It’s been a while since my last blog entry, but with all credit to God, I am blessed to see another season in my young professional basketball career in a different country and a different team. Luckily enough, we held our training camp in Los Angeles, which is about a two hour drive from my home. From then we flew to Seoul, Korea for a few work days and now we are in Shenzhen, China for the 2012 ABA championships. Thus far, it has been a real blessing and experience to be drafted to the Seoul Samsung Thunders organizations. I can’t imagine I will play for too many teams in my career were there are quality people from the front office to the entire roster, but with this team, we have that. When you go overseas, it’s somewhat unusual to have top of the line facilities and training staff, but with this team, we have both, which is really fortunate considering the reputation the Korean Basketball League (KBL) has of working players to the max. According to the only other American on my team, Bryan Davis, who has been involved with few NBA teams, some NBA facilities don’t measure up to what we have.
In pro sports, business and money usually come before loyalty, but I get a different vibe from this team. Of course we haven’t started season yet, so the real adversity hasn’t hit, but as of now, the team is a real tight group and I think we are adapting well to each other’s style of play. Each team in this league drafted two Americans. Davis was picked in the first round and I went second. Due to the KBL rules only one can play at a time, but we are both centers on the team and I think our jobs are so much easier due to the fact that the domestic players on our team can shoot from anywhere on the floor.
To keep up with our team, follow us at http://www.thunders.co.kr/ or myself and Bryan Davis on Instagram @klawsonjr and @b_davis0.