Andre's Words
Whats up! This is your boy Andre from MSF here. Im kickin’ it at home right now, the morning after the Melbourne mixtape game. It was crazy! So I thought I should write about my whole experience of it all. It might be interesting to some of you out there.

And1 at Prahran
It all started on Monday. The And1 boys were coming down to rock the court in Prahran (Melbourne). Two days before I had just got back from an International film festival in Korea (note: Andre is a young film-maker and was a finalist in this festival). I hadn’t played much ball in a while either, so I was hoping I would come down to Prahran to chill, and do some filming while the others tore up the courts. I thought I would maybe jump on and have a run. But to be honest, because I hadn’t played much ball in a while, I didn’t really feel confident to play. I even felt a bit nervous, so I was trying to avoid jumping on the court. So I filmed and watched.

I couldn’t help but be disappointed, with the respect we were getting. I mean, couldn’t see much of our boys playing with enough heart. We were giving And1 too much respect. Of course the aim of the game is to have fun, but you gotta be out there to battle, to win! And I wasn’t seeing much of that. I thought, we gotta show these guys that we’re not here to fool around, we came to play. The game was getting half hearted, and we looked like busters. My heart fired up, “We gotta play with some f****ing heart!” So I pulled out some dude wearing a pink shirt and jumped in the game. All my boys who I train in Footscray and all the ballers I know were all watching, I was on the spot. My legs and arms were cold, and I was a bit nervous, but what the hell, let’s play ball! I was d’ing up Silk. The sun was shining in my eyes and all I could see was his silhouette. He threw the ball up behind me, caught it and drove to the hoop and scored. “Damn! He got me…” I still hadn’t touched the ball. Silk came back down, I stepped up on him again (better to step up than step back!), this time he flashed some of his dribbling skills, then quickly threw the ball off my head and got it back! The crowd got a little hyped. I was now angry and embarrassed! Now I really wanted the ball. I wanted a turn to get him back.


Above: From the streets to the arena, Dre d'ing up on Silk from And1

One of my team mates got a turn-over and Bad Santa held the ball claiming it was game over! “No way!” I said. I gotta try one back on Silk! I got the ball off DC and pointed at Silk. I “called him out” as they say. They saw it as disrespect. I had no idea, all I wanted was a chance to get him back! Bad Santa was fired up and talking trash “You know what you got yourself into!?” he yelled. I didn’t care, I was angry and in fight mode. It was me and Silk now. I had the ball, crossed it and tried to drive past him, but he flagrantly pushed me out of bounds. I called “foul man, what’s that?!” After some unfair argument on their behalf, I got the ball back. I shaked n’ baked, then pulled up for a jump shot… swish!!! “Whats up!” I yelled. I was pumped! The crowd went wild too!

I thought it was over and that I got the last shot for respect. But it wasn’t. Silk called me back down the other end. Now everyone was following us down. I started a battle. I tried to D-up as hard as I could, but Silk scored. We walked back up. Some of the And1 ballers were yelling disrespectful stuff at me like I was some punk. Can’t really remember what they said, I was ignoring them and trying to concentrate at the task at hand, to score on Silk. I felt very tired and unfit, puffing like a mo’fo, but I knew I had to try. The space around the key was really small, if he extended both his arms, he could touch the people on both sides of the key. I wasn’t successful in scoring. So we went up and down a few times, he scored again. I was just dieing out there, my heart was beating out my chest! I knew though I had to continue. Escalade said a few words in the background about me “I like his heart…” I turned to him and said “Hey man I didn’t know calling someone out is disrespect?” then he replied, “In the States, if you do that, people take it personal.” He understood now, that I wasn’t just some punk trying to disrespect. He then started to encourage me. The And1 ballers kept telling me to apologise to Silk and that it will all be over. I couldn’t do that, so I stayed to battle more. Up and down we went head to head. Escalade could see that I was trying my heart out. The crowd was behind me and cheering for me. We all wanted to see a Melbourne boy take it to ‘em and that’s what I was trying to do. I was trying my hardest to represent Melbourne and gain some respect for us. After battling Silk one-on-one (which felt like eternity at the time ‘cause I was so tired) I thought I’d stop it, he wasn’t going to, he thought I was disrespecting him. But I done the honourable thing and shook his hand to end it and not make it drag on. He won the battle.

