Hey
look at me when I’m talking to you! How
can you let your man get around you like that! Force
him to the baseline! Get
a hand in his face when he attempts to shoot! Box
out and get some rebounds or you’ll find yourself sitting next to me!” ------------------------------------------------------ Has
anyone here ever felt like they can’t succeed no matter how hard they try? To
give you some background on myself: I
grew up in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. I
have a wonderful family that includes two loving parents and two older sisters. From
the start, basketball was always my game. I
started playing when I was about five years old. I
truly loved the sport from the start. Of
course, it didn’t hurt that I was about two to three inches bigger than
everyone my age. In the sixth
grade, I was about six foot-two. In
the seventh grade, I grew to about six foot-four.
In the eighth grade, I grew to around six foot-six.
I finally stopped growing in the summer before my sophomore year in high
school. Due
to my height I instantly knew where my talents lied.
My first recruiting letter came to me in the seventh grade from Akron
University, who was then being coached by Coach Huggins.
He is currently coaching Cincinnati.
I
knew basketball was my ticket to college. I
grew up in a family of strong morals and a strong emphasis on academics.
I wasn’t worried about the academic part, because I got mostly A’s
through both middle and high school. After my freshman year in high school, the recruiting started to really pick up. I was receiving anywhere between 10 to 20 letters a day from different schools across the U.S. I would get phone calls at night from coaches like Steve Fisher of Michigan, Tom Davis of Iowa, Coach K of Duke, and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse. It was that same year that a former Cuyahoga Falls JV high school coach by the name of Robert Montgomery Knight came to see one of our home games.
Two
years later the time had finally come…. it was time to pack the car and head
to Indiana. One
thing I quickly learned when I started to drive down I-71 was that my parents,
sisters, and my friends were not sitting in the back seat.
No matter how many awards and accolades I received in the last eighteen
years, no body cared now! I am
going to face a huge transition without the ability to run home to mom and dad
for a hug. When
I got to school I found new friends and started to work on the game that got me
there. As the season grew near I
felt myself getting use to the evolution of the game.
The strength and quickness of the game in college is so much greater than
that of high school. It was then
when Coach Knight called me into his office to talk about red shirting me for
the upcoming year. I knew this was
going to be a part of my college career. I
came to Indiana at 6’10” and around 220 pounds.
I definitely needed a year to build my strength and foot speed. Even
though I knew I needed the year to prepare, I didn’t know how hard it would be
to sit and watch the game from the sidelines.
I have always been a major part of whatever team I played on.
It
was that year that I really lost focus on what I went to school to do.
I start to get off track with drinking a lot of alcohol.
I never got into drugs, but for a guy who never drank alcohol before
college, it was more than enough for me to handle.
The
next three years, I really got lost in the shuffle.
I worked hard, but I probably could have done more.
I could have spent more time in the gym, working on the areas of my game
that were weak. My playing
time steadily declined from my freshman-playing year to my junior year of
college. I worked hard in practice
and truly thought I deserved to play some more minutes.
It
was the spring before my senior year that I had three amazing things happen to
me. One afternoon, a man by the
name of John Saucier called me on the phone.
John was a man that was involved with my high school “Fellowship of
Christian Athletes”. He
also created his own sports ministry called “Team Jam”.
The strange part of all of this is I hadn’t talked to John for about
three years. Yet, he called me that
afternoon to see how I was doing and to see if I might be interested in playing
for a group called Athletes In Action. The
third thing that happened to me that week was a blind date.
My roommate’s girlfriend decided to try to set me up with a co-worker
of hers. That Friday I met a
beautiful young blonde girl by the name of Tiffany.
She was a senior at IU and was aspiring to be a news reporter.
Little did I know, but she was a strong Christian woman who had come from
a strong Christian family. After a
few dates she revealed that she was a Christian.
This promoted me to start asking her several questions about the Bible
and what religion meant to her. Tiffany
called me one day and asked if she could stop by for a minute.
During that visit she gave me a gift that would forever change my life.
The gift she gave me was a green student NIV Bible with my name inscribed
on the cover. She told me that I
could now read to try to answer some of the questions that I was asking her
about. What
is the relevance of those three separate stories you might say?
They
were the start of my new life in Christ! I
accepted the invite to play with AIA in the summer of 97, but first I had to do
an internship with the Cleveland Indians to finish my degree.
This meant that for the first time in four years, I was going to be home
for the summer. During my time at
home that summer, I started to meet with John Saucier.
We would meet about once every two weeks to discuss the Bible and where I
was in my relationship with Christ.
Growing
up in a moral family and having had attended church when I was little, I just
assumed that I was a Christian. I
knew nothing about accepting Christ into my life.
During these bi-weekly meetings, John asked me one simple question that
I’ll never forget. He said,
“Rob, if you were to die today, would you go to heaven or hell?”
I looked at him with a blank stare!
I thought to myself…. Why is this guy asking me if I’m going to
heaven or hell! “I’m a good
kid. I grew up on good morals and
haven’t done anything worth going to hell over.
Sure, I have drank a few beers here and there, but who hasn’t.”
Surprisingly enough, I didn’t have a definite answer to his reasonably
easy question! John
asked me another question. “Rob,
do you feel that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior and die on the cross for
our sins!” My answer was a quick
yes. I might not have known that
one had to accept Christ to be saved, but I did read the Bible on occasion
growing up. I could have told you
all about people like Noah, David, and Jesus.
