The Sounds of Heaven
Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
Friday, April 22, 2016
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Friday, July 3, 2015
A Hidden Heart
My passion early in life was basketball. I've had several growth spurts in my life. As of now I stand around 6'3.5". From my freshman to sophomore year, at the age of 15, I grew from 5'1" to 5'8". By the time I was a sophomore, every dunk that Michael Jordan had done playing for the Chicago Bulls standing at 6'6" I could do at 15 at 5'8". I was an All-American Basketball player 3 years in a row, breaking several US records. Averaging over 50 points a game with a field goal percentage of 78% and a 3 point percentage of 68%.
In my 4 year basketball career from freshman to senior I only missed one free throw. My greatest dunk to many, though not to me, was 4 steps beyond the free throw line; which I had done in a game from the left corner of the free throw line. I broke the national long jump record jumping over 29'. I also averaged a triple double two seasons in a row. And we were the first basketball team my junior year to average over 100points per game. (No, I was not considered a ball hog, and as many other players were successful, but more so our three year undefeated record) It seems as if my destiny were to be playing professional basketball. Though my father was a horrible father and very negative, aggressive, and quite violent man.
I lived under a dictatorship. I eventually played college football for University of Michigan. Though I had a chance to go to just about every college/university in the US that there was for basketball, my father was dead set against this. For many reasons, that I will not get into, but also for the stereotypical fact that he was one of the first players to ever be drafted out of high school into professional football, but because of a horrible motorcycle accident for my father, it did not pan out and he gave up on his dreams, seemingly not wanting me to fulfill mine.
At the age of 18, after I had graduated, Dennis Rodman had held a basketball camp. It was a 7 day camp. In the brochure, he was supposed to show up for 4 out of the 7 days, but did not show up til the last. I had no idea about this camp. My good friend at the time had asked if I wanted to go watch. As we were not part of the camp, but audience members were allowed. So we went on a Sunday to go see Dennis at the camp.
As we were sitting in the rafters, Dennis tried to make up for his missed days by giving away over $25,000 worth of items including shoes and Pistons tickets. Standing at 6'8", many people were asking Dennis to dunk. On a side note: Dennis graduated high school at 5'11". He had never played basketball, at least organized basketball. Around the age of 20-21 he had grown from 5'11" to 6'8" changing his life forever. Back to the story. Dennis said, I never dunk the ball or even attempt it until I have stretched.
Every day of my life I would stretch a minimum of two hours. I started doing this because of martial arts. I believe this is one of the main reasons why I was able to jump so high and so far. But I had incredible timing, agility and coordination as well, along with a great presence of mind. I have always been outspoken and convicted. Dennis asked if anybody wanted to shoot or compete in a free throw contest, asking the audience members. Though I had a Dennis Rodman basketball camp t-shirt on that I had bought, my hat, my shoes, and my warm up pants were all Michael Jordan gear. As everybody raised their hand, I yelled out, "Hey Dennis! I bet I can whoop you in a game of one on one."
Everybody laughed. He called me out of the audience. I went down, shook his hand, he had a foot on me. Obviously, I mean in height. We talked while we were sitting and stretching for about 20 minutes. So here's how it went.
We warmed up with a game of HORSE. I won. Obviously, being a pro, and generous, he allowed me to go first. Every shot but one was a Michael Jordan dunk. He made none. My last shot to close out the game of HORSE was a jump shot from half court. SWISH Nothing but net. This fired Dennis up. Now ready for a game of one on one.
The first game to the score of 11, win by 2 was me 11, Dennis 1. The second game he picked it up. Me 11, Dennis 4. Everyone, including Dennis, demanding a third. This was 11-zip. My last three points, as I have now been completely warmed up were dunks overtop of Dennis. At this point in my life my vertical leap was 51". Allowing me to touch around 11'9" on the backboard. This is off two legs. If jumping off one leg, I could touch the top of the backboard: 12'. This ended the basketball camp. As everyone was rushing to get autographs, where there were thousands of people there, I had walked my way through the crowd up to Dennis. He had signed my teal green Michael Jordan baseball style cap with the JumpMan symbol. Of course, I wore it backwards. His manager, at the time, came out of the office that Dennis was standing right next to the door of. His manager said, "You have an important phone call."