At that moment I couldn’t help but feel that it was a loss for me, a loss for us, a loss for Melbourne. But then something changed. Some boys from the crowd came up to me and told me “Well done man!” Then more and more people came up to me and congratulated me. For some reason they still saw me as a winner, I soon realised why. Its not just about winning or losing, it’s about how much of your heart you put on the court. That’s what makes you a real winner! Some of the And1 boys, Hot Sauce and The Professor, hollered and gave me some respect, that was real cool of them. I went straight to Silk and told him I meant no disrespect. He was cool, and we gave each other some respect. Then Big Escalade came up and asked me if I wanted to play on Saturday for the big game at Vodafone Arena! “Yeah ok man” I said quietly and humbly. I didn’t realise at the time what an opportunity I had. It’s a dream for millions of ballers around the world to get a chance to run against the And1 boys in front of thousands of people. Now I have a chance to do that and represent MSF, represent Melbourne, represent all the street-ballers out there.


Above: Crowds packed out Prahran Park (Melbourne) // Andre and DC from MSF with Hot Sauce and Silk

Training Days
As I said, I haven’t kept on my b-ball game for some months. I had been in my background country Macedonia for a few months prior, and there I didn’t get many chances to ball. To even survive a few minutes on the court, I knew I had to do something quick about my game (I only had 4 days to do it!). That night I told myself, “I better step up and stop bull s***ing” and start training. First thing I did was cut all the junk from my diet (something I should have done long before). No more sweets, fats, processed stuff. Just go for all natural foods to cleanse my system.

On the first day I went down to a local court and began dribbling drills. Up and down the court I went in sets. Crossovers, 1-2 dribble crossovers, through the legs, behind the back, spin moves (all excellent warm up drills by the way). My boy Soks’ then came down and we took off to MSAC courts. We played one-on-one, done some shooting drills, driving to the hole drills and called it a day for ball.

The next day I went to MSAC again, played some pick-up 2-on-2 and done some more intense shooting drills with my friend from Chicago (whom I call my coach and big bro) TJ. He was trying to get me back into my old shooting form, which is a masterful form he discovered. I haven’t trained with him for about a year, so I had to adjust my shot and try get out of my habits. At the end of the session, I was hitting swishes three metres away from the 3-point line. To stay with that type of shot, you gotta keep practicing more often (not once a year like I did!) My arms and back were real sore after that. Some more drills the next day, then me, Sok’s and DC hit the gym. I didn’t want to strain my muscles too much so I pushed lighter weights. I just wanted to get some strength back.

Then on the eve of the Game I took it easy. My muscles were hurting all over my body. I haven’t conditioned myself like that in a while. Plus I managed to eat healthy too, which was so much easier to do once you have motivation and a goal. Well you can also say that it was like handing in a school essay on the last minute, you know you should have done it earlier, but when the time is near you have no choice but to do it!

I must admit, that as the time got closer, I did feel more nervous. I had never played in a packed stadium before, let alone played against a level of this calibre. It can be intimidating. But I kept trying to psyche myself up and tell myself that “I can do this, I can compete against them!” That’s what you have to tell yourself; otherwise you will become the victim on the court instead of the attacker.

The Big Game
Game day was here now; I just chilled around the house, trying to keep my mind occupied from thinking about the game. I didn’t want to psyche myself out. But instead, that’s all I thought about! I treated my mind as if I was a warrior going into battle.

When I got to Vodafone arena, excitement ran through my veins. I was hyped! I had to go look for the players entrance, which was all the way around the back of the building. Walking down the hallway, I saw Tater already geared up, I said whats up as he directed me to the change rooms. In there I met some of the other boys on our Crewsaders team. There were uniforms all around the joint, with some funny-ass names on em like, mozzie, wombat, shipwrecked. I just looked around for one without a name, which turned out to be lucky number 13 in size XL. It was a huge singlet. After I geared up I went to check out the court. There wasn’t many people there yet, probably a couple hundred scattered around the stands. Some young boys ran over to me and asked for my autograph. I signed some shoes and t-shirts for them. They didn’t even know who I was, but they must have though I was some type of pro baller. Man, it was kinda funny, but at the same time, an honour. One kid came up to me with his handle mag, went to a page with the And1 team and asked me to sign it. “Are you in this picture?” he asked. I told him that I wasn’t. So he just picked up the mag and walked away. I laughed. I don’t even look like the Professor!


Above: Crewsaders warming up for the big game. // Andre signing some autographs earlier.

Me, Tater, Curt, Brad and Santos just played some light 2 on 3. My shot was feeling quite good. The boys were just fooling around having some fun. Sedale junior came out. Then out came the And1 boys, Silk, Baby Shaq, and the rest of the team. We all started shooting around together. Silk hollered at me. He is a cool dude, deep down I think he is a genuine person.

