Myles McKay (Menomonee Falls/Menomonee Falls) is continuing his basketball career with USK Praha. McKay, a Business Administration major at UW-Whitewater, is playing with the team that is based in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.
McKay played for the Warhawks from 2007-2009. During his tenure with the 'Hawks, McKay earned D3hoops.com All-West Region honors in 2009, D3hoops.com 2nd Team All-America honors in 2009, and was named to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference All-Conference team during both seasons.
McKay hails from Menomonee Falls and has agreed to blog about his experience with the foreign team. Below you will find his entries. Please check back often to hear more from McKay.
For highlights from one of McKay's games click here, McKay is wearing number 17.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Basketball Life
Adjusting to the European style of basketball has been a process. Every person that I spoke with who had European basketball experience told me that it would take a while for me to adjust to the new style of play. Of course I had to be stubborn. I heard what they were saying, but I didn't listen. I told myself that I've been playing basketball for most of my life, so it couldn't be any different from what I'm use to. Boy was I wrong.
When I arrived in Prague, I spent the first day recovering from jet lag. I'm seven hours ahead, so for the first couple of weeks I was going to sleep around 5am every night (10pm CST). On my first day of practice I played horribly. I was pretty embarrassed to say the least. I just kept thinking about my mother saying, “first impressions last a lifetime.” I know the coaches and team executives were probably thinking, “What in the heck did we just import?” I was dribbling the ball off of my leg, missing layups, shooting wide open air balls and anything else you could think of! It was definitely ugly. The worst part was knowing I could play better, but not being able to show it to my new coaches and teammates.
I came in early and shot, stayed late and dribbled, but the harder I tried, the worse it got. I couldn't figure it out to save my life! I was in Prague for about five days when we had our first preseason game against a second division team (a lower division Czech team). Boy did I stink it up. It was my first time playing point since middle school so I wasn't making good decisions, I couldn't hit shots and I was getting beat on defense. I was ashamed and humiliated. It reminded me of my first game at Whitewater when I had 7 or 8 turnovers against Eureka. I started worrying about being sent home. I could just hear people in my head laughing at me. I had to explain to my coach that I'm better than what I'm actually showing, and pray that he understands!
So the next day I went to my coach's office and said “Coach, I don't know what's wrong with me, but I don't feel like myself.” Through his thick Boston accent, he said very animatedly, “Awww, don't worry about it, it was the first game, I seen it happen to a million rookies. Now if it continues, we have a problem (with a slight smirk on his face)! I'll give you a couple weeks, you're fresh, this is different for you; take time to get used to Europe.” That was definitely a relief to hear and the advice I needed to keep my confidence.
It took about three weeks for me to finally feel normal again, both on and off the court. My problems were just as much mental as they were physical. Mentally I wasn't all there. I was in a new environment, new country, new language, new culture and new teammates, so it took a minute for me to get acclimated to everything. Physically, I thought I was all there but I wasn't. Everything was off, especially my coordination. I swore my feet grew overnight because of how many balls I dribbled off of them! Overall it's been a great learning process. I'm just glad people still believe in me and are giving me the opportunity to develop.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Life in Prague
Being the isolated American that I was, I had no idea that Prague is widely regarded as one of the best cities in the world. Living in such a great city has definitely helped ease my European transition. The architecture here is breathtaking. I hate to use a tired cliché, but pictures don't do this city justice. The coolest thing about Prague is that one minute you could be surrounded by nothing but super old architecture, and the next minute you could be in an area that looks similar to Times Square.
Everything you've heard about Prague's nightlife is true! I can't go into detail, because this is an educational blog, but if you want specifics Facebook me! I've experienced the nightlife a few times, but I've made a conscious decision not to let anything sidetrack me from my professional goals. On my off days I like to walk around the city, hit up touristy spots and eat at restaurants where I typically wouldn't dine. My father always tells me that you have to think globally in order to be successful in this day and age, so I'm trying to get exposed to as much as possible while I'm here.
My team is young and scrappy. What we lack in experience, we more than make up for with hard work and intensity. We're 1-2 right now, but we're still figuring out our collective strengths and weaknesses. We play 44 regular season games, and the top eight teams make the playoffs. We're definitely good enough to make the playoffs, and once we get on the same page, I think we can surprise a lot of people and advance deep into the postseason.
