READY FOR AN OPPORTUNITY?
YOU SHOULD ALWAYS BE PREPARED!
In my 3rd year of college basketball, I played for St.Xavier University in Chicago. At the end of the year, I had a talk with coach Tom Omalley and it didn’t go well.
That meeting was a tough one and it was my first time that I actually had to say NO to a business opportunity. But we did part ways respectfully.
I come back to Croatia that summer of 2009. without knowing where will I be playing or IF I will be playing for my senior year of college basketball and IF I will be able to finish my education.
Since I know how college coaches looking for players, with help from a friend I did my mixtape and stared to send it to various coaches.
Its good to be surrounded by people (friends) who have skills you don’t.
The mixtape was good and I got calls from several colleges offering me some kind of scholarship. The best offer for me was from Indiana Tech University.
That summer I did practice like crazy, however. I find this great program called Air Alert and i was jumping all over places, running, swimming, and doing a lot of things before I even signed anything. I was preparing as i was to go to the NBA.
Even if you are not professional, there is no excuse you shouldn’t conduct business as one
I talked to the coach Parrish, Indiana Tech head coach at the time, a few times and he sends me all the papers. I sign them but I didn’t read them fully and I didn’t understand them. I guess i was too excited about it all. Big mistake.
So I got my visa and I went to the USA and to TECH to finish my last year of basketball and to get my diploma.
I was told i need to arrive 3 weeks before the school started so that we can have team preparation, the conditioning, and all that “fun” stuff.
I went there and on the 1st practice I walked into the gym and there were like 70 other basketball players??
I look around and i have seen some crazy competition around me. Didn’t expect that at all.
The head coach arrived with 4 other assistant coaches and said:
“All of you have skills that we are looking for and all of you have signed a Letter of intent to Indiana Tech. We have three weeks to determine who will make the cut.#
My heart skipped when I heard that.
What is the purpose of a letter of intent?
A letter of intent is a document declaring the preliminary commitment of one party to do business with another. The letter outlines the chief terms of a prospective deal and is commonly used in business transactions and it’s not binding.
With that being said, I didn’t sign the contract with the team I signed that fucking letter of intent.
That brings us to that paragraph I previously mentioned where I said that I should have read the document fully because now I can be sent home the same day.
Coaches divided us into 3 groups: The floor, the trach, and the weight room. I was on the track team.
We started to run, and I realized this will be the long day and I know I had to “organize” my stamina and my strangest to pass this first day.
My group started to run and after 4 laps some of the people starting to get left behind and some have just stopped. The assistant coaches just come to them and told them “So, what have you been doing this summer? Joking around?! Thank you for your time, you are released!
And just like that, they were gone. In first 30 minutes, 10 people were sent home.
Long story short I MADE THE CUT!
On that last day where there were only 15 of us left and the coach called my name 4th, I was so happy and proud of myself that I made it.
That team ended winning the state championship for the first time in school history and we end up on national championship where only 16 best teams in the USA competed.
That was the highlight of my basketball carrier for sure.
The moral of the story is.
It is better to not have the opportunity and be ready for itthen to have the opportunity and not be ready.
I train the whole summer without knowing what will future bring and that I will have to prove myself between 70 more athletes. The opportunity was presented and I was ready!
Work on yourself and on your business even when nobody is looking.
Darko Bilandžić
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