No. 1. For The Love Of The Game!

I remember sharpening my basketball skills, as a kid, on the West-Side of Chicago, with my Uncle and little brother! It was not a place for softies! We played with real thugs and real killers! And if you or your game was not real, then you couldn't come around, because those wolves would eat you alive! Straight up! One day my Uncle, Rob, my little brother Russ, and me, were out on the court, playing a physical game against a team of Vice-Lords, with some of there gang members sitting on the sidelines, watching! Something had happen and the next thing I know, my Uncle and brother were pushing and shoving with these cats! Suddenly, we were surrounded by these dudes, and they were ready to jump on us, over a basketball game, that none of us were getting paid to play! The way my uncle and brother was shouting at these cats, you would have thought we had a gang behind us! They were acting like the three of us made up a gang, but fighting against 10 other cats, I thought we certainly needed more people to join up with us! God must have been watching us that day, because cooler heads prevailed! We even keep playing the game, and eventually won! It was the first time my love for the game was truly tested, because I was a nervous cat, back in the day, but I wasn't going to let some gang bangers scare me away from doing my thing on the basketball court! We was back out there the next week, getting it in, Live!

I also remember playing ball, on those hot summer afternoons, at 10Th Park, in Maywood! That was real competition, Son! By the time I got to high school, my game was for real! That said, I still had to get to park by like 4:00 P.M., to make sure I had a spot on the court! It was still hot as hell outside, at that time of day, but that was right around the time they started picking teams for full-court play! The real ballers played on the center court, and all the area high school super-stars would start showing up as soon as the sun would start going down! Showing up to the park early always gave me a good chance to be on the court by the time the real ballers got there! I could usually get in about 4 or 5 good games, before finally loosing a game! Once you lost, you basically were done for the day, because it would be about 4 or 5 games before you had another chance to get back on the court, to play again! But when you were young, you could play 3 or 4 times at 3 or 4 different courts, like everyday! You could go to 9Th Park at the Recreation Center! Or Winfield Park off of 17th Ave. You could also get good runs in over in Bellwood at Memorial Park! Where ever the ballers were at, that's were I was at! Back then, life was all about basketball! Those were the days, straight up and down! In the Summers, we would play basketball all day and never get tired! Must have been for the love of the game!

I remember when I moved from high school basketball to college basketball! It was different! In high school, you could use pure skill and talent to beat cats on the basketball court! Most of the time, my high school team was just completely head and shoulders better than almost anybody we faced! In college, everybody just about had the same talents and skills. So you couldn't just use that to beat the competition, because everybody was just as strong and fast as you were! In college, you had to out think cats, to win on the basketball court! My college team was not that good at out thinking teams! But college basketball was crazy! Your skill level would make leaps and bounds in just one season! It was so much more than just basketball, when you play in college! You have to eat right, sleep right, hit the weight room, watch video tape, study notes, and even take tests! You first step on the basketball court, in college, and you think it's still just about basketball, and for the first time in your basketball career, you are lost! But I loved the challenge of learning more about the game! Making my body stronger and developing my skills! By the end of the season, you could hold your own and see the dramatic changes in your game! It was a lot of hard work! But it all paid off! It must have been the love for the game!

When it comes to basketball, I've done a lot! I plan to do a lot more! In the near future, I'll be looking to open my first basketball complex! With Premiere Hoops, my goal is to make all ball players, hoop dreams come true! Players will be able to come to a place, that will focus on basketball services, that will make everyone feel like a professional ball player! Once we open our doors, it should be a major love fest! Till then, players can start showing their love for the game, right now, with the Premiere Hoops Invitation! A basketball tournament that will take you back to your college days! It's going to be crazy! We'll follow that up with our NBA-style Summer and Fall leagues! When all that is said and done, the final touches should be in place, for us to break ground on the basketball complex! This has been a journey that has started over 15 years ago, back in college, when God gave me a vision to do something real big with basketball! I'm headed towards the end of my competitive basketball playing days, but I still plan to put in major work, for sometime to come! I love the game of basketball, and I plan to play this game for as long as I can! You should too!

No. 2. Championship Rings Are A Man's Best Friend!

