The players' tribune Full Link: https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/clint-capela-its-all-about-h-town Clint Capela HOUSTON ROCKETS APR 13 2018 ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ Like Dream. I’ll never forget the first time Hakeem Olajuwon spoke to me at a practice. My eyes went so wide. I thought, Oh my God, this legend knows who I am. Like every other person I met in Texas, he wanted to help me and to make sure I felt good. He even would coach me on post-moves. That’s how I learned just how much a legend he is. Hakeem is this older guy, but he would start showing me these moves and it was like he’s in this movie The Matrix. He starts moving his feet and then all I see is a bunch of blurs. The ball is here, then it’s there, his body’s this way and his feet at that way, then swish. Then he’d hand me the ball like, “Okay, your turn.” And I’d kind of stare back thinking, Uh, there’s a reason you’re The Dream. No one else who has ever lived can do that. But still, I was thankful for the help I was getting from everyone I encountered. Eventually I started to improve. Not just on the court, but also away from it — the way I communicated and my willingness to open up with people. As I got more comfortable and things slowed down, I started really enjoying my life here. And as my confidence grew, so did my basketball skills. But still, Hakeem’s moves, that’s still something I’m working on. Last year, before a game we were playing in San Antonio, one of my coaches pulled me aside and pointed to a person sitting in the crowd. “You know that guy over there?” I looked at where he was pointing, then I froze. I was in shock. Oh my god. It was Thierry Henry. And he wasn’t on TV wearing the blue kit like I was used to growing up. He was there, in person, about 50 feet away from me. I ended up getting introduced to him and he was a really cool guy. He was at the game because he’s friends with Tony Parker. To be honest I can’t even remember any of our conversation. I think I was in shock — but we seemed to get along. It stood out as pretty much one of the coolest things that’s ever happened to me. It was one of those amazing moments that only basketball could make happen. At the time I met Thierry, I really started to get in my groove as a player. Having Mike D’Antoni start as our coach definitely helped with that. He introduced a system that made me feel so free on the court. It’s about pace, movement and just making something happen every possession. I’m one of the younger players on our team, surrounded by veterans, but he never let my confidence go down. Whenever I had a bad game, I might be at my locker with my head down, but he’d the person who would tell me not to feel negative. He’d tell me I’ll play better the next day, and I almost always did. Under Coach D’Antoni I feel like every player on the team has gotten better. Except for James. He’s always been on a different level. When I first got to Houston, I’d be on the bench watching the stuff he’d do during games, how easy he made it look, and I’d almost forget we were teammates. It was like I was another fan watching him. But now, I’m used to James doing at least one thing a game that’s amazing. He has made doing amazing things seem routine. Forty one night? No problem. Forty-four the next? Sure, no sweat. Fifteen assists? Sure, that’s his thing now. Nothing he does on the basketball court shocks me anymore. Man, it has been a special season, hasn’t it? At the same time, I knew this season was going to be different before it even started. It began with a text. I was back home during the off-season relaxing when I noticed my phone starting to blow up. I turned it on and the first thing I saw was a text from Thierry (Yeah we text now, it’s no big deal. Not a big thing at all. I’m totally cool about it). The text said he was really excited. I asked him why and he sent back something that got me crazy excited too. “CP3.” I went on Twitter, and everything was blowing up. And it all clicked: We’d just traded for Chris Paul. Houston got Chris Paul! Ever since then… everything with our team has been boom-boom-boom. Screen-pass-pass-bucket. You blink, you might miss something amazing. We can be down two, then up 15 in zero time. And as our team has taken it to another level, our fans have too. I’m not just talking about in Houston, I mean worldwide. Rockets fans are everywhere man. I even hopped on Weibo, and found out I have people watching me out in China. They call me Bing Hwang (饼皇), which I was told means The King of Pancakes. At first, I was like, what are pancakes? Then I thought, Oh, those sound like crepes. And then I was like, Wait, still why King of Pancakes? And then I found out “King of Pancakes” refers to someone who catches and dunks a bunch of lobs. So then I thought, O.K., that’s pretty good, respect to Weibo. Considering how scared I felt when I first got here, it’s crazy how much this now feels like a second home. I still remember how worried I was when I had trouble communicating. It made me feel like a very different person, almost scared of going out, because I was worried I’d have to talk with someone. It made me realize how important it is to be able to communicate, so I was really thankful when I was approached by Reliant with an opportunity to help other people out who face that same challenge. For every double-double I’ve gotten this year, they’ve made a $200 donation to the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation. I’m not sure if they really knew what they were getting into when they offered, but I’ve been grinding to make sure Barbara gets a big check out of this. My new nickname is going to be King of Books when I’m done. ~~~~~ ~~~~~ Full Link: https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/clint-capela-its-all-about-h-town
Clint has some real comedy chops, lol. I wonder how much "help" some of these athletes get when writing their players trib articles...
You know, just to put this in there, I had a whole mess of pancakes this morning. They're just like crepes, maybe even better.
"They call me Bing Hwang (饼皇), which I was told means The King of Pancakes." That could also mean "King of Biscuits". I'm curious though how they came up with Bing Hwang for him in China?
It looks like he gave an interview and they transcribed it. There’s a video st the bottom of the page.
It wasn't a joke .... I have no interest in soccer. I'm a middle aged white American man .... we played baseball , American Football or basketball when I was a kid ..... not Soccer. Soccer wasn't on TV , hell cable TV wasn't a thing back then. To me soccer is like golf ..... watching the grass grow.
