The Baller

Understanding the Basket Life: The Contract

November 8, 2010 By Erin Crispin Leave a Comment

Zaragoza, Spain (2nd Division)- 2007

For many professional athletes, the signing of the first contract is a big moment. So what exactly does a contract cover? What can a player expect out of a contract?

Usually when people think of a contract, the first thing that comes to mind is the salary. People are intrigued by how much money a professional basketball player actually makes. As you are already probably noticing from my past two posts: it depends on what league you are playing in. In the NBA, the rookie minimum salary is around $450,000 for the season and increases each year that you play (I believe just signing a contract for vet camp can qualify as playing a year ) On the other end of the spectrum is the minor league salary, which can at times be only enough to pay the bills each month. And in international play it can range from million dollar contracts to a couple of thousand dollars a month.

A salary overseas basically works as a supply and demand type situation. If you can bring a talent to the game that very few other people have, there will be more jobs offered to you and a higher pay (there are other factors as well that will affect your job opportunity, but this is a big one). So let’s use Joe as our example. Joe is a 6 foot point guard. That in itself is nothing spectacular. His height does not set him apart as it does many Americans (typically tall, athletic American players are more in demand). So he must have something else that sets him apart to make teams want him. For Joe, it is that he is an incredible shooter who can create his own shot (as opposed to a player who can stand and shoot well when another player creates the space for him). European players are very good at the fundamentals, but aren’t always as creative, so Americans that bring a different flair to the game (by doing things like going 10-for-10 from three point range or hitting game winning shots) are more desirable. American players that are very sound fundamentally can still get jobs, but they may be more as a role player or in a country where they pay less money because teams can often find national players that do what they do.

Banvit, Turkey (1st Division)- 2008-2009

When looking for a big salary, a player also needs to consider whether all that money that is promised will actually be paid as well. Overseas it is typical to have payments made late and at times, not at all. Greece, in particular, is known for not always paying the salary that is agreed upon in the contract. Unfortunately, Europe is much different than the U.S. and what is stated in a contract may not always hold up in court. And going through a court system can be a tedious and costly process. So it is often better to take a lower salary with a club that has a reputation for paying on time and in full, rather than a high salary with a club that has a history of not making full payments. Clubs are also known to apply random fines for things like losing games that were not stated in the original contract. So sometimes it is good to do your homework on a team before signing there (this is where other players come in handy). A salary is also not guaranteed when it comes to injury or a player not performing up to the club’s expectations. Clubs can make changes at any point in the season and usually an agreement will be settled upon, but not for the full amount of the contract.

Also included in the contract are various other elements, which I would classify as “accommodations. In the next post, I will explain a bit more of the accommodations that professional basketball players are provided with.

Filed Under: The Baller, The Basket Life

Understanding the Basket Life: Different Countries, Different Leagues

November 6, 2010 By Erin Crispin 2 Comments

Phoenix Suns 2002

Basketball is one of those sports that is played worldwide. It often amazes people to hear the different countries that Americans will go to as a professional basketball player. The sport is widely enjoyed around the world and offers a lot of opportunities to players of all skill levels.

Right now, most people would consider the NBA the highest level of basketball competition in the world. Joe spent one season in the NBA with two different teams (the Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns) and participated in a few summer leagues and vet camps. Most players make it their goal to play in the NBA, so the competition is tough. Depending on who the player is, you may sign an unguaranteed contract, which means that you will be on the team and paid for as long as they want you. Others may sign guaranteed contracts for a single season or multiple season. You may still be traded or let go, but you are guaranteed the salary in the agreed upon contract. The schedule for the NBA is tough though. They play 82 games in the regular season, which typically lasts from the end of October until May (if you are in playoffs and eventually in the finals, you will play until late June). Because of the high number of games, there is a lot of time spent traveling and on the road. With a sport like football, you only play once a week, so the NFL players aren’t away from home as often. The trade-off of a high salary, nice accommodations and living comfortably in the U.S. usually make the travel schedule worth it for most players though.

