The Official Site of Jordan Farmar

Tue, Feb 24th 2009, 09:47

Jordan's Playboy.com Blog - Five on 5: Week 15

Hey, what’s up? After winning on Sunday in Minnesota, we were 20-6 on the road, best in the NBA. We’ve also gone 10-1 overall since Andrew Bynum went down with everyone stepping up — like Lamar Odom coming off the bench and averaging 16 points and almost 14 rebounds per game. I’m doing my own share with 6 steals, 6 points and 3 assists in our last game.

People have asked whether we can still achieve the overall best record without our big man. I say, absolutely, I don’t see why not. We think the only team that can beat us is ourselves. When we play poorly, that’s when we slip up and lose games. Even if other teams play well, we can still beat them on their best night if we’re communicating and playing to our potential. We’re starting to grow, starting to come through that, play the right way all the time, and continuing to take on that challenge of going for the overall best record.

Thanks to reader Jennifer for asking what I like to see girls wear. I talked about my style as being versatile. Well, I like girls who are versatile also. I’m really a big fan of the natural look, girls who can look beautiful in sweatpants and a tank top and their hair pulled back into a ponytail and then they can get dressed up to go out to a club. You know, a girl who has different facets to her style. I love sweater dresses, like a sweater but girls wear them as a dress. A one-piece sweater plus dress and their legs are still out, so it’s very versatile, lol, and very sexy. They can throw a belt on sometimes. I like footwear that accentuates the legs, so heels would definitely help that. Seamed stockings look good. And something I’ve seen a lot of recently — leg warmers — originally designed for dancers to warm up before practice. I’ve seen them worn over high heels, pumps, even flats, in combination with skinny jeans or short skirts, or these sweater dresses. They look like scrunchy socks and when girls wear them over heels, they can look like sexy boots from far away. So they combine heels with these leg warmers to match their sweater dress — very stylish and sexy. I love that look.

Last week, I was talking about Bar Refaeli and the beautiful girls of Israel (including Hollywood actress Natalie Portman, and celebs like Keren Michaeli, Anna Bauman, Izabel Adler and Agam Rodberg). I’ve been there three times. The Holy Land and the surrounding area is a place with so much history of the world — many religions started there, there are so many different perspectives and cultures. It’s still considered the holiest place in the world, and though I’m not really religious, I can appreciate what’s gone on there. Whether you believe Jesus Christ is the son of god or not, he was still an important person in history. To visit the path he walked, to see some of the landmarks like the Wailing Wall, to go to the Dead Sea and up to Masada, I went all over. You get a powerful sense of the importance and history of this land. And the people are inclined to let you know about it, sharing the stories. It’s a very cool experience and I’d recommend it to everyone to go visit.

Last summer, with the support of The Peres Peace Center, Jewish National Fund and Peace Players International, I was able to hold basketball camps in different sites around Israel for seven straight days. There were probably about 150 kids involved, mostly boys but some girls, half would be Palestinian, half would be Israeli. They don’t really talk to each other — the political conflict makes it difficult for them to get together, let alone communicate. So our goal was to bring Israeli and Palestinian kids together, get them to talk, have a good time with one another, have some fun, and live life without having to think about the conflict. Kids are not born hating, they’re taught it, so we also wanted to show another perspective. One Israeli kid would pass the ball to a Palestinian kid, and they’d be on the same team trying to accomplish the same goal. Working together, as opposed to against each other. There were a lot of smiles and laughs.

For me personally, sports is key in teaching life lessons and also breaking down all sorts of barriers. Growing up, playing basketball taught me a lot about working with others, about working hard, bouncing back from adversity, learning to take instruction from elders or coaches. I told the kids through interpreters that it doesn’t matter who you are and where you’re from, that we can all work together and have fun. Just like you have to practice basketball, “you have to practice working together and communicating, and if you do, that will make things better around here.”

I’m not naïve to think that basketball, alone, can solve some of the problems over there, but you’ve got to start somewhere. The game brought smiles and broke down barriers on a basic but profound level. We also shot video of what we did last summer that I’m hoping to release soon. Next time, I’ll talk more about my thoughts about the Middle East — let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading and for your letters, and check out my dish next week.

— JFarm