Everyone Has A Story To Share

It was Friday, January 7th of 2022: the night before we faced off against Gonzaga University in Spokane County, Washington. As head manager, I was in charge of various tasks that had to do with the operation of our program's practice and game days. One of my main responsibilities on road trips was washing our dirty practice loops. We were staying at a hotel called The Historic Davenport. With no self-service laundry, I was prompted to catch an Uber to the nearest laundromat in the area.

Before I share this story, I want to start with some background as it relates to my own story within the game. Basketball has been a significant portion of my life since I first started hooping at the age of seven. I have always loved the game, but my true passion for basketball started when I was in high school at The Master's Academy in Oviedo, FL. I was blessed to be a part of a team that was about one another each and every single day. Our team made a playoff run to the State Championship game in the Florida High School Athletic Association's 4A class. We had many seniors, including myself, and had met multiple times about leaving a legacy before we graduated. We lost (it still hurts to this day), but it was TMA basketball's first State Championship appearance in the history of the program. Seeing the community come around us and support our accomplishments meant the world to us. Those few weeks leading up to State's, we were envisioning what our run was going to look like... and we made it happen together! It was like a dream.

I am passionate about the game of basketball for an abundance of reasons; one significant reason is that it connects me and millions of people around the world no matter who we are or where we come from.

I have been blessed to play and work the game alongside people with variously different backgrounds. And the game has taken me to places that I never imagined I would be able to visit: from traveling to Greece, supporting Jose Placer and the U19 Puerto Rican National Team, to competing in Costa Rica against their National Team with Pepperdine Men's Basketball. Inspiring experience is something that God has given me through this sport left and right.

However, the experiences I have had aren't always basketball-related. Some are basketball-created, but totally independent from the sport. What do I mean by this? Basketball is a platform! It is a platform that can move and touch lives across the world; many different types of experience are cultivated from the platform of basketball. At the end of the day, the statement remains true: ball really is life.

This is where I want to begin my story: what I experienced at a run-down laundromat on a cold, snowy night in Spokane, Washington.

If you know anything about doing laundry at a laundromat, you know it takes time. From driving to the spot, washing, drying, and collecting, it can take a couple of hours depending on how much you have to do. The majority of the time you are there is spent sitting and waiting.

With that in mind, I wanted to go in with something to do. With the spring semester of my senior year right around the corner, I didn't have much homework to work on. So, my roommate for the trip and former Graduate Assistant for the program, Michael W. , kindly let me borrow his laptop to practice with video work he executed on a daily basis: a film analysis software for the team that I hoped to work with in the future.

I packed up my bag, collected the loops, and called the Uber from the hotel to Garland Avenue Laundry. I was tired, and the team was tired of losing games. At this point in the year, the team was 6-9 and struggling to get on the same page. A lot was going on. God had put it on my heart and mind to stay present and choose joy. So that is what I did.

Usually, when I catch an Uber ride, I say what's up to the driver then listen to music through my AirPods. This time was different. The second I stepped into the Uber, I felt emotions that were calling me to share my story and have a real conversation with the man that was driving me. His name is Sami. He told me a little bit about himself: moving from the Middle East to Spokane, where he had been residing for three years.

I asked him if he believed in God. I had the opportunity to share my faith in Jesus and our conversation lasted nearly 20 minutes after we had pulled up to the laundromat; we were both blessed by the interaction we had.

Walking into the laundromat put me back into work mode. I threw the stuff in the wash and got to work on analyzing our game film. To describe the environment in and around that laundromat, I would say it was lifeless. There were a few homeless people sleeping outside and no one inside the laundromat was speaking. It was quiet and it was cold. No one was interacting with each other.

There was an older white man sitting a few seats away from me. He was holding a magazine in his hand but he wasn't really reading it. He would pick it up for one second, then put it back down. His hands were shaking; in my eyes, he seemed anxious. I decided to start a conversation with him as well. I was curious about his story so I asked him how his night was going. He opened up to me and told me how he had been in the military for 4 years before moving to Spokane with his wife. After a few short stories here and there he told me about his daughter, who had just started to attend a small Christian university: Whitworth in Spokane. This is where things get interesting.

As I was asking more questions about Whitworth, a homeless man walked in from outside and randomly approached us to talk. He was slurring his words so it was hard to understand what he was saying at first. But, he caught our attention so we continued to sit there and actively listen to him. His name is Canto. My friend and I hadn't even gotten the chance to ask him a question before he began to go on and on about his family! All of his communication with us was unprompted.

He told us about his two sons, who were young, scrappy, and loved basketball as he described, but he focused more so on his daughter who played softball. He was telling us about her amazing talent, breaking records, and hitting home runs, but paused in disappointment after sharing that she wanted to give up on the game. We asked him, "Why would she want to give up on a game she is so talented at?"

After hearing his answer, it all became clear to us. He said, "She wants to stop playing so she can attend a small Christian university." From the moment I heard him say that, I knew why I was there that night. The friend I had met when I first walked in had left. Canto and I talked for the rest of my time there. I started to share my faith in Jesus and he was completely engaged, expressing his desire to hear more about what I was talking about. I told him how I think that religion is division, but relationship is true and everlasting life.

Near the end of our conversation, he told me "I know my God. I sleep in my car and every day I wake up, I thank God for the blessing of life... I say Jesus take the wheel."

It's hard to describe what I was feeling that night; it was an unordinary mix of feelings of confusion on the basketball court and clarity in my walk of life. When I arrived back at the hotel around 11:30 pm, I couldn't sleep. As I was reflecting on the night I had just experienced, I received a notification on my phone from the Bible app at midnight. It was the verse of the day, which read Matthew 18:20: "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

There are 3 things I gained from this experience that I will take with me for the rest of my life.

1. Everyone has a need to be seen and heard.
2. In order to bless other people, you must first notice and welcome them.
3. No matter what your circumstances look and feel like, you can always find peace.

God is alive! And He is for us, not against us.