Kansas City Knights (ABA), 2004

For those players who are not signed to an NBA contract, there are a few options. The players can stay in the U.S. for the season and play in one of several minor leagues in the hopes of being called up to the NBA sometime throughout the season due to a team making a change (either because of injury and a player not fitting well with them team or not performing at the expected level). There are a lot of minor leagues in the U.S., some better than others. The minor league scene is one that is pretty unstable for the most part, aside from the D-League which is the NBA’s official minor league. Joe played in three of the different minor leagues (ABA, CBA and USBL) and they all have their different strengths and weaknesses. In the D-League you are put into a draft, so you don’t get to decide what team and coach you want to play for. All of the minor league salaries are pretty small compared to the NBA and many overseas countries. You also may have to live in a hotel room or a shared apartment that the team provides. The season is usually shorter (around the middle of November until March/April) or runs in the off-season and there is typically shorter distances of travel because many of the leagues organize their brackets regionally.

The other option for players is to take their game internationally. There are teams located worldwide, on all continents (except Antarctica) and in a majority of the countries. Many countries have multiple leagues as well, such as Italy where there are 4 leagues. Although there are numerous leagues, not all leagues are open to Americans. In Italy for example, only the top 2 divisions are open to Americans and even then there is a limit to how many non-European players are allowed on the team (different rules for the first and second division). Many American players have international passports because of their family ancestry (maybe a grandparent was born in another country, for example), which make sit much easier for them to get jobs because teams often want to make the best use of their 2 non-European spots. Unfortunately, some players are now cheating and getting passports from European countries that will give them out illegally for a price. This them gets them jobs easier, but also takes away jobs from other Americans who may be more suited for the job but do not have a passport.

Wloclawek, Poland (1st Division) 2005

** Since our experience is playing in Europe, my information on internal play will be based on that from here on out.

In Europe, the season runs from mid-August until May or June. The season usually consists of many less games than in the NBA. For example, this year, Joe is only playing 30 regular season games. The games played within the country’s league are usually played once a week (sometimes you may play twice a week when they take off for Christmas or Easter). Teams may also play in a European league against teams from other countries as well. The best known of these leagues is Euroleague, which many people believe to be the best basketball league after the NBA. The European league games are also played once a week, so a player may have two games a week. European leagues involve a lot of travel with going to different countries, especially if you are a team from Spain playing a team in Russia. So in order to prolong a career, some players prefer not to play twice a week.

Teramo, Italy (1st Division), 2005-2006

After the NBA, most players prefer playing somewhere in Europe. Many prefer western Europe simply because the cultural differences are less noticeable. As far as the strength of the leagues, the countries that tend to have the reputation for the best places to play are (here I am just going by the countries that have teams in Euroleague showing the number of teams in parantheses. Usually the stronger the country, the more teams in Euroleague): Spain (5), Italy (3), Russia (2), Greece (2), France (1), Germany (1), Poland (1), Croatia (1), Turkey (2), Lithuania (2), Serbia (1), Israel (1), and Belgium (1). Traditionally, Spain and Italy have been two of the strongest countries as afar as competition for playing overseas. Both of these countries have second divisions that often offer better competition than the first divisions of other countries. They are also countries that tend to be more comfortable for Americans to go to due to language and culture, so may have more of a draw due to those factors as well. They also have a better reputation of paying players (something I will discuss more when I post about the contract and salary).

So there are really a lot of options for those looking to play professional basketball, but as with anything you need to decide if the reward is worth the cost. And the reward in professional basketball is the contract, which I will discuss more in the next post.

Filed Under: The Baller, The Basket Life

Understanding the Basket Life: How You Get Started

November 4, 2010 By Erin Crispin 1 Comment

Penn State, 1997-2001

Over the past 8 years that I have been a professional basketball player’s wife, I have gotten a variety of questions about our life. I think whatever lifestyle you live, it is easy to assume that everyone understands the way it works. I am often reminded that this is not so by the kinds of questions I am asked about Joe’s job, where we live and what our daily life is like. Things like:

- Does basketball pay well or does Joe have to work in the summer too?

- How do you get an apartment and car when you are overseas?

- How does Joe get a job? Does he have to call around or send his game tapes out?

- I had no idea they played basketball in ____. Does every country have a professional basketball league?

So to shed some light on what our life is like, I am going to spend a few posts explaining it a little more. I can’t say that this is the way it is for every professional basketball player and his family, but hopefully there will be a clearer understanding of the basket life from our experiences.

So today, I am going to begin with how one even becomes a professional basketball player. I think a lot of people have the misconception that it is an easy field to get into. But especially with the way the worldwide economy is right now, this is not the case.

As in any job, to get into professional basketball, it helps to have a good resume. And if you weren’t a phenom in high school, that usually requires going to college and playing basketball. To get noticed for the professional level doesn’t require attending a big name Division I school (although that can help) because plenty of guys have made it in the NBA or overseas after attending a smaller school.

