The Genuine

I wasn’t too busy to blog during camp this past week. I was too tired, too overwhelmed and too enamored. I’m all about memoirs and logging the adventures of daily occurrence. But sometimes there is a flood of good, so much to process that it can hardly be done justice in the 30 minutes or so it takes to blog. So today, just shy of a flight home to LA, I can reflect a bit about the week.

I was in charge of the 12-18 year old boys at camp. But on my staff was 7-year NBA veteran Mike Wilks and aspiring NBA player and NBDL steady, Jackie Manuel. Wilks had a stellar career at Rice University in Texas. Manuel was a standout at the University of North Carolina and won a national championship his senior year in 2005. Both Wilks and Manuel brought with them a wealth of basketball experience and an astounding heart to serve. They were but two of several outstanding people I worked with this week but I focus on them because they are the ones people assume don’t have time for kids, for a bunch of Maui teens who lack confidence.

There are times in life when you feel like you’re Michael Scott from NBC’s The Office. You seem to be surrounded by a host of qualified people who could just as easily be your boss. Nevertheless, here you are giving them instructions and finding out they are gleaning something from the experience despite a superlative expertise in your field. They possess a learning posture, are jotting down notes as you run daily workouts and asking questions all the while. They’re being proactive during the water breaks, helping kids with basic fundamentals. Most importantly, they’re having fun and genuinely basking in the ambiance of service. Mike and Jackie were genuine inspirations to me this week. Their basketball is their profession and their vocation. They’ve been high and been low. They’ve been champions and had career threatening injuries. They’ve been cut from rosters and are both looking for teams to play for next season in the NBA. But they’re contentedness is unmistakable. They’re competing on every level and I’m thankful my wife and I got to know their families, their struggles and their triumphant spirit.