Check out my latest interview on page 2 of ESPN.com - I ride around with an interviewer from ESPN and talk about all things me. Also, there’s a little shout out to the BALL DON’T LIE camp.

All us players are hyped for this upcoming tour. During our time together everyone was enthusiastic and excited to officially get things moving. The whole weekend included a couple of meetings to discuss what to expect for our 2007 tour with regards to rules and what is expected of the players. We then had the photoshoot and then one last meeting where we evaluated the gear coming out for the upcoming season. When we all get together like that, time is always taken up by messin’ with each other, talkin’ shit and just havin’ a good time. Some of the stuff I remember is us laughing when Hot Sauce was killin’ some people with his immitations of everyone. He’s got everyone on the team down pat! It’s funny as hell to see him turn into people when he immitates! Then I remember everyone arguing at one point about if Lil’ Romeo is going to be a good Pac-10 level player. Some people said yes and some said no. We are all fans of the game just as much as we are players. It doesn’t matter if it is high school, college, minor league, overseas or NBA ball.

During the photo shoot shoot they told us they ended up taking 2500 photos for the upcoming promotions for the tour. That includes autograph cards, posters, print adds and flyers. Also add in all the magazines coming out soon with the tour schedule and player pics. It’s gonna be hott!!! It’s got all of us as a team looking like soldiers reppin’ ‘United Streets of America.’ You can check out some of the photos taken that day during our downtime…..

Professor
AND 1 #12

For me, it’s all about managing my time with more responsibility than usual. When I’m on the road, most of my downtime is dedicated to reading the script out loud to myself. After I play tonight, I return to LA for two weeks before another streetball game. When I’m in LA, I spend about two-to-three hours a day with our acting coach, Ben. That’s been real helpful.

Looks like the folks on the production are setting me up to get up with some real life kids with OCD to help me really see how they act on a day-to-day basis. I think this will help me understand the disorder and be able to imitate it. I hope the film does a lot to showcase what it’s like to be living with something like OCD.

One main thing I’ve learned about acting up to this point is how on film the expression on your face is really a direct reflection of your thoughts. Everyone’s been telling me that the camera picks up everything and knows when you’re faking it. So, if I visualize the thoughts that Sticky is going through mentally, it will read on camera and be real authentic. It sounds like it makes perfect sense, but I had never really thought on it until the past few months of preparation.

I’m excited to go hard with becoming my character this last month of prep. I know it’s a busy month with all the work I have to do for the film and then head out to play the final three streetball games on this current tour in North Carolina, Reno and Las Vegas. It’ll be hectic, but good, and perhaps the most important time of the year for me.

I got a chance to meet people in the office as well as Rick Fox who was in the building meeting with Brin and Michael Roiff.  

I saw a lot of people there who were reading for gym roles and even spoke to a few. By the time my two hour session was over I felt like it was very productive as it has been in the past. Now that we have a rough shoot schedule, it’s making things a lot easier and putting me more on track, which excites me. Now with a lot more time in LA over the next three weeks, I’m really gonna get after it! I’ll report back soon!

Started in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where we ran into a tough team of players, which some played for St. Cloud State, a D-1 school out there. For the game, I was off as Hell! Probably 3 or 4 for 16 from the field. At least I had about 8 assists to kinda make up for it.

The next game in Fayetteville, Arkansas, was one to remember. It was in a rec center out there and it was packed. About 2500 people were in the building and it was standing room only. I have to come out blazing and recover from the last game. Bringing the heat, I ended up with 45 points and 10 assists and absolutely turned out the show. Spring had about 50 and dunked from the free-throw line, shutting it down in a big way.

The last game was equally a good show in McAllen, Texas. We ended up beating their team with players from their ABA team The Razorbacks by 99 points! It was ridiculous how many highlights and dunks there were. I had another huge game along with Springs and Highriser. We all had 45 plus and they both had 10 dunks each. Is playing this well in these exhibition games has me excited as Hell to start the summer tour with this type of chemistry. Get ready, we’re coming.

We’ve been doing each session scene by scene in order so far. We are only on the fourth scene of the movie and i feel confident that i can do this. Sticky is an interesting character but ive been picking him apart so much lately that it really is starting to become clear to me exactly who he is and its easier for me to become him.

This weekend i have a game in St Cloud Minnesota, somwhere in Arkansas, and in Corpus Christi, Texas. I’ll have an update when i get back. easy.

We then played in South Carolina where there was absolutely no intimacy in the gym being that we played in a huge ass arena where the stands were too far away from the court. Then we had went to the local hip-hop radio station to promote the game and the people who we faced were talkin madd shit. They were sayin that their team is undefeated at charity events and that they rep the hometown to the fullest. They even went out on a limb to say they were going to shut certain players on our team down and that they were going to give us a tough game, if not, then beat us. When the game came it turned out real ugly. For one, we played in a huge arena that really didn’t cater to the type of defensive pressure the home team was about to face. Second, the team was straight garbage! They had a bunch of old dudes and sloppy players who maybe used to play but it was clearly over for them. We ended up smashing them by 60 as well but all they did was try to foul us. It was ugly because of course our team retaliated with the physicalness but it wasn’t pleasing to the crowd at all. After awhile the crowd wasnt into it because we were slaughtering their team so bad. We pressed them the whole game even though they were up 60 just to prove a point! Personally i loved it. Their CEO of their local radio station team was all upset and butt hurt because they got their ass busted. He even ran on the court a couple times trying to complain to the ref or tell our players to ease up and just “play ball”. Which was crazy because the amount of flagrent fouls they had on their part was rediculous. Towards the end of the 4th they probably had 30 plus team turnovers and we had dunk after dunk after dunk. The crowd got tired of the slaughtering but at the end of the day we held it down so we were satisfied. If we come back there they really need to give us better comp for a better show. Point blank.

We had 2 games in West Virginia and 1 in Lexington, Kentucky. When we arrived in the West Virginia airport, I soon realized we were in the country! The airport was the size of a basketball court and that’s it. There was only 1 baggage claim stand in the whole airport for every airline! The first game was real cool even though I was sleepy as hell and never got to lay down at all before I played. I still ended up scoring 10 and having at least 5 assists and we won by 60 so I couldn’t complain.

The next game was real cool. We won by about 50 putting in the same type of run the other team out of the gym type performance. My new AND1 teammate SPRINGS murdered! He had about 50 points and probably 10 dunks. I ended up with 18 that game. Then the last game in Lexington was our biggest win yet believe it or not. We won by 90! 100 to 110. No exaggeration! It was ridiculous. Springs, myself, Highriser and Bad Santa all showed out with killer performances to finish off the trip with a bang. Next weekend we’ll be out in Amarillo, TX, and Charleston, SC, so come check us out if you live out this way.