If you have garnered enough attention after your college days, agents usually begin to pursue you. Your agent is the one who basically gets you jobs (think Gerry Maguire with a little less drama). There are players who secure jobs without the help of an agent, but it is difficult to do. Once you settle on an agent you are comfortable with, you sign a contract with them for a predetermined time. The agent gets a fee of a percentage of your contract for searching out jobs and negotiating the contract. During the season the agent is often the go-between for any issues between the player (employee) and the club (employer). A good agent will keep tabs on how his player is performing during the season and check-in to see how he is doing adjusting. Most American agents work with a company or other individual agents overseas. It helps to have someone in the particular country you are seeking a job in to help cross that cultural barrier. When there is more than one agent in involved, the same percentage is still taken out of the player’s contract for agents’ fees, but just split up between the agents.

If coming out of college there is no agent interest, you can go about rousing up some interest on your own in a couple of ways. Not only does the NBA run summer leagues (usually a couple of weeks in the summer of practicing and playing some “friendly” games), but many European leagues do as well. You often must be invited, but these are good ways to showcase your talents. They also do shorter showcase events for various overseas leagues in different cities in the U.S. You can also get your video on the web by using a company like Pro Player Video (run by our friend Tyler Smith, so shameless plug for him) where you pay a small fee to have your video posted for agents and coaches. There is also a Pro Player Camp that coaches attend and is put online as well. So there are other ways of going about getting seen, but it takes a bit more effort on the player’s part.

Joe played college basketball at Penn State University and had a pretty good four years there. His senior year in particular, they went to the sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, beating powerhouse UNC along the way. So he had some interest from agents and settled on one before the school year ended. He was not drafted in the NBA that summer, but went to summer league with the Los Angeles Lakers, who then invited him to vet camp (basically preseason where they still make cuts to determine the roster at the start of the season) and he earned a place on the team.

Obviously, that is a nice way to get your career started because NBA experience helps in the subsequent years with your resume. But there are lots of different playing options and tomorrow I will explain some of the different leagues, the length of the season and the typical schedule.

Filed Under: The Baller, The Basket Life

A Job Hazard

September 24, 2010 By Erin Crispin 5 Comments

Joe’s wedding ring has been one thing that has had a tough time adapting to the basketball life. Joe has never been able to wear it when he plays, so in order not to lose it in a bag or a locker, he has always tied it onto his shoe. For the first few years of our marriage, it worked pretty well. But then in 2008, he was out in California working out at Athletes Performance Institute. After his workout he was changing shoes and a trainer came up and handed him a protein shake. He set his ring down on the ground to take the shake and never remembered to put it back on.

Since he had spent a good amount of money on the original ring (it was platinum), next he decided to go the cheap route and bought one for $25. He figured this time if he lost it, he at least wouldn’t feel bad about losing something expensive. So all was going well with his new cheap ring until the other weekend. The this happened:

I don’t know if you can tell by the picture, but the ring got “smushed”. It seems that someone stepped on his foot and the cheapness of the ring equalled a ring that was easily bent. So now he is back to no ring once again.

Anyone else have a job that is hazardous to your wedding ring’s health? What do you do to keep your ring safe?

Filed Under: The Baller

Lord-Willing

August 25, 2010 By Erin Crispin 4 Comments

It is days like Monday that I realize why I try and put a big Lord-willing over all my well-laid plans. We have been trying to leave to head to Italy to join Joe on Saturday. This has involved trying to get things out of our New Jersey home, packing up things for overseas and getting Isaiah a passport. On Monday, I had planned to pick up Isaiah’s birth certificate and then head into Philadelphia to apply for his passport. The first trip of the morning to pick up his birth certificate went off without a hitch, but after that the fun began!

In order to get Isaiah’s passport immediately, I needed to be able to show that I was traveling in 2 weeks or less. So Joe had informed the team that I needed my travel itinerary by 9:45am on Monday morning in order to head to my 10:30am appointment at the passport agency. Unfortunately, there are time restraints that are not always understood in European cultures. So at 10am, I was still sitting at his parents house waiting for the itinerary. I was going to drive there with Isaiah, but since I was running late, Joe’s mom took the driver’s seat and we piled Elijah, Naomi and Joe’s cousin Leah who had slept over the night before. On the drive there, we kept in touch with Joe to see if the itinerary had been sent yet. I arrived at my appointment, 15 minutes late and was hoping the e-mail would be there and I could show it on Joe’s mom’s cell phone (I don’t have a data plan so I couldn’t get e-mail on my phone).

