Sweep the Glass
“Rebounding wins Rings”, is a quote from former Hall of Fame NBA Coach Pat Riley.
I agree wholeheartedly with that statement. It’s all about relentless effort and refusing to give up on what you desire. We are constantly instructing and encouraging our players to SWEEP THE GLASS. Anticipate, crash, sweep, swim, and then finish with an outlet on a Defensive Rebound or by getting it out of the net after an Offensive Rebound put-back!
This Blog Post addresses:
Who is the greatest glass sweeper I have ever seen?
My first experience with a world class athlete who had all the God given ability to rebound was in my 1987 Oklahoma All-State Basketball practice. I was back on the tip off in our first scrimmage, the ball was tipped to Richard Dumas who was coming right at me. My options were thin. Attempt to block the 6-8 freak athletes shot or take a charge, I chose option B. Dumas completely jumped over me by going off two feet raising his leg leaning in and ripping the goal nearly off the backboard. As turned to see him hanging on the rim, I knew I was looking at rare air. Something few humans could do. Dumas went on to OSU and then on to the NBA where he had an amazing NBA rookie season before ending his career early due to addiction. Check out his NBA Finals game 5 highlights as a rookie versus Michael Jordan and the Bulls in 1991! I watched him as he easily touched his hand near the top of the backboard. He had all the tools, but he was not the greatest!
Check out a few of his highlights.
I played with and against numerous crazy athletic players in college, none more athletic than Kenny Williams, who played in the NBA with the Indiana Pacers – He even competed in the NBA Dunk Contest. One of my teammates Chase Maag at Northeastern Junior College in Colorado, who went on to be Southwest Conference Newcomer of the Year at Rice. I watched them go back and forth dunking on each other in a hard fought battle at Barton County one night. Chase later scored 35 points at the eventual NCAA National Champion Arkansas Razorbacks hitting 6-of-11 from three-point range that night. I once saw Chase stand with a cast on one foot, wearing blue jeans and a cowboy boot on his healthy foot, jump straight up off one leg and dunk a basketball. He just smiled and laughed like it was easy and it was for him. Yet neither Kenny nor Chase were the greatest glass cleaners I have ever seen.
Check out Kenny Williams NBA highlights:
The greatest rebounder I ever coached was Sadiel Rojas, who after leading the NAIA in both scoring and rebounding and helping us win the 2009 NAIA National Championship, went on to win a NBA D-League Championship starting with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. After averaging over 10 rebounds per game during his four year career at OKWU – pulling down 23 in one of his final NAIA tournament games, Sadiel had an 18 rebound performance in a NBA D-League game and a 17 rebound performance professionally in the EuroLeague in Spain for UC Murcia, where he still plays today. An amazing accomplishment for someone that only stands 6’4”! Sadi was a relentless sweeper of the glass. It’s hard to imagine that I have seen an even better sweeper of the glass than Rojas, but I have!
Check out one of his NBA D-League game highlights:
Do you want to know who the greatest Glass Sweeper i ever met is! I met him on a mission trip to Dublin, Ireland.
Let me give you a little history lesson first. During 1700’s Ireland was one of the most important cities of the British Empire, second only to London. The Irish were told to use the Georgian style of architecture when building their neighborhoods, which demonstrated “the whole is greater than its individual parts”. The Irish were given strict requirement to adhere to a very similar plain style which produced very similar and plain looking neighborhoods. Legend says, when King Albert died, his wife Victoria in her grief declared everyone paint their doors black. Irish responded by painting their doors all types of bright colors instead. During years of suppression and oppression, instead of returning to the Jesus of Saint Patrick, many Irish turned to the demon of alcohol, which led to opium, an aids epidemic, and then on to a heroin epidemic. The culture acceptance of alcohol and PUB’s led to another legend. This legend had a different view of why the Irish had brightly painted doors. It says that they painted their doors a certain bright color so their men could find their way home from the PUB every night after drinking too much. PUB’s, heavy drinking, and now drug abuse has become a sad part of the everyday life of many Irish. Because of this an image left in my mind of Ireland is one of shattered glass, broken marriages, and the heroin addicts that litter the streets of Dublin.
Ireland is an Island, thus for pollution reasons, they try avoid using plastic bottles, instead using glass bottles for drinks. As a result, shattered glass is not in short supply. In those broken pieces of glass, i saw one of the clearest pictures i have ever seen of Jesus.
One of our first days on the mission trip was spent at a flat, a very poor Irish neighborhood. The government had built a playground in the neighborhood and the church had build a small building where kids could come and play things like video games and get out of the hot or cold.
What I saw was a ton of beautiful little kids playing on a playground full of glass. No fear, No worry, just playing on a hot summer day. Some were even playing soccer with no shoes on. There were drug dealers on the corner watching me as I began to sweep up the glass from the playground. Little kids came up and asked me, “Why are you sweeping up the glass, those men are just going to break bottles tonight so it returns tomorrow.” I said, “So you can have one day free of broken glass.” I told them, “If those men break more glass, then I will return and sweep it up tomorrow too.”
Later that day I truly met the people of the church that we came to help remodel. I had already been introduced to them when i arrived, but I thought they were people that had been raised in church and that had came there to save the lost. The people who had avoided the glass, drugs, and traps Satan had scarred Ireland with. Instead these normal looking happy families started telling me their stories, powerful testimonies of how God had completely healed them supernaturally of heroin addiction. Miraculously God had completely restored their lives. I could hardly believe these people had been heroin addicts. I am sure people that knew my mom and dad when they were young find it hard to believe they are the people they are today. Completely made new and changed by the touch of Jesus as well.
There is one Irishman that I will never forget. He was a beast of a man. He looked like a warrior. He told me that he had gotten so addicted that he had stolen and sold his wife’s and mom’s jewelry for heroin. He said he even stole and sold their wedding bands. Heroin was so powerful that it had taken everything from him, even his ability to love or care for his family. He had been to rehabs, prison, but nothing helped him battle this demon. He then said with passion in his eyes, “but when i finally met Jesus!” When the Holy Spirit came into his life. A power immensely more powerful than the demon of heroin was able to change everything. He said that he was immediately and miraculously healed from heroin addiction. The impossible happened. He said, “Jesus saved me.” Not the raise your hand if you want to ask Jesus into your life, then a day later return to your path of doing the same sin, then get saved again two weeks later when guilt is working on you. This giant man looked me in the eye and said, “Jesus saved me from Hell. I was already in Hell.” Wow, that statement rocked me. He then, “I don’t have an option other than to Serve My King! He deserves all my praise!” He then took me in the makeshift ice cream truck after church to reach out and feed the heroin addicts on the streets. He was the first line of defense for any demon that wanted to cause problems, I would watch as he would stop an addict, who often seemed angry or delusional, and instead of using his size and force to stop them, he would love them and it powerfully would change everything. Then he would feed them. It was the greatest display of sweeping the glass I had ever seen! It was the greatest display of Jesus i had ever seen.