Eyes Wide Open

The Dallas Mavericks-Golden State Warriors playoff series has restored my hope in NBA basketball. The only teams I usually follow are the Minnesota Timberwolves (I grew up in MN) and the Seattle Supersonics. I follow Seattle because they have on their roster one Mike Wilks. Mike graduated from Rice University and grew up in Milwaukee with my good friend Vondale. Vondale and I would head over to TU and watch Mike and the Rice Owls play whenever they were in town. The long and short of the story is that Mike spent a short time in the NBA developmental league before being called up by the Atlanta Hawks. He was then picked up by the Timberwolves, spent a year in Houston, and then went on to San Antonio, where he was a part of the Spurs 04-05 Championship team before finally landing in Seattle.

Mike loves Jesus with all of his heart. If you read anything about what his coaches have to say about him, you will find words such as character, hard-working, professional, solid, disciplined, and the list goes on… You’ve probably never heard his name before today, he generally backs up the point guard and sometimes sees very limited playing time. And yet, year after year, he continues to live out his dream, defying the naysayers who thought he was too short for the NBA. He models what it means to follow Christ in the market-place and seek excellence in all he does. He and is wife Kim have a wonderful future ahead of them and I pray our paths will cross once more.

Tonight Andrew and I watched the NBA playoffs together. What a good night it was.

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