Once I got inside though, I was told I could not have my cell phone on. So the security guard told me I could walk to a UPS store “around the corner” and have my e-mail printed out (as long as it was there). Since I had taken Joe’s mom’s cell phone, I knew she was driving around, but had no idea where she was. So I decided to walk to the UPS store. At this point, I had Isaiah in his infant car seat. For any of you who have ever carried one of those, you know they feel like they weigh 50 pounds. Well, around the corner ended up to be about 3.5 blocks away! I got the the UPS store and Joe had called me to tell me the e-mail was there. So I got it printed out and walked back to the passport agency.

Once I got in through security once again, I got back in line and realized I had dropped my application somewhere along the walk to the UPS Store. So I stood in line and filled out another one. I got through the first step of the process and got a number to wait to be called up to a window. After having been there for about an hour, I got the call to come up. I handed over my paperwork and the agent stopped on the DS-3053 form. This is the form for those who are applying for a minor’s passport but only one of the parents is there in person. The form states that the non-applying parent must have the form notarized OR if the non-applying parent’s signature cannot be obtained that the applying parent can fill out a section explaining the situation and sign it. Joe had left for Italy rather quickly and we had not had time to have that form notarized, so I filled it out and explained our situation.

The agent then proceeded to tell me that this form was going to have to be notarized. When I said that the form clearly stated that if the signature could not be obtained that the lower section could be filled out, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said I would have to find a way to get it notarized. So I asked him what it mean by “cannot be obtained” and he said, “Well, that means it’s like impossible.” I said that my husband was in preseason in a small town in Sicily so that it would be nearly impossible to get his signature notarized by Saturday when we were scheduled to travel. He just sort of looked at me and shrugged again and said I would just have to travel later then.

So I left the office and waited outside for Joe’s mom who had been circling (and getting some gas in the tank…I had planned on having 45 minutes to get there and filling up before I left!). So we stopped for lunch on the way home with some hungry and tired kids. When I got back to Joe’s parents’ house, i made a few phone calls to see what more I could find out. Every agent I spoke to said that it was basically up to the agent’s discretion on whether the notarized signature could be obtained or not. I firmly stated that the form did not say this anywhere, because if it had, we would have tried to get that taken care of before I went in that day. I asked if a power of attorney could be used, but that was also a no-go. My dad then made some calls to get some help through a representative in PA that he has supported in the past. His connections worked their way all the way to the New Hampshire passport headquarters, but we still just heard we were going to need Joe’s signature notarized.

Joe did some searching around as well and found that there is a Consular Agency in Palermo, Italy, which is two hours from where he is located right now. Thankfully, the team was kind enough to give him a morning off to drive up there if need be. Next he called around to find a UPS store in Palermo to see if the drive up there and got the notarized document if it could be overnighted to me. After being transferred a few times, he found a woman who said they could get it to me by 8am on Friday morning (I had scheduled another appointment for Friday morning at the passport agency). So, this morning Joe drove two hours to have this documented notarized and overnighted and it should arrive tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile I drove up to State College last night to finish packing up. I had planned on coming back here Tuesday morning, packing up and then driving to the Philadelphia airport on Saturday. But instead I have been in the midst of a speedy unpack and re-pack here as well as preparing the house for us to leave. Thankfully Joe’s parents were able to keep our oldest three so I could focus my main energies on getting things done around here.

So we are still going to try to leave on Saturday as long as I can get the document and the passport on Friday. But as one of the agents I spoke to told me, “there is no guarantee” that I will have a passport when i go on Friday.

Of course, we could have just changed our travel date. One reason we didn’t want to do that was because Joe had pushed so hard to get the team to book the tickets and get the itinerary to me in the first place, so we didn’t want to cause more hassle to have them change the tickets. And secondly, we wanted to push through this because Joe and I both do not always handle things that are out of our control very well. We both like to be in control and when things don’t go our way, we tend to just give up on them. So we both felt this time like we should push through our comfort level and do what we could to keep the trip on Saturday. Stay tuned to hear how it turns out…

Filed Under: Living Abroad, The Baller, The Kids

Renting

August 18, 2010 By Erin Crispin 1 Comment

I mentioned that we are now going to be renting our NJ home. We have been primary residents of PA now for over a year, but we were still spending a few weeks back in NJ and had the majority of our storage things there because it is a bigger house. But with having to clear out the basement, we could not keep things there while renters were in there, so things are slowly being moved out to our home here or to storage elsewhere. We had been thinking of renting or selling for a few months now, and here is why we finally decided to make the move:

1. Financial burden. Paying two mortgages is a tough thing to do when you only spend the summers at those homes. It really didn’t seem to making much sense from a financial standpoint to have two homes at this point in life. Renting should relieve us of a lot of the financial burden of having two homes.

