Singletary Report: Basketball : The Journey Pt. 2

With all the uncertainty going on in our life back in the Dallas area, my wife and I decided that this had to be a sign from God. What was he trying to do in our lives and in my basketball life specifically? When I got back home, my family and I sat down and talked about what would be coming next. We didn't like the way that my agent had been working for me, and we came to the decision that we must go a different direction. When I got hooked up with my next agent, they thought the best thing for me to do would be to continue playing somewhere while we searched for something better. We got an offer from a team in Uruguay and decided that this would be the best situation for right now. So I packed up my bags and got on a plane to a country that I had no idea about. When traveling overseas, you never know what to expect. There are so many questions that you wanted answered, but a lot of the time you must figure out the answers to those questions yourself. That's one thing I will always be grateful for about playing professionally overseas because it taught me how to be more independent, as well as becoming more of a man. I landed in Uruguay, and was immediately surprised by how beautiful this country was. It was almost like I was in Florida with the beautiful palm trees and the sun beating down heavy. I got in and it was a rush to get all my paper work done to be able to play in the game that night. Playing in a game after flying for more than 8 hours? These people have to be crazy right! I thought the same thing, but I had to suck it up and go out there and do what I love to do. I only played a few games in Uruguay before changes started happening within the organization. The coach left the team for a better offer, and with the coaching change there went my shot at staying on the team. When I found out that I would be leaving the team, I was a little bit upset and once again had me wondering if this basketball thing was going to work out for me. As I was waiting to leave the country, I had given them my passport for all the paper work that they had to fill out for me to play. I went 3 days with the team telling me that they would come by my apartment and bring me my passport. They never showed up! I was scared and furious that I wouldn't be able to get out of the country and I would be stuck there. Eventually everything got worked out, and my next offer was to Montenegro. I had no idea where Montenegro was and for some reason the name Montenegro intimidated me. I thought I might be going to some deathly place that I would hate and I would immediately want to get out of there. Man was I wrong! Montenegro was the most beautiful country that I have been to in my life and I was definitely happy about being there. I was in Montenegro shortly before my wife came and joined me. I was on a team that I enjoyed and my wife was with me to make things more comfortable. Life couldn't have been any better at that time. We lost in the first round of the playoffs to a team that we shouldn't have lost to, and I soon figured out how serious management took the game of basketball. We were basically hanging out a week before we got a call on when our flights would be and when we would have a team meeting to get our final payment. My season of uncertainty was over and now it was time for summer. The main part of my summer was taken over by wedding planning and working out mostly. Even though my wife and I were already legally married, we had a wedding ceremony for friends and family on the 17th of August, and headed to our honeymoon in Riviera Maya, Mexico. We had a blast at our all inclusive resort and when we came back it was time for our next adventure. Through that summer it seemed like nothing was happening for me in the sense of basketball. I wasn't getting the offers that we believed were best for us, and we kept waiting for something to come up. In the meantime, I found out about a D- League tryout for the Austin Toros and decided that I would check it out. After going through the tryout, I was pretty certain that I was going to play in the D- League this season. I was drafted by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers and played about 16 games for them before being traded to the Erie Bayhawks. My journey hasn't been a conventional or ideal one, but it has been a journey of testing my faith. I will continue to put my faith in God and have him direct my path because the plans that he has for me are bigger/ better than anything that I could have for myself. Have faith and continue to believe! Until the next chapter of my basketball journey.