Even though I'm way across the ocean, I'm still really connected to everything going on back home (Skype is a game changer). I'm really looking forward to the Warhawks basketball season. Even though there are a lot of new faces, I still think they have more than enough talent to compete for a national championship. “Chip” Mitchell is one of the best big men in the country and
Chris Vines (Milwaukee/Washington) has the potential to be up there with DJ Marsh as the most versatile player in the WIAC. I'll definitely be watching and listening to most of the games so get it done and keep up the tradition!!
Go WARHAWKS!!
Next Blog: Basketball Life
Friday, September 25, 2009
Journey to Prague!!
The summer of '09 was the most important summer of my life. After graduating in May, my life was at that proverbial fork in the road. I had two choices, either play it safe and get a job (which isn't a guarantee in today's economy) or pursue my lifelong dream of playing professional basketball. Coming from a D-3 school, a lot of people doubted my abilities and told me to forget about basketball and move on with my life, but I have an unbelievable family who pushed me to pursue my passion.
The famous saying, “Failure to plan is planning to fail” was the mantra of my summer. I set a few goals for myself and drew a blueprint for success. This required me to be really honest about the strengths and weaknesses of my game. Since I wasn't blessed with world class athletic ability, I had to work extremely hard on strengthening my core and improving my speed, quickness and agility. I also worked on improving different skill sets like shooting, ball handling and defense. Working everyday without any guarantee of a payoff was often discouraging, but when I got the chance to compete against NBA players like J.R. Smith and Chris Douglas Roberts, and ultimately held my own, I knew I was headed in the right direction.
In late July my hard work and dedication started to pay off when I was named Co-MVP at the Las Vegas Eurobasket camp. Before the start of the camp, I told myself that I was going to seize the moment and make the most of this opportunity. I can't lie, the idea of winning MVP was lingering in the back of my mind, but I was more concerned with showcasing my talents for the scouts in attendance, because I needed a job way more than I needed a trophy! After the camp ended, my future agent approached me about potential representation. This wasn't the first time an agent tried to sign me, but his pitch touched on all of my concerns about developing as a player in Europe and my need to have someone I could trust. His incredible knowledge about the European basketball marketplace was an added bonus.
After I signed with my agent, he immediately submitted my material (highlight tape, basketball resume etc.) to teams all over Europe, and by the next morning (literally) I had offers from teams in Poland, England, Hungary, Turkey, Mexico, Switzerland and Lebanon. However, my current team USK Praha was not in the picture yet. My agent said he never fielded so many offers in one day. My agent and I talked over my options, and decided it was best for me to wait for an offer from a team where I could develop the most as a complete player. That sounds like common sense to most, but I had to leave a lot of money on the table to put myself in the right situation.
A few weeks passed and we still had not found a team that fit my professional needs. I was on pins and needles every day, because I didn't want to end up without an offer while waiting for this mythical team to sign me. Then one day in early August, my agent called me really excited and said a coach from Prague loves my game and wants me to play for his team. My agent setup a call with the coach and we had a great conversation. I thought I was finally finished with the process. Not quite.
About a week later, my agent called me and said there's a problem, the coach and the GM weren't on the same page. The GM offered someone else the job without the coach's knowledge, and the coach felt terrible because he had just spent an hour on the phone telling me why I should come to Prague. The coach asked me to wait a few days before I moved on, because the offer for the other player was not finalized. Since Prague was where I wanted to be, we reluctantly held off on accepting an offer from another team.
About five days passed without any word from USK Praha. I assumed they moved on so I started mentally preparing myself to play in another country. Then one Saturday morning, August 15th to be exact, my agent called and said, “I got some good news and some bad news, which news do you want to hear first.” Of course I chose the bad. My agent said, “well the bad news is you're not going to Prague this week,” my stomach literally dropped until he said, “the good news is you're leaving for Prague in September.” I can't put into words the way I felt. I was so excited to finally be done with such a nerve-racking process. A weight was definitely lifted off of my shoulders. Everyday different people would ask me what's the next step, and it sucked not being able to give them a straight answer. It felt great to tell people exactly where I'm going and what team I'd be playing for.
I can't describe how amazing it feels to be getting paid to do something that I love. I want to end this by sending a personal thank you to Coach Miller (the guy who kept playing me after I had 8 turnovers in my first UWW game), Todd, Beasty Chap and Coach Lu. You guys were some of the first people to believe in me and give me the opportunity to show off my talent and honestly I wouldn't be here today without you guys help.
Next week: Life in Prague
