This past week I had the opportunity to go on an adventure with some talented young gentleman and their parents. The Georgia United Showtime 2023 travel basketball team has had a transformation and become the Elite 2.0 White basketball team. Same talented players, dedicated coaches, and supportive parents; but with a new sponsor. This group had the fortunate opportunity to travel to Chicago, IL to compete in a basketball tournament against players from all around the country. In their division there were teams from Georgia, California, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. To provide some background, the Georgia United Showtime 2023 team has been established for quite some time and has been very successful. In May and June the founders and organizers of the Elite 2.0 program formed their own team. They were very impressed with the United program and players and entered into negotiations to begin funding their vision in an effort to support the dreams of young people. In that moment two teams were born-Elite 2.0 and Elite 2.0 White (the former Georgia United Showtime 2023).
As in any merger the adjustment period and buffering process has been challenging. As the visions and operations process have been adjusted the communications process has been misaligned. However, children have a way of uniting adults. To say the least the kids had an opportunity to explore the city of Chicago and participate in many activities that will definitely enrich their lives. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves; somewhat oblivious to the miscommunications, adjustments, and general stress the adults endured while working through the merger process. The Elite 2.0 White team went through the tournament undefeated and won the championship. After many plane delays we arrived back in Atlanta around 1:45 a.m. on Monday July 17.
I’ve had some time to reflect in the past few hours and have had the time to honestly appreciate the experiences over the last few days. Maaaannn what an adventure. This group of people, my wife, my son, and I had an opportunity to experience Chicago which is amazing. My late father always told me, you surround yourself with people who have like ideals and values and with whom you can sharpen yourself as iron sharpens iron. We are a family with like goals, UNITED in the vision of facilitating our children's greatness. A true brotherhood of talented and gifted God's children, this group persevered through so much over the last couple of days. We were rewarded because we stayed in the ring to fight the good fight. I tell my kids and players greatness and success isn’t comfortable but it’s very rewarding. You have to be willing to stay in the ring and fight through the discomfort, you may be knocked down but will you get up?
This weekend we were knocked down, talked about, rode emotional roller coasters, and felt uncertainty. However, one thing never wavered-the love we have for each other, the love we have for the children, our collective and individual faith in Christ, and our dedication to our mission and goals. We stayed in the ring and fought; and our boys won. In them winning we won, it’s much more than about winning the games and championship. We won because we grew, we won because we believed, we won because we had each other’s backs and leaned on each other for strength. Whether we won games or not this family unit grew tighter and for that I’m forever grateful...my God is an Awesome God…and they don’t have any rewards for that!
