Euro B-Ball Blogger Marcus Stout: From the D to the A(ustria) #2

Hi everybody!

Its been a while since my first entry and a lot has happened since then. We are now 6 games into the season and our record is 4-2. We lost a tough game last night when the center on the other team, Traiskirchen Lions hit a 3 point shot at the buzzer. We were up 2 points and missed a shot and they pushed the ball down the court and he was trailing all alone and hit the 3 pointer as time expired.

It was a tough road loss but we played good and will learn from it and come back stronger next time. Overall, we have been playing really good so we are just focused on improving everyday and keeping our eyes on the ultimate prize which is winning the championship.

Personally, I am focused on just getting better everyday also. I feel like this is an extra year of preparation for me after college to get to my ultimate goal which is to play at the highest level, the NBA. I think about that every day and keep it on my mind every time I go to the gym so I can push myself to become the best player I can be.

A very interesting situation happened to me off the court also. One day a few of my teammates and I were driving on the autobahn (the highway in the States) and all the lanes were cut off and you had to drive through a back way. There were at least 50 cops back there and they were checking every car that passed through. As we were driving through, they pulled us over and started speaking to us in German. No one in the car spoke German so we were trying our best to communicate with him.

Eventually we had to pull over to the side and he took all my information because I was driving and says that I will have to pay 300 Euros because I didn’t have an Austrian license or a Vignette. A Vignette is a sticker that you must have when you drive on the autobahn. No one informed me of this before this incident.

So we called some people and had to wait about an hour until they came to help us. I ended up having to pay 120 euros for not having the sticker but got out of the rest because the cop was lying about the required Austrian license. The rule is you can be here for about 3 months before you are supposed to get an Austrian license. I knew he was lying because what if a tourist was here? He was basically saying that they wouldn’t be able to drive a car for transportation.

When I told my other teammates the story, they were all laughing and saying this is the first time they have ever heard of someone getting stopped for that. Some of them don’t have it on their cars because they said that the police never check. This whole year is a big learning experience for me so this is just another situation where I am going to learn from.

Other than that everything has been good. They recently opened a hooters and a movie theater here so me and my American teammates had our thanksgiving dinner at Hooters!!!! The theater only shows movies in English on Tuesday’s but we have yet to go catch a movie. I got to talk to my family on Thanksgiving which was great but also put back in my mind how much I miss everyone and wish I was there to laugh and joke with everyone. I hope everyone had a great holiday and I will get back to you soon!

-Marcus Stout

www.pistonscast.com