Let's see! Bill Russell has 11 NBA Championship Rings! Micheal Jordan has 6. Magic Johnson 5. Larry Bird 3. That's a lot of hardware! How many championship rings do you got! Is it better to have played in several championships and never won, or to never make it to the championship at all. I guess in the end, you still got the same result.....no championship ring! You call yourself a ball player? Then what do you have to show for it! The greatest stats in the world won't mean jack, without that bling bling to back it all up! See, when you see someone rocking a shinny championship ring on their hand, people don't ask questions! The ring is proof, that you were part of the best! Period! A championship ring represents something special! Something more! It says you did it a little bit better, than everybody else! That team might be good, but without that ring, then that team is not real! You can fake it all you want, but in this world of show in prove, a championship ring speaks volumes, without even saying a word! Game will always recognize Game! And with a championship ring on your hand, you can make the other crews bow down! They say diamonds are a girls best friend. Well, for a man, or any ball player, for that matter, a championship ring will stick with you till the end!



Now, you just read the following paragraph, and you are digging and confirming everything that was written, but you don't have your own championship ring, to certify your game! Well! You're in luck! You can finally earn that championship ring, that will let you roam the blocks of your hood, proper like, with the help of Premiere Hoops! Jump in our Invitation. It will remind you of your glory days back in college! By pass the regular season, and go straight to the Tournament! You and about 60 other teams will do major battle, for a chance to get that championship ring! You would expect the first round or two to be easy, except, you don't know any of the other teams, from a whole in the wall! So hopefully for your sake, your team respects every team in the field! Don't get caught slipping though, because if you take a game off, you could be watching the rest of the tournament from the sidelines!

So, you got a whole career of basketball in, but no championship ring yet, huh! How'd that happen, Gangster? Sooner or later, your number is going to get called! Time even caught up with the great Micheal Jordan, and it was not pretty, when it happened! I bet you that if Mike could come back today, and be the old Micheal Jordan, he'd come back for a another chance to compete and win another ring! They say every time you win a championship ring, it's like the first time....no matter how many times you win it! So what is it going to be? Mike once said that the fear of failure motivated him to be the best he could be! After another tough play-off series lost to the Detroit Pistons, the third in three years, the Bulls got on their bus to head home, and Mike shouted outed that they were letting precious opportunities, to get that championship, get pass them, and he wasn't sure how many more chances they were going to get! Not to worry, Mike! Bring in a coach named Phil Jackson! Make a couple of changes, in the overall game scheme, keep trying, and POW!!! Six championships along with 6 big chunky rings, before it was all said and done! Charles Barkley was at the end of his career! Was going to come out of retirement, to play with Mike, with the Wizards, for one more chance to win a ring! But as the season approached, Charles backed out! Said he couldn't do it! Maybe he was not committed to put in the extra work needed to make things happen! Did Charles chicken out! Maybe! But where do you stand! Are you going to jump in the Premiere Hoops Invitation and give it one more shot, to get a ring! Or are you going to stand on the sidelines, shook to death to fail and making crazy excusses! COWARD!!

No. 3. Real Brackets. Real Teams.

This is the Friday before the NCAA Tournament Basketball Brackets will be announced! 65 teams will a get a shot, at a once in a lifetime opportunity! A chance to win a championship! The regular season is over! Teams are now completing their conference play-offs! About half of the 65 teams are already in the big tournament! As usual, many teams with good records will not get in! And some teams, that should have been left out, will find a way to get in! It's all part of the "Madness", that comes around, this time, every year! Right now, what you don't want to be, is a Bubble Team, or someone who has to sit through the entire Sunday Selection Tournament show! This is the show that officially announces which teams are in or out of the tournament. This show, in the end, will burst the "bubbles" of a lot of teams! If your team gets the nod, the feeling is like winning the lottery! Your team lives to fight one more day! But if you watch that whole show, and your team dosen't get the nod, it's the most dejected feeling you can imagine! I mean the worst kid! And there's nothing you can do about it! And if you are a Senior. Yo! You're ready to go jump off a bridge! It's kind of the gift and the curse, of this March Madness thing! You don't want to be caught up in it's path.....unless you're in!

With the Premiere Hoops Invitation, you'll have a chance to be in, and do it just like the college kids! Imagine, 65 teams in a do-or-die play-off format! Let's see if we can do the math! To begin, you pay your team entry fee, only $300! Next, you win your first game, which advances you to the second round of 32. You win your second game, and now you advance to the Sweet 16. That's pressure! You possibly win your third game, and you've made it to the Elite 8. That's big! Now if you can win your fourth game, you move into the Final 4, with every body watching! Win your Fifth game, and now you're in the Championship Round! And if you can win that 6th game, you get to put your name in the history books, while at the sametime, earn yourself some new hardware! Think about it! To win a championship, your team only has to win a maximum of 6 games....can your team do that!!!

