Brian Butch's adventures in Greece

Brian Butch gave a detailed acccount of his entertaining adventures as a pro basketball in Greece, via his personal blog.


The story was discovered by our friend blog greekbball.blogspot.com, and within his blog, Brian Butch describes in tantalising details his experience as pro basketball player in Greece, playing for Ilisiakos. Ilisiakos is not a wealthy team and it's owned by Greek player agent, Tasos Delimpaltadakis.


Brian Butch's Bio: Since graduating from Wisconsin in 2008 Brian Butch has pursued a professional basketball career in the U.S. and overseas. In his blog below Butch will not only update his fans on his adventures on and off the court.

A newcomer
Oct 29 2009, 4:45 PM Topic: European basketball
Nothing is ever the way things seem to be in Europe. 


After our first game there was nothing but approval for the way that I was playing. Then a couple days later the owner pulled me to the side and said that they were bringing in a new American for a tryout. 


Um hello.


That's after I led the team in scoring with a 16-point game in 19 minutes. But the one thing that I have learned in my year and half of playing overseas is that you have to stand up for yourself. Otherwise these teams will walk right over you. 


So once the owner told me of their decision, I told him that the coach and the management needed to get on the same page. I added that I wasn't sure what else I could do except play hard in the minutes I've been given. I mean, 16 points in 19 minutes was not that bad, and I had a strong game the weekend before.


The next day the new American arrived and it's Warren Carter, who played at Illinois. We played each other many times in the Big Ten. The thing that confused me? The owner talked to me about bringing in another big player, but Warren plays a 3/4 position. So that just shows how much research is done. 


We'll see how the next couple of days go at practice. It's up to the team to decide who they want to keep. It can be frustrating when you play well and the team goes in another direction. It can be like a revolving door that constantly is being opened and closed. You just hope you are the one having the door opened.


But it's a good education for me, and the fans out there can see how this works, too. The sad part? Its' common to see promises broken and communication break off. At the end of the day no one is safe. This happens with big teams and small teams in all countries. Some countries it happens more often than others but it's just the way this business works.


source : bigtennetwork.com

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