GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — I've never written a news article in first-person before, but I feel like this story is a special exception.
Before we get into the details, let me first provide some background.
The Grand Rapids Gold are now in their second year as the G-League affiliate of the NBA's Denver Nuggets. This will also be their first season playing at a new venue — moving to Van Andel Arena downtown after the Deltaplex closed in the summer. Plus, 17-year NBA vet Andre Miller just joined the staff as the team's new head coach.
So a big season lies ahead with big expectations.
That's where this story begins.
As they've done every year since the NBA D-League became the G-League ahead of the 2017-18 season, the Grand Rapids Gold hosted open tryouts. They wanted to scout local talent to see if anyone had what it takes to make a professional basketball roster.
Naturally, the team reached out to me through Twitter to see if I would come out and participate. Even though I'd like to convince myself they were impressed by my basketball skills on a previous episode of FOX 17 Unfiltered, I'm pretty sure they just thought this would be a perfect opportunity for us both to collect some great content.
Either way, I was in.
I showed up with about as much confidence as someone could after not playing organized basketball since 6th grade. I did have a rec-league championship under my belt, but I'm pretty sure the competition at the NBA level is a bit different compared to the 10- and 11-year-olds I played against back in the day.
There were 100 people at the tryouts, some with previous professional experience in the G-League or overseas, and others with a resume about as limited as my own.
As you would imagine, the former outweighed the latter.
Still, all of us were competing for a training camp roster spot. Only three of us could get that call. Would one of them be me?
Guess you'll have to check the tapes to find out.
The Gold's season tips off Nov. 5th on the road against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in Indiana. Their home opener, and first game at Van Andel Arena, is Nov. 10th against the Motor City Cruise.