Dennis said, "Is it really an important call or can it wait?"
Dennis kindly excused himself, walked into the room and closed the door. A couple minutes later, he walked out and said, "Josh can you come in here for a few moments?" Actually the exact words were, "Josh my brotha, you got a few minutes?"
So I walked into the office, closed the door. I was on speaker phone with the Pistons coach Chuck Daily, and the GM. Dennis, because of my performance, had gotten me a try out with the Pistons. I was elated. As I thought for certain that this would make my father very happy and I would have my chance to play pro ball.
When I got home, I immediately told my father. I had a bunch of papers with me that were faxed over that were given to me by Dennis and his manager, dates, contracts, etc. I asked my father if I could take the summer off to train. Yes, I was in great condition. But again, I was 5'8" 165lbs. I knew I had to at least put on some muscle mass and train in a different way than I had done before. My father said, "If you don't work for me this summer, you'll have to find a place to live."
I trained as much as I could anyway, even though Dennis had been traded to another team that fall, I still had my tryout. I will not go into detail about what my father did to keep me from that tryout, but needless to say it never happened. Growing up I had played in AAU leagues and had made friends with several pro basketball players, such as Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Grant Hill, as we had played in a lot of 3 on 3 tournaments together. When people had found out that I had this opportunity, I knew I would have made the team., but because of my understanding of human nature, and the fact that I was going to play football, I would always say, "I just wanna see if I can compete with these guys."
The fact is is that every basketball game in every league I have ever played I had dominated. Now, going beyond myself, Dennis Rodman has done some nutty things in his life. Unfortunately, many of these things are because of drug and alcohol abuse. But in a time where people don't want to give other people a shot, because they don't want someone else to top them or steal their thunder, 22 years ago, this was different. Dennis Rodman went out of his way and extended a hand, giving me an opportunity. If it wasn't for my joke of a father, this may have been a story about the professional basketball player Joshua Jet Vaughan and how he got his break. I'm not going to speak about plan or purpose, because of my health, none of that has played out as well. So at this time I can not subscribe to that. So today my point is about men helping each other. And 22 years ago, that man was and is Dennis Rodman.
~Joshua Jet Vaughan~
In my 4 year basketball career from freshman to senior I only missed one free throw. My greatest dunk to many, though not to me, was 4 steps beyond the free throw line; which I had done in a game from the left corner of the free throw line. I broke the national long jump record jumping over 29'. I also averaged a triple double two seasons in a row. And we were the first basketball team my junior year to average over 100points per game. (No, I was not considered a ball hog, and as many other players were successful, but more so our three year undefeated record) It seems as if my destiny were to be playing professional basketball. Though my father was a horrible father and very negative, aggressive, and quite violent man.
I lived under a dictatorship. I eventually played college football for University of Michigan. Though I had a chance to go to just about every college/university in the US that there was for basketball, my father was dead set against this. For many reasons, that I will not get into, but also for the stereotypical fact that he was one of the first players to ever be drafted out of high school into professional football, but because of a horrible motorcycle accident for my father, it did not pan out and he gave up on his dreams, seemingly not wanting me to fulfill mine.
At the age of 18, after I had graduated, Dennis Rodman had held a basketball camp. It was a 7 day camp. In the brochure, he was supposed to show up for 4 out of the 7 days, but did not show up til the last. I had no idea about this camp. My good friend at the time had asked if I wanted to go watch. As we were not part of the camp, but audience members were allowed. So we went on a Sunday to go see Dennis at the camp.
As we were sitting in the rafters, Dennis tried to make up for his missed days by giving away over $25,000 worth of items including shoes and Pistons tickets. Standing at 6'8", many people were asking Dennis to dunk. On a side note: Dennis graduated high school at 5'11". He had never played basketball, at least organized basketball. Around the age of 20-21 he had grown from 5'11" to 6'8" changing his life forever. Back to the story. Dennis said, I never dunk the ball or even attempt it until I have stretched.
