen that way, but I don’t let things build up on me too much. Just makes me want to work a little bit harder. It’s something I’m not really concerned with. I thought Danny had a great year as well. I’m kind of friends with Danny, so no love lost there.

I’ve always known what I need to do to get myself where I need to be. I’m used to measuring myself at my own pace. My goals are going to change, but keeping myself healthy is the more important thing right now. Working at being out there every day and preventing injuries will help me most improve as a player.