A
couple of weeks went by before John and I met again.
When we met he asked me if I had accepted Christ.
My response was no! Two more
weeks went by and John asked me again if I had accepted Christ.
My response again was no! “John…I
said…how do you go about accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior?”
I truly didn’t know how to make this life long change.
John’s next response was, “if you truly believe Christ to be your
Lord and Savior, then all you have to do is pray to God and ask for the
forgiveness of your sins. Asked to
be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
That
morning before John and I left breakfast, I asked John if we could talk about
something. I said John…it is
really weird to see what has happened to me over the last few months.
I mean, “I have had three amazing coincidences happen to me.
I went on to explain, how he had called me, AIA showed interest in having
me play basketball with them, and I met this wonderful Christian woman, all in a
matter of two weeks. John went on
to explain to me that what I was experiencing wasn’t a coincidence, but it was
GOD trying to tell me that it was time to surrender my life to him.
That
very night, I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior!!
I went home and got on my knees and begged GOD to forgive me for all of
the wrong and evil things I had done in my life.
I asked GOD to come into my life and take control of everything.
I wanted His help in all aspects of my life.
By far that is the greatest night of my LIFE! I
wish I could stand before you today and tell you that I saw angels and there
were lights flashing when I accepted Christ, but there wasn’t any of that.
But one thing I did feel is a huge burden lifted off of my chest.
I no longer had to run around seeking acceptance for my peers, coaches,
parents, and teachers. I had found
the best friend of all…Jesus Christ. He
loves me for who I am and He loves me right where I’m at. After
returning from the AIA mission trip to Croatia and Bosnia, I had to head back to
Indiana for my senior year. Once
again, I wish I could tell you how awesome everything was when I got back.
I wish I could tell you that I all of a sudden started every game and
averaged twenty points and ten rebounds. Unfortunately,
none of that happened during the return to my senior season.
My
senior year was a true challenge. I
had to return to school and face all of my friends, teammates, and coaches, with
my newfound faith in GOD. I found
it one of the most difficult, yet awesome experiences of my life.
I wanted to stand firm on what I believed in…
This meant that I was going to possibly alienate some so-called friends.
My senior year seemed to fly by. Before
I knew it graduation had come and gone. I
had several decisions lying in front of me.
What should I do with my life?
The opportunities to play basketball seemed meek at best.
My so-called agent got me a gig in Iceland.
Iceland, I thought, what in the world would I want to go to Iceland
for…it is freezing there. Well,
to make a long story short, my playing opportunities came to a screeching halt.
My
next option was to go work for the New York Yankees.
Coach Knight is a good friend with George Steinbrenner, so he was going
to give me an opportunity to work with the Yankees.
From July to October, I tried to reach
In
hindsight, it was awesome to see how God continually delayed my departure for
New York to give me time to play with AIA.
Another added bonus, was the fact that AIA had five Big Ten teams on
their exhibition schedule, and one of those five teams just happened to be
Indiana. When
the “Fall Tour” began, I wasn’t playing the best basketball.
I had knee surgery in April and was doing my best to get back into shape.
It took be several games and practices to get into the rhythm of the
game. Everything seemed to start to
come together when we played Illinois State University.
I had a good game, scoring several points and pulling down several
rebounds. Everything started to
“Click”. GOD’s timing was
perfect, because the next night we had to travel to Bloomington, Indiana to play
the Hoosiers. I was truly excited, yet extremely nervous to go back to Indiana. Having the chance to once again step on the floor that I had spent so many hours on was really cool. I never thought I would step foot on the Assembly Hall floor again. When it came time to announce the starting line-ups it started to get a little tense. When they announced my name the loyal Hoosier loyal fans gave me a really nice round of applause. “I was back, one last time!” In
my prayers before the game, I asked God to use me in that ever way he saw fit
that night. All I have to say is
“did he ever”. I by far had my
greatest game in Assembly Hall. I
scored 20 points, while shooting 5 for 5 from the 3-point line.
My entire senior year, I only scored 17 points.
The game itself was amazing! We
played IU extremely hard, pushing the game into overtime.
AIA lost the game in the closing 10 seconds on what was a very
controversial call. When
the game was over and we finished shaking one-another’s hands, I truly felt
relieved. I had done it.
I had played the game of basketball the way I knew and God knew I could
play. My favorite memory of that
night isn’t that I scored 20 points. My
favorite memory was standing strong and giving God all of the glory for what I
accomplished that night. I did
interviews and talked with reporters, praising God for giving me one last chance
to bring closure to the game of basketball.
I also had the opportunity to share my testimony with about eighty people
after the game…including my father and my college friends that saw me go
through the changes my senior year. The
true testimony was that Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, had been there for me.
Playing along side of me, helping me to perform as well as I did. Max
Lucado wrote a book called, “Just Like Jesus”.
He writes that, God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to
leave you that way. He wants you to
be just like him! That to me is so
powerful! God loves us.
He loved me ten years ago. He
loved me four years ago, but he refused to leave me in the situation that I was
in….
God
knows where our hearts are at all time. He
wants so much for us…it is up to us to look to him for guidance and direction.
“In
all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
- Proverbs 3:6
|
George
Steinbrenner to see when I should to drive out to New York to meet with him and
see if I was qualified to work for the Yankees.