We recently attended a fireside which featured Jimmer!
In fact we got to sit on the stand and so I got to shake his hand--twice!
He is quite the celebrity!
About 800 youth and leaders from 4 stakes were anxiously awaiting his arrival. The energy in the building was at a high level.
He came in through a side door near the stand. My first impression was that he was not very tall for an NBA player and he looked REALLY young!
Dan noticed that during the opening song as he looked out at the audience, almost everyone was looking at Jimmer rather than at the music conductor!
My second impression was when he got up to speak. He not only looked young but he sounded young. He had his talk notes on some little pieces of paper and he looked somewhat nervous. I guess I was expecting him to be more polished after all the public exposure he has had. But...
...as it turns out his youthfulness came across not as a negative but as a very sincere and thoughtful young man who wanted to honestly share some advice to the youth.
He was great!
Here are the things I remember from his remarks. He spoke for a little less than half an hour and then he took questions.
1. He shared how he feels very lonely on the road with his team. All of the players are into drinking, drugs and gambling so he spends many nights alone in his hotel room. So he related that to the youth and how they feel alone too. He also talked to them a lot about not swearing. Once a high school teammate offered him money if he would just swear one time.
2. He talked a lot about family. Although his wife wasn't with him, he complimented her highly on how much she helps him. (They were married this past June 1st in the temple.) And he also talked a lot about his Dad and what good advice he always gave him. He told a story about a fellow athlete who got into trouble and knew he could trust Jimmer's Dad to help him which he did.
3. He told about another fellow athlete who was also on track to play in the NBA someday, but he kept hanging out with the wrong kinds of friends who would get him into drugs. He actually got kicked out of 3 different colleges for doing drugs even though they had initially offered him scholarships and each time he would fall in with a bad crowd.
He is now in prison. He told the youth to choose good friends!
4. Jimmer shared that Elder Ballard had spent some time with him preparing him for what he might face in the NBA. Many months later he was having a rough time. He felt very low and he thought: I ought to call Elder Ballard. (The kids loved this--just thinking that someone would think to call an Apostle!) When he got back to his room that night there was a message on his machine that said: Hi, this is Elder Ballard. Give me a call when you get a chance! Jimmer did call him and he helped him a lot. One of the things he challenged him to do was to read the entire Book of Mormon during the season, and Jimmer said that made a huge difference for the rest of the year. He told the youth it would make a big difference for them as well.
After he spoke, anyone who wanted to ask him a question could come down the aisle and form a line. A microphone was provided. There were 20 or so who got to ask a question before they closed the line. This part was a lot of fun because the kids were such characters. Most of the questions were really good. Some were a little silly like what was his favorite color or would he wave to a friend in the audience or what kind of car did he drive (Hundai Genesis). Somebody wanted to know the secret to his jump shot (keep your elbow in and follow through), some other questions were: how did he keep his life balanced between sports, school, and church, how did he get along with the other players on the Kings, would he be having a basketball camp in Sacramento next summer, what was his favorite scripture (the mustard seed analogy in Matthew), and one girl said: I'm asking this for all the girls--How did you propose to your wife?
(That's a whole long story I won't type here but very cute)
(They took Jimmer out right after the Amen of the prayer as wouldn't be appropriate for autographs, etc. on a Sunday night and the kids needed to get home for Seminary. But he did shake our hands for the second time as he left the stand!)
It was a good evening with one great message after another!