At Premiere Hoops, we are in the business of making your hoop dreams come true! Our programs will be designed to make you feel like the basketball players you see on TV! If you ever wanted to play college basketball. Or if you ever wondered what it would be like, to play in the NCAA Tournament! Or if you just wanted to win a championship ring! Then Premiere Hoops has what you need! Why settle for just watching the NCAA Tournament, this year, when you can play in it! Of course, we all want to win games, when we play! No one wants to loose! But when you become an older player, sometimes, winning isn't everything! The overall experience can have as much value as a win! Our programs will be highly organized and managed in a timely fashion! You'll get a chance to meet new players and make new friends! And what ballplayer doesn't enjoy exchanging basketball war stories! This Invitation can be YOUR March Madness Tournament! So, in conclusion, don't be a Bubble Team, and let our March 29, deadline past you by! Get your team registered today, because when our brackets filled up, you'll be missing out on a once in a lifetime experience, that will be priceless!!!

No. 4. Prepare For Glory!

They say every man is going to get 15 minutes of fame before he dies! Yesterday, after I got off work, I was too tired to do anything else, except jump in the bed and watch TV, for the rest of the day! I had a chance to catch up on some basketball! I Clicked on the TV, and what do you know, my beloved Redbirds, from Illinois State University, was on national TV, taken on Northern Iowa University, for the MVC Conference Championship, and a automatic bid, to the "big dance" or the NCAA Tournament! Now let me back up for a minute, and give you a little story! As some of you may already know, I was a walk-on basketball player at Illinois State, when I was there! Walking on a D-1 college basketball team, is like next to impossible to do! Everything has got to line up for you! Anyway, back to the present! I have a 8 year old son, Cameron, who of course, is crazy about playing sports. He plays baseball, football, and basketball, right now! My beautiful wife, Lisa, and I, are trying to instill in my son, that college for him, is a requirement, not an option! My wife has two college degrees and I have one! So obviously, we both think college is important part for our son's future! And he's in tune with that! "Daddy, I'm going to play at Illinois University!", he tells me! I'm like, "Cool, son!! That's a great school!!" So, as a way to reinforce that thinking process, my wife and I like to, on occasion, take our son to different college campuses, so he can see and feel what college is about! Now, that's all he talks about, is college! So... so far, so good!

A few weeks back, my family decided to visit my old college, Illinois State University! Still looks the same, for the most part! We had a great time! While we were heading back to the car, to head back home, I noticed a Illinois State Redbird basketball poster. It had the team's schedule, and a picture of their "star" player! A funny looking kid, who was African-American, with a Mohawk haircut! He was in a game-action pose, and the kid just didn't look right! I took a good look at the picture, and said to myself, he sure doesn't look like a basketball player! And kept walking! Well, you know the old saying, Never judge a book by it's cover! This funny looking kid in the poster, was a perfect example! After watching this kid play on Sunday, I had a different opinion of him, to say the least!

Now, on Sunday, I'm watching this funny looking kid, with the Mohawk, play in a championship game, on national TV, for a shot to get an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament! Come to find out, this kid's name is Osiris Eldridge. And this kid can play! In the second half, he put on a show, that was a lot of fun to watch! Osiris went on a run that saw him shoot 3-pointers, from another area code, falling out of bounds, with defenders in his face, and anywhere else he choose to shoot! It was amazing! It made me flash back to my days back at Illinois State! Yo! That was first class basketball, right there! The first game I traveled on, we jumped on the bus and took off! I pulled out some homework and started studying! A few minutes later, my teammate and good friend, till this day, Scott, looked at me and was like, "What are you doing?" I was like " What does it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to get some of my studying done, while we are on this road trip to the game!" Scott was like, "We're not driving to the game! We're driving to the airport!" I was like, "Oh, Word!" He was like, "Yea Man, we don't drive to games, we fly!" I was like "Yo! That's what I'm talking about!" Playing for a D-1 school was like living like a King on campus! We ate dinner together, called training table! If we were on campus, we ate in a special section of the school cafeteria! If we were off of campus, we ate fine restaurants that served steaks and shrimp! We got "laundry money" that keep our pockets full of cash! The hotels we would stay in, were all 4 and 5 star, Marriott, type joints! We did everything first class! It was like being in the NBA, except you didn't get paid the big millions! It was some of the best basketball I've ever experienced! And I will always be thankful I was of a chosen few, who got to do it!

