The Official Site of Jordan Farmar

Tue, Feb 3rd 2009, 10:42

Jordan's Playboy.com Blog - Five on 5: Week 12

It’s great to have a full week being back and playing under my belt. Going on the road gives the team a chance to bond but also presents some challenges beyond just the fact that teams are gunning for us. We started strong on our present road trip, going 2-0, but the time difference, those three hours forward, is a big challenge traveling in the Eastern and Central zones. Then there are weather changes. Earlier this season, I didn’t shave for a couple of days and had a little beard going on because it was cold out there, man, and who likes shaving when it’s cold? Another test is not being able to be comfortable, going from hotel to hotel, having different beds, having limited personal supplies and clothes with you. If it’s a long road trip—like our present 6-city, 11-day trip—you don’t get to do a lot of normal things. You don’t get to drive; you’re getting in late hours, waking up early, then playing. It definitely does change things up a little bit.

Our coach Phil Jackson, who led the Bulls to a 72-10 record in 1995-96 based out of the Central time zone, doesn’t think it’s possible for a Western-based team to have a chance at 70 wins because he says, “Changing time zones just makes it very difficult to be consistent night in and night out on the road.” But all of us are looking to win as many games as possible.

As for getting to really visit a city or people you know there, it depends on the schedule. Sometimes we fly in late, play the next day and then fly out after the game. You do get a chance to catch up on movies in your hotel, movies you’ve missed. On the last trip we saw Death Race with Jason Statham, who also stars in Transporter 3, which I also saw. I like Jason, a cool action hero, a man of few words.

I do use some cool technology on the road. I told you I’m an Apple/Mac guy. My life isn’t run by technology but it’s very helpful, especially on the road. For example, I only have one cell phone, an iPhone, whereas I know a lot of other players have multiple cells. I take a Mac laptop on the road with me and I have a wireless card that allows me to connect to the Net anywhere at high speed. That way when we go to different hotels, I don’t have to pay for Internet service. The thing about Mac is that I had one in college; I loved it. It’s simple, the operating system is very user friendly, no viruses, none of that stuff. Less headaches. Whatever I need to do gets done efficiently. The video quality on all my devices is great, with everything being very user-friendly, plug in and play, drag and click. So I fell in love with the way Apple/Mac does things. Overall, it’s just made life simpler for me. I do online video chats with friends and family when I’m on the road, I can see them via the camera, face-to-face so to speak, and keep up on things. A lot of these features are available on a PC but are just much simpler on a Mac.

The only bad thing, LOL, is that they keep coming up with newer and cooler software and hardware every year, and you just feel like you want to get the newest thing.

At the end of our road trip, we play the best in the East, Boston and Cleveland. We’ve been neck and neck with them both for the best record. As of last weekend, Boston was on an 11-game winning streak, and we know what to expect when we head up there to play them on TNT this week. Earlier in the season, Celtics’ guard Rondo got his first career triple-double. Rondo and I were in the same class in high school and college, so we grew up playing against each other, like in the McDonald’s All-American games. He’s a great player, who’s in there the whole game, so he has a chance to be successful. His teammates trust him and that helps him be more comfortable as he’s out there, learning on the job—improve, learn from mistakes and keep playing. When you get that kind of freedom, you’re going to be successful. I expect that he’s going to have plenty more triple-doubles. He’s a really good rebounding guard, for a little guy. I enjoy the challenge whenever I’m competing against him.

One down note from the road is the right knee injury that Andrew Bynum sustained against Memphis. We don’t know how long he’ll be out, but Drew has just been coming into his own. He had a breakout game with a career high 42 points, then followed that with 23 points last week—in his last five games before his injury he was averaging 26.2 points and 14 rebounds per game. Things were just starting to click for Drew. He came back this season after his injury last season and he was really excited, but had a mix of performances. He was still trying to find his way back into his rhythm. But recently he was finding his comfort zone, not worrying about his left knee anymore, so he was being a lot more aggressive. He realizes that he’s bigger and stronger than pretty much everyone who guards him, and that’s been breeding more confidence. He’s been blocking shots, going after all the loose balls, being aggressive to the basket, just stepping up his game and it’s been good to see him out there active and enjoying his game. It’s time for all of us to step up, but let’s hope Drew gets back as soon as possible.

Check out my new dish next week.

– JFarm