Some things are more important than the game of basketball...

Even though I may live halfway around the world, my heart does goes out to the San Diego evacuees. The scale of the devastation caused by the raging fires in Southern California is unprecedented and something that I would never want anyone to ever experience.

I was in San Diego just last year to pay my graduate school a visit. It was March and the landscape and bay area was vast, beautiful, and surreal as it seemed as if nobody was in any rush. Shops opened at 11 AM like clockwork and everyone went about their daily business.

Now all of that has changed for tens of thousands. Its not right! But in this time of great need, I am happy to see that everyone in the area is doing their own small part to help. I recently got an email from my school informing the student body that classrooms would be converted into makeshift shelters to assist in the relief efforts. My prayers go out to all of them...

Aspiring professional player Rob Benson, a victim of this tragedy, put it best in his blog:


"Well, currently my family is on the brink of evacuation down in San Diego. I'm in LA safe and sound, but a number of homes of people I know have already started to burn. We live right on the water, so hopefully I'll get a call tomorrow telling me that everything is fine. If not, I know there are things more important than the material things that could go down in flames (well, my xbox and my wii are with me, so they are safe). My Vince Carter autographed shoe has less meaning now that I've shared a locker space with the guy. My Tiger Woods autograph became less important the day I dropped 24 on Stanford and he was there to see it. My family, my health, and my future are in the works now. I think it will all be ok, but who knows."

We all live in a very cynical world governed by material needs. Does it have to take a life changing event for us to realize that what is most important is our family, love ones, and our health?

I am the same as you guys: I aspire for a better life, hope to meet my idols, have that Dwyane Wade Autographed Rookie Card...

What I am trying to say is that I too forget what's really important sometimes...

I think we all do...