I talked with Al-Farouq Aminu about his blog and learned a thing or two about our most athletic player.
If you hadn’t heard, the bird is the word. That’s a true story. Another true story is that Farouq started his blog in part to overcome his shyness. Apparently he’s long been a bit of a shy-guy, and instead of continuing to be that way, he’s making a concerted effort to come out of his shell. With a little help from his uncle, he launched a blog on Tumblr and for the past few days has been working on increasing both his following and the number of those he follows on twitter.
What I first took from the conversation with Farouq that’s shown in the video was simply a reaffirmation that NBA players are real people who have normal lives outside of just basketball. While we’re aware Farouq works tirelessly to improve himself off the court and can throw down monstrous jams, we now also know that he deals with some of the same issues that plague the average person.
The post that I discuss with him in the video is as follows–
Just had a powerful talk with my cousin and realized something great. That if you want something to be the reason you stopped from being all you can be then that is easy to do. Cause if you think hard enough there will always be something. Therefore you have to worry about what YOU can do and not forces in which you can not control. Basically you have to change things within your self to obtain the desires you want around you.
It’s odd to think that a 6’9 beastly professional basketballer could have a problem meeting and engaging people. The reality, though, is that aggressiveness and confidence on the court doesn’t always correlate to someone’s personality off the court. As you may recall, a while back we found that Eric Gordon is also a bit on the shy side.
This recent post by Aminu sheds some light on another problem that NBA players often face– The changing of those around them.
Worst part of getting to the league is when the people around you change. It can sadden ya heart a little because you really though they were in your life for a pure reason and it proves not to be the case.
As anyone who’s come into lots and lots of money can tell you, that’s another reality that isn’t exclusive to NBA players. Anyway, check out Farouq’s blog, follow him on twitter, and give him an extra loud cheer next time he does something awesome.
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*Some have commented in the past on my use of the term “beast”. To clarify, I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. It’s kind of my go-to compliment when referring to an athletic play or a particularly good athlete. For example, when I’m golfing and nail a particularly long drive, I’ll remark to my wimpy playing partners that I’m a beast.
8 responses to “Al-Farouq Aminu Goes Blogging”
Who cares i hope they trade Julian Wright 2.0
Sigh. Those words after this story proves one thing, but I’ll keep the details to myself.
I understood the initial comparison to JuJu, but how can anyone who has watched Aminu this season continue to make that comparison. They both play hard and they both play somewhat goofy sometimes. The difference, IMO, is that Aminu “gets it”, wheras I don’t JuJu ever did. Aminu makes some bonehead plays, especially on offense, but I have seen him improve as the season has progressed. His anticipation and athleticism on defense have served him well. Except for his occasional highlight -reel dunk, JuJu rarely gave us anything to get very excited about. Give Aminu another year with some good coaching and I think we will have a pretty good player on our hands.
huh? a lot of hate haha… aminu is gunna be tough in the next year or 2
aminu will be 10 times better than ju ju
http://brazilianhornet.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/uma-vitoria-no-dia-certo/
It’s always encouraging seeing athletes being real because we have a tendency to build them up to these superhuman personalities. Other than an ability to throw a ball really well, they’re just people. Which, I guess, is kind of depressing for us non-athletes haha
Geaux Aminu!
Aminu shoots the ball well. You can tell that from his “swish” FT’s and the nice arc on his 3PT. What he needs to do is to improve his ball security, offensive awareness and decisions.
Take last night. He did very well on D. He is 6’9” with long arms who can play SF! Evans, who is a streaky shooter and who is actually a combo-guard plays SF for the Kings. So, Aminu did well to prevent Evans from getting hot.
On the other hand, he made silly turnovers on offense. Henry did much better on offense and stole his minutes! If Aminu can improve himself on taking care of the ball, he might become a strong player off the bench. Good luck to him!