Every day of my life I would stretch a minimum of two hours. I started doing this because of martial arts. I believe this is one of the main reasons why I was able to jump so high and so far. But I had incredible timing, agility and coordination as well, along with a great presence of mind. I have always been outspoken and convicted. Dennis asked if anybody wanted to shoot or compete in a free throw contest, asking the audience members. Though I had a Dennis Rodman basketball camp t-shirt on that I had bought, my hat, my shoes, and my warm up pants were all Michael Jordan gear. As everybody raised their hand, I yelled out, "Hey Dennis! I bet I can whoop you in a game of one on one."
Everybody laughed. He called me out of the audience. I went down, shook his hand, he had a foot on me. Obviously, I mean in height. We talked while we were sitting and stretching for about 20 minutes. So here's how it went.
We warmed up with a game of HORSE. I won. Obviously, being a pro, and generous, he allowed me to go first. Every shot but one was a Michael Jordan dunk. He made none. My last shot to close out the game of HORSE was a jump shot from half court. SWISH Nothing but net. This fired Dennis up. Now ready for a game of one on one.
The first game to the score of 11, win by 2 was me 11, Dennis 1. The second game he picked it up. Me 11, Dennis 4. Everyone, including Dennis, demanding a third. This was 11-zip. My last three points, as I have now been completely warmed up were dunks overtop of Dennis. At this point in my life my vertical leap was 51". Allowing me to touch around 11'9" on the backboard. This is off two legs. If jumping off one leg, I could touch the top of the backboard: 12'. This ended the basketball camp. As everyone was rushing to get autographs, where there were thousands of people there, I had walked my way through the crowd up to Dennis. He had signed my teal green Michael Jordan baseball style cap with the JumpMan symbol. Of course, I wore it backwards. His manager, at the time, came out of the office that Dennis was standing right next to the door of. His manager said, "You have an important phone call."
Dennis said, "Is it really an important call or can it wait?"
Dennis kindly excused himself, walked into the room and closed the door. A couple minutes later, he walked out and said, "Josh can you come in here for a few moments?" Actually the exact words were, "Josh my brotha, you got a few minutes?"
So I walked into the office, closed the door. I was on speaker phone with the Pistons coach Chuck Daily, and the GM. Dennis, because of my performance, had gotten me a try out with the Pistons. I was elated. As I thought for certain that this would make my father very happy and I would have my chance to play pro ball.
When I got home, I immediately told my father. I had a bunch of papers with me that were faxed over that were given to me by Dennis and his manager, dates, contracts, etc. I asked my father if I could take the summer off to train. Yes, I was in great condition. But again, I was 5'8" 165lbs. I knew I had to at least put on some muscle mass and train in a different way than I had done before. My father said, "If you don't work for me this summer, you'll have to find a place to live."
I trained as much as I could anyway, even though Dennis had been traded to another team that fall, I still had my tryout. I will not go into detail about what my father did to keep me from that tryout, but needless to say it never happened. Growing up I had played in AAU leagues and had made friends with several pro basketball players, such as Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Grant Hill, as we had played in a lot of 3 on 3 tournaments together. When people had found out that I had this opportunity, I knew I would have made the team., but because of my understanding of human nature, and the fact that I was going to play football, I would always say, "I just wanna see if I can compete with these guys."
The fact is is that every basketball game in every league I have ever played I had dominated. Now, going beyond myself, Dennis Rodman has done some nutty things in his life. Unfortunately, many of these things are because of drug and alcohol abuse. But in a time where people don't want to give other people a shot, because they don't want someone else to top them or steal their thunder, 22 years ago, this was different. Dennis Rodman went out of his way and extended a hand, giving me an opportunity. If it wasn't for my joke of a father, this may have been a story about the professional basketball player Joshua Jet Vaughan and how he got his break. I'm not going to speak about plan or purpose, because of my health, none of that has played out as well. So at this time I can not subscribe to that. So today my point is about men helping each other. And 22 years ago, that man was and is Dennis Rodman.
~Joshua Jet Vaughan~
Monday, March 9, 2015
Russell Edwards
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