We returned to the locker room. Sedale Threat came in (he was the Crewsaders coach). He handed me my long-awaited ballin’ runners. I started lacing up while Sedale was talking to us about the game. While talking he turned to me a couple of times. So out of respect I stopped lacing up and waited until he was finished. I wanted to look focused on the game, not my runners, and ofcourse, I wanted some court time.

After all was said, we went back out onto the court. The crowd was beginning to get packed. We started to warm-up with the regular lay-up and rebound drill. I was feeling pumped. I tried to avoid psyching myself out, so I tried to hype myself up instead. I kept telling myself “I’m here to battle! I’m gonna tear it up!” I was hitting most of my shots and lay-ups in the warm-up. I could hear the crowd ‘Oohing and Aahing’. The And1 boys on the other end were doing some crazy stuff. I was tempted to turn around and check ‘em out, check out the crowd, but avoided doing so because I didn’t want to overwhelm myself or feel intimidated. So I just concentrated on our warm-up. We soon had to exit the court again.

We were all just out the back (under the crowd seating) waiting. There was quiet energy, and some nerves in all of us. I grabbed the ball off Tater and kept doing my dribbling drills to get a feel for the ball. Curt, Tater and Sedale junior were sitting down and it looked like they were getting their minds into the game. I sat down next to Curt, he looked at me, “Are you ready to play?” he asked. “Yeah man!” I replied, “Lets beat em!” I just kept trying to make myself feel and sound confident. Soon after, a lady came out to arrange the order we would be called out. I checked the list for my number (#13) and it read ‘Santos’, which was ‘White line’. I corrected her and told her to write down ‘MSF’.


Above: Andre and Tater (left) son of NBL legend D-Mac.// Warming up the bench for Melbourne, ready to run.

Ready to Ball
The time had finally come. The stadium was dark with a few spotlights swirling around. They started to call us out one by one, I was the last one “number 13… M, S, F!” I ran onto the court giving high fives to the crowd at the entrance then to my team mates. Then the boys from And1 came in. Springs was the first out, he high-fived us all. The crowd cheered the loudest when Professor came out. I just kept myself hyped, jumping on the spot and preparing for the game. After a nice blonde girl sang both the Australian and American anthems, it was on.

The game started while I took my seat on the bench. We started off strong and the scores were close. I waited anxiously to be put on. Coach Sedale finally called me and told to jump on for 6’9” Brad. I was guarding one of the big dudes (can’t remember who). Escalade asked me “how you feeling?” “Good” I told him. I got an open jumper and missed. Down the other end Professor got me with a slick and quick move, the crowd cheered. I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed and I was anxious to get the ball and take it back on him. Then I guarded Hot Sauce, I wasn’t scared to get embarrassed from any of ‘em, I just wanted to play. Sauce began dribbling in front of me; I kept a little more distance from him than usual. He didn’t manage to do much that time and he handed the ball off. I was subbed off just after a couple of minutes of court time. The first half ended as we made our way to the locker room.

Curt was pumping us up. “We have all played professional basketball, let’s play the text book stuff and take it to em…Lets not fall into their game!” I never played pro ball before. I think I was the only dude on the team that got picked up straight from the street. I was grateful.

In the second half I had the chance to jump on again. This time grabbed a rebound, and took it coast-to-coast with the left hand English and it just rolled in. Cool! I was wrapped to finally get 2 points. Silk, my man, had the chance to come at me. He tried to throw the ball off my head; it skimmed off and deflected to the side. I was playing good d. He got the ball back and after some dribbles, he took me to the hole. I was with him all the way, but he had the reach on me and layed it in. Later in the game I got open and hit a small jumper.


Above: Andre getting a taste of Professors tricks // Melbourne Crewsaders lining up before the game.

Final words
The game was soon over and we got beat. But I must say, no matter how much we lost by, we put up a good fight. We shook hands with all their players. “Good D boy...” Hot Sauce told me. Silk gave me some encouragement too and told me to keep working on it. I went over to Escalade and thanked him for this opportunity to play in the game. “No problems man, always!” he replied. He’s a good hearted person, I think most of those dudes are when it really comes down to it. I got nothing but love for all of ‘em.

This whole experience of the Tour has encouraged me to get back into ball, even work hard to get into some pro ball. But only time and dedication will tell. It was like a gift from God. The timing and people I connected with, was just perfect. Once again I am grateful for it all. And it just proves, if you play the game with love and passion, you never know what could happen. Remember also, preparation meets opportunity. So it’s always good to be on top of your game, because you never know what’s around the corner. I ended up “in the building”! I felt like I represented everyone I know, all the basketball players, friends and family. I represented MSF! And I would love to do it again one day.

Peace.

Your friend,
Andre G.

Holler at me when you see me.