2. Joe’s job. Basketball season may only run 9 months out of the year, but the summer is actually one of the most important times for Joe to do his job. He spends all season beating his body down, so he really needs to be working to build his body back up during the off-season. Where we have a home in NJ does not offer easy access to the facilities and professionals he needs. In PA, he is able to play with the college guys from Penn State and has access to a great trainer, masseuse, podiatrist, applied kinesiologist, etc.

3. Simpler time at home. As I mentioned before, we were thinking of some bigger ways we could simplify. This is a huge way for us to do that. Joe and I were both worn thin this summer keeping up with two homes. Now that we are renting our NJ home, we will have a management company who will take care of t eh home for us. We won’t get the calls about house issues and have to figure out how to take care of them (although hopefully once this basement problem is taken care of, there won’t be many more problems!) Joe is even passing along the work of some of the other little projects around the house to them. Our PA home is very low maintenance, so it will hopefully allow us to spend our summers doing what we would like to do more: spending time with others.

Moving away from NJ is hard because we have so many great relationships there. That is where our children have friends, which makes this hard for them too. Joe’s family is there, so we will still be back during the summer, we just won’t stay at the same house anymore. Hopefully the friendships that are meaningful will last through this season of life. That is one thing this basketball life has taught me: true relationships can survive over a distance!

Filed Under: Our Family, The Baller

That Time of Year

August 13, 2010 By Erin Crispin 1 Comment

Usually the middle of August is a busy time in the life of a basketball family. That is typically when Joe needs to go overseas to begin training camp for the next season. But this year there have been some different spins on this time of year:

1. Joe signed late this year. Usually Joe is signed by the end of July, but Joe just signed a contract yesterday to return to Lega Due with Barcellona Basket. I think we were both starting to think that we may be waiting until the December/January signings this season, so we were not really in “leave mode”. Plus they want him to leave on Tuesday!

2. Our NJ basement has to be completely gutted. We came home from our week at the shore to find our NJ home with water from a rotted pipe. After further inspection. It looks like our basement is infested with black mold and we all had to move out on Sunday night. We have been at Joe’s parents house for the last few days as we clean everything out of the basement and either throw it away or disinfect it and store it upstairs.

3. We made a last minute decision to rent our NJ home. It has been wearing us thin to have two homes. We thought we would have an easier time this year because we would be in PA the majority of the time, but we still have to look after our NJ home and deal with things like rotted pipes. So we decided we are moving out of our NJ home and turning it into a rental property. The packing for this has also been done in the last 4 days! Plus we have been dealing with the emotional toll this is taking on our kids (and Joe) who are attached to the home. Doing this without AC (have to turn it off when you have mold) and in between Isaiah’s feedings has been a bit draining for me.

4. I have been dealing with some issues with Abby’s school. Last year we used a charter online public school for Abby’s schooling, but at the end of July we got a call saying that we could no longer be a part of it. Thankfully after some calls to our local school district and being in contact with the charter school, we got things figured out. So I should be getting the supplies today!

So there are my excuses for my lack of blogging and general contact with people. I am going to be staying behind a few weeks once again so I can get packed up, settle all of our stuff in State College and hopefully wrap up some more things in NJ. I have been fighting to believe the promises that God has nothing but good for me in this time. Just another reminder that God wants to do a good work in me and that refinement of character does not come when everything is smooth and easy!

Filed Under: Our Family, The Baller

8 Years of Marriage

July 27, 2010 By Erin Crispin 3 Comments

Words are not enough, but pictures come close to showing the joy it has been to be married to Joe for the last 8 years.

Joe, thank you for showing me the love of God more and more every day and for seeing me as God sees me. I am blessed to say that I have truly loved you more each day.

07-14-2005-041633pm

Filed Under: The Baller, The Basket Wife

Happy 31st Birthday, Joe!

