Arron Afflalo: A Day in the Life | ArronAfflalo4.com

My dad gave me a basketball when I was four years old, so I naturally had a love for the game of basketball, but there is something inside you that won't let you stop achieving your goal when your expectations always exceed external expectations. You know, I feel like I just can't stop working, we can't stop improving because I'll be a failure in my pit. I am a failure in someone else's eyes. I don't know how else to say it, I'm going to go to my high school in Compton. I worked with my coaches. I have a few weeks left before I go to our land and I am also trying to get him to be here on neither side.

Yes, I'm on my way right now. I'll be there in about ten minutes. Ten minutes. cool, okay, yeah, I'm late, you know, the initial reaction when you know you get traded, sometimes it's supposed to be a disappointment or you know something from a negative perspective, that's not my perspective on

life

. I thank all my Denver teammates for the opportunity. that the organization in Denver gave me, but every man needs an opportunity to continue to grow and you know it's just another opportunity for me, like going back to high school, that's where it all started for me, this is, uh Centennial High.

The school is right here through this door, so our class is the bungalow, they will go to the court for 90 minutes, we usually do it pretty hard, we work on various shots with steel ball handling, physically pushing my heart into the court, he's very good at getting to the basket using his body and being physical, but we wanted him to be able to use some of his ball handling and his speed and then continue to get reps on the things he's already good at because you can't continue to be a 40% shooter from 3 if you don't shoot every day.

I have known Aaron since Aaron was an 8th grader. He enrolled at Centennial High School as a freshman in 2000, when he was a junior, we lost Dave Pruett, he transferred and a lot of people didn't. I think we would have a really good team because we were so young and Aaron wasn't a proven player, but we knew how good he could be, but he never had to carry a team and we just said, "Okay, this is your chance." with that and he spent a lot of time in the gym that offseason really preparing. 6 am. I'd pick him up, we'd be on the track running or on the beach running or in the sand dunes running, I'd get out of there to do some strength work. there, individual training, we go out, we have team training and then he would go home and do aerial alert plyometric training and he came back his junior year and ended up taking us to the CIF championship and I'm already at the point where he became at a Senior, everyone knew who I was so that I had the full experience of being a starting star leader, you know, in a high school environment, it was great for me, one of my friends came up to me and said, man , your friends on the cover. from the sports magazine I said, let me see where it is, I grabbed it and it was Aaron on the front and it says straight from Kompany, it was like a three page spread of him and about, you know, college, he was going to UCLA and he just You know their expectations for him and just him being one of the top picks, it was amazing to see because ever since we were little, all we talked about was basketball and getting to the NBA and watching him evolve, you know, and grow like like. person and as a player it is amazing, you know that you are blessed to have a good friend in

life

, knowing someone since you were five years old and having them by your side through all the ups and downs, the good and the bad, is a true blessing. sure, oh the middle beer, welcome to Lake, well I met Aaron and guard Kinney, it was my birthday party, it was a ninja turtle party and he came up to me out of nowhere, he said like this, it's your party birthday and I said, yes, my birthday, he said they were your cupcakes right there, I'll say yes, he said, well, can I have a cupcake?

So I bought a backup cake and since then we got along well and our bond was basketball, I was already in school at home. on a six-foot Fisher Price running back, whatever it is, we found a way to play. I mean, you always hated losing. I used to beat him when we were the same height. I have to say that in full sentence, Mike never used to be me. If he managed to win on the sly, I guess I actually meant having lost once or twice, but he wouldn't want to play anymore and if you beat him he wouldn't let you go home literally every time, well then it started to grow. me and backing away and the next thing you know he couldn't beat him anymore.

I like to go to UCLA at least you know, sometimes during the summer to the writers to train just to socialize. Some of the students like to talk to Coach Holland. From time to time, familiarize yourself with the shape of my territory. I just remember it seems like so long ago that I was there every day and I just remember how I felt every day, I can't wait to get out of school tired from homework. You know, watching the college campus gets old because you're there every day, you're looking for two things in the future, you know, and that's until the future gets here and it's up to you to get old and then you realize that that man , the ones you know. that was a good moment that you should have taken advantage of you know more than you know where you are okay can I go up there for two seconds? okay I'm just downstairs yeah I'm just talking about seeing Kenny and Russell here hey guys Meg ladies my mac oh well yeah I could go to Orlando and Miami over the weekend everyone has their own unique personality and Erin always seemed older and more mature than many people I had encountered her age.