This kid Osiris, has started the clock ticketing, on his 15 minutes! The Redbirds would go on to loose the game, in overtime, to Northern Iowa, but Osiris has already made a name for himself! The announcers, for the game, were going crazy, every time this kid shot the ball! He was the talk of the game, and on all the post highlight shows! All they talked about was the show Osiris put on! And of course, the pro basketball prospects started chipping in! "He's going to make a great NBA player, Blah, Blah, Blah! But here's the catch! Illinois State was one of the better college teams this year! But they come from the MVC Conference. A place that usually only sends one team to the NCAA Tournament, and that's usually the team that wins the MVC Post-Season Tournament! This year, that was Northern Iowa! But I think Illinois State made a case for itself, to play in the big dance, as well! I think Osiris has peaked the interest, of the national audience, to see if he can do it again, in the big tournament, and maybe pull off a major upset or two, in the process! If nothing else, what will probably happen, is Illinois State will probably get overlooked, by the NCAA, get a bid to the NIT Tournament, and there, maybe Osiris can continue to build on his legend! He's in a great spot, right now, he a Junior who is expected to return for his Senior year, and it would be great to see him keep playing, for a little while longer! We'll find out in less than a week!

So, we are getting ever so close to the deadline registration for the Premiere Hoops Invitation! This NCAA Tournament will give you a chance to put on your best Osiris Eldridge impersonation! Have you gotten your 15 minutes of fame yet! Maybe the Invitation is your last/only chance to get it! You only gota win 5 or 6 games to win the crown! You'll be able to display a championship ring and title that can never be taken from you! Notice, I didn't say can never be stolen from you! But maybe you have an Osiris run in you! Maybe you could have a game that the other players in the Invitation will talk about for some time to come! You'll never know unless you register your team to play, and see what happens!

No. 5. Go For Broke!

I don't watch a lot of TV. Not that I don't enjoy a good program every now and then, but I just don't have the time! But everyday, from 2:30 P.M. to 3:30 P.M., I do try to catch BloomBerg TV. It's a financial channel that gives the Average Joe, or as they like to say, the man on the street, the daily run-down on all things stock markets and money! Running 24/7, these guys talk to very important people, who have astute business savvy and are well connected. Politicians, CEOs, Stock Traders, and Money Managers. The Cats who appear on this particular show, handles billions and billions of dollars! I mean, these are the people who control 2% of all the wealth in the United States! They say you can learn a lot from a dummy! Well, they don't let any dummies on this channel, so imagine how much I'm learning, from watching these Cats, do what they do! I've been watching the BloomBerg Channel now, for about two years! And as many of you would imagine, for the last six months, it's been all gloom and doom! The economy is contracting! People are losing their jobs and homes! You can't get a car loan! And staple companies we thought would last forever, are now closing shop! I must admit, things do seem a little bleak, at this time! Everybody says times is rough and that things will get worst before they get better! Well, all the more reason to go for broke! I'll explain!

Look! With all this bad news going around, it's easy to have a negative outlook on life right now! But the last time I checked, The Sky was not falling! And the Sun did raise this morning! So it can't be all that bad! We've run into some bad luck, lately, but that's no reason to stop living, yet! We all may have to make changes, where we can, but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water! I suggest making your cuts and sacrifices where you can, than live your life! If you sit around constantly worrying about your particular situation, you're probably just gonna make things worst! So, what can you do for cheap thrills, in this messed-up economy! You can play in the Premiere Hoops Invitation, of course! Here's the benefits!

Number one! The cost to get in the Invitation is only $300 per team! Peanuts, even in this economy, because if you get a team of only 6 players, that's $50 for each player, to pay your team registration, and you probably blow more than that every week, and I bet you don't know where! With that team fee, you'll get fresh and crispy new uniforms, and a chance to win shinny new custom-made championship rings! That should help boost your self-esteem a bit, if nothing else! Next, you'll be able to release some of that pinned-up stress, you been holding inside, in a positive way! There's nothing like the feeling, of taking your anger and frustration out, on an opponent! Competition is good for the heart and soul! Finally, you'll have a chance to play with and against Cats, who are in the same boat, as you! You'll be able to interact, on and off the court, with guys dealing with the same struggles, sacrifices, and problems, as you! And that can be priceless, as they say! Not to mention, sharing those thoughts and laughs, with other guys, that can only be understood by guys, if you catch my drift! Basketball is an outlet! You can use it for a way to "escape" the rigors of your everyday life!

So! What have we learned here, today! Sometimes, you gota make your own luck! Things might not look great right now, like a lot of people will tell you, on the BloomBerg channel! But look to the Sky, and I'm sure you still see the Sun still there....unless it's snowing again! And I'm certainly not expecting the world to end anytime soon! So, with that said, you should be recruiting a team to play in the Premiere Hoops Invitation! It's the only place I can think of, that makes sense to be broke! Or rather, where you can Go For Broke! Hurry up and register today! Time is running out! Teams are finally jumping in for a chance to earn the Crown! And the registration deadline is March 29! See you out there!