July 19, 2010 By Erin Crispin 2 Comments

Yesterday was my wonderful husband’s 31st birthday. This means we have been together for almost a decade now (we started dating in October of 2000 when he was 21 years old). In those 10 years I have seen an amazing work of God in Joe’s life and the grace that has changed him in so many ways. Last year I mentioned the ways people described him on his 27th birthday and the way he had grown in humility since then. He continues to grow in many ways. One of the things I love about him is that he is not easy to put into a “box”. He really is not any typical type, but a fun mix of so many different things. So here is a list for his 31st birthday of 31 random facts you might not know about Joe, but that go into making him the man I love, respect and admire.

1. Joe is a night person. He is not very cheerful in the morning, but comes alive around 9pm at night and is when he gets most things done.

2. Joe is a homebody. This may be because of our lifestyle, but he really likes being at home relaxing.

3. Although Joe likes being at home, he loves having guests over.

4. Joe enjoys being social, but he likes to be alone as well. If we have a full social calendar for awhile, you can tell that he starts to need some alone time to recharge.

5. When Joe has a vision for something, it is hard to stand in his way. Once his mind is made up, almost nothing can stop him.

6. On the other hand, if Joe is not inspired to do something, it is pretty hard to get him motivated to do it.

7. For that reason, Joe did not graduate officially from college until 2006, although he was done in 2001. He was dead set on not finishing his degree, so I am proud of him for persevering through and doing it!

8. Joe’s major in college was telecommunications, simply because he had heard it was one of the easiest!

9. If Joe had to pick a major at Penn State again, he would probably pick history.

10. Although the most Joe used to read was the picture captions in Sports Illustrated, since becoming a Christian, he has become much more of a reader and can remember information from books better than almost anyone I know.

11. Joe was not heavily recruited out of high school (mostly smaller D1 schools), but something about him interested PSU head coach Jerry Dunn. When Joe saw the facilities at Penn State he was sold.

12. Joe became a starter at Penn State his freshman year after an injury and took off from there.

13. In 2001, Joe was Penn State’s school athlete of the year.

14. Joe is Penn State’s 2nd all-time leading scorer for men’s basketball.

15. Joe was not drafted out of college for the NBA but made the Los Angeles Lakers team during the preseason tryouts.

16. After Joe is done playing basketball he would like to coach.

17. Joe’s favorite food would probably be ice cream, although he is currently cutting out all dairy for his training regimen.

18. Joe is almost obsessive when it comes to trimming fat off the meat he eats. So much in fact that one time I tricked him by making tofu “chicken” that he trimmed fat off of (obviously there was no fat on there!)

19. Joe is not a good sleeper. During the season when he is overtrained, there are many restless nights.

20. For this reason, Joe almost never gets up with the kids in the night. Every once and awhile he may if there is something out of the ordinary going on, but he has a hard time falling back asleep once he is awake.

21. Joe has a really great singing voice and can play the piano. His mom is a music teacher and he also played the saxophone in high school.

22. Joe is almost always running late. He has a terrible sense of time.

23. But Joe does have an amazing sense of direction. While I could not find my way out of a wet paper bag, Joe easily learns his way around any new city we go to.

24. Of the two of us, Joe is much more of the spender, while I am the saver. But he has been dedicated to learning more about finances and leading our home in wise decisions.

25. Joe definitely owns more shoes than I do, even when you take out his basketball shoes.

26. Joe actually classifies his warm up pants and dry fit shirts into different categories. According to him, some are more “dressy” than others!

27. Joe can make our kids laugh like no one else. He is very goofy and definitely brings lightness to our home.

28. Joe is a creature of habit. Once he finds a restaurant he likes, it is hard to get him to venture out past that.

29. Joe loves movies and does not like to be distracted while he is watching (I on the other hand like to multi-task while I am watching a movie, which can be a bit annoying to him!) And he is especially into “chick flicks”.

30. Joe likes our “sides” to match all over the house. In other words, if he sleeps on the left side of the bed, then his towel in the bathroom should be on the left side too.

31. Joe can flip his tongue, which he learned back in elementary school when he saw another girl do it and was determined to learn!

Filed Under: The Baller

If You Read One Blog Post Today…

July 9, 2010 By Erin Crispin Leave a Comment

…let it be this one by my husband on Lebron’s decision to sign with the Miami Heat. Having these kind of discussions with him and getting to the root of issues is one of the many reasons I love Joe. He is a wise and discerning man and I believe the article will be a benefit for all to read, whether you follow NBA basketball or not.

Filed Under: The Baller