People saw Erin's actions, they saw how serious she took basketball, they saw how serious she was about going to class and doing her work, and that rubbed off on the rest of the team as well. Erin was my first recruit as a head coach here at UCLA and she was such a big deal. In fact, she had been at work for six days and you made him the main target on your way out the door. It was actually him saying, "Hey, I'm coming on board and I'll be the first." to help get this program back to where we hope John Wooden and the pyramid of success that people are proud to be associated with, that you know in so many areas, you know we're talking about the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s. and, in a way, bring that to light.

Not necessarily being the person who started it or was at the forefront of something so special, but being one of the catalysts for that was Aaron Lettuce, you know, the latest ban and he did a phenomenal job during his tenure here at UCLA, he left As Adam Morrison, a first-team All-American as a junior and the PAC-10 Most Valuable Player, said losing is a tough game. I mean, they really should have won, but they lost and he found the floor. I was distraught and In fact, I went in to help him pick up people who didn't know me personally but knew my mother and once called me and just because of the integrity of character he showed in doing so, my initial reaction to people meeting in difficult situations.

The point is to help you know that that killer mentality goes away and then the clock says zero, you know there's no doubt about it, but once it's done, you know you want to see people in the best position, most people when They finish exercising. On the court, you know they feel like they're working for the day, but for me it's about getting to the next level. I learned a lot from him, as far as his work ethic, it always stays after working on his game and whatever. he wasn't good at what you would work on, you know, most players usually come in with jumping ability or are very good shooters, everything he has, he really worked hard and I have a lot of respect for that, this opportunity represents so much. .

From a Lando community standpoint, from an organizational standpoint, it's very new in a lot of areas, they have new management, they have a new arena, you have a new influx of players and a new coaching staff, so I feel like the opportunity is great for so many. There are many different angles where there is no better time than now to put your stamp on it. You know, the beginning of something good. What's that? They are all who come. Yeah, the first time we needed a little bit of people like the 1800 side on my side. father dad was young and clean his brothers will be black my great grandfather my dad's dad dad even had this photo at home and his father was a Jewish rabbi that's where the name Apollo started that's why it's popular in Israel I want to be able to you so you know that you can go there because of the evil that is in the heritage type nine some apparent zip from Jamaica a group of Cubans you do you know poor you know basically a first generation immigrant that I would go with when they put me on the line and he saw relatives stop by their houses throughout the game, he stayed with adults and you know he liked to compete, he says he consumes it because the competition is better, I think he just enjoys it They didn't think he was going to do it, man, look, look the white one, hey, Joe Kane, oh yeah, say, come on, Joe, send it that way, oh, you need to rewind that for the glitch real quick.

I know initially I'm going to be. I was judged at first glance on the court and with that in mind, my game plan is to just go out and compete. For one of the Orlando fans who doesn't know me, the first thing you'll notice is that I'm going to get on the court and play loud here on the impeccable first to prosper there are sweet three one of the piston pins is enough here on the guitar of paddles - the song rocks from behind and then shoots again great effort from Arron Afflalo oh that's he got to be at sports dinners the best plays he had to see in two star kids attacking Schatzi a farmer what brings to Orlando his intangibles of how to win may not happen overnight, but I think if you want to build a winning organization, first you have to have people with character, the formulas when I have coaches from Detroit that come here, coaches from Denver, they always say we want being able to keep a guy like Aaron on the team, he always wants to carry the next name, whether it's in the crowd, no matter where he is, he's a great teammate, it's about earning his work ethic, his desire to be big, it's dry inside, it's as good as any we've had since I was a coach at UCLA, fortunately I've had other people in the media do the walk and all that sometimes they're not up to par sometimes they are, but it's just a struggle so if you go the right way you really can't fail.

I'm blessed. I'm happy that you know he's accomplishing what he's accomplishing, but the way he's doing it means so much more to me. I've seen 8th graders leave my team for other high-profile 8th grade teams. I've seen a high school star leave my team. In school I have seen high profile college players on my team leave for the draft and in my opinion, those were the same type of opportunities because it opened a door for me to take a step forward and I think each of those examples has given me lights of what you could potentially do in this type of situation and the gym for magic the trainers for magic and management of magic I think they all see the same thing