The Official Site of Jordan Farmar

Tue, Mar 24th 2009, 10:11

Jordan's Playboy.com Blog - Five on 5: Week 19

Hey guys, what up? I’m blogging from the road. Before we left, the Jordan Farmar Foundation held a cool corporate mixer to update guests on my ongoing projects, including my work with UCLA’s Mattel Children’s Hospital and the inaugural Jordan Farmar Celebrity Golf Classic & Gala which will be held July 19-20 — stay tuned for more details. Anyway, we’re now on a key 7-game road trip and we’re still battling neck and neck with the Cavs for best overall record in the NBA. Like I said on my “Mogo TXT” channel after we beat the Bulls to go 24-9 on the road, “Got another big road win. Got a chance to play some good minutes, and made the most of it…let’s keep it goin’!” In the last two games, I’ve averaged 24 minutes. The extended playing time has given me the opportunity to get into a rhythm, make a bigger contribution to the team and get a sweat going.

I’ve mentioned how my high tech gadgets (my iPhone, iTouch and Mac laptop) are important to me on the road. What I take along musically is also a big part of being away. I make sure I’ve downloaded any new records to my iPod. I’ve just downloaded The Dream’s new album Love vs Money and I really like songs like “Walkin’ on The Moon” featuring Kanye West — it has an old Michael Jackson/Prince-like feel to it.

Speaking of hip technology, what did you think about the Bucks’ Charlie Villaneuva being fined for sending a “tweet” during halftime at a game? I’m not on Twitter but I do something like that, only I do it after the game. It’s a service called “Mogo TXT” and you can check out more about it on my personal website www.farmarlive.com, or go to www.mogotxt.com. I’ll send a quick message to fans, tell ‘em what’s up for the day, what I’m doing. If they’re signed up, they’ll get texts from me on their mobile device. And my fans can then text each other. It’s very cool. Guys like Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge and the Clippers’ Eric Gordon also have their own Mogo channel like me. It’s all for the fans, gives a little more insight about what’s going on in our lives.

On the court, when you look at the overall picture, the Lakers have had a tremendous season — with 55 wins after our Chicago win, we need just two more wins to match last season’s win total, with 13 games still to play this season! But we have set high standards. The last couple of weeks, we’ve been able to win some games even when we weren’t playing great and we slipped up on a few, but we really haven’t been playing the type of game we want to be at this point of the season. It’s time for us to really find a way to come together. Going on the road will help that. The last extended trip we took — which included two tough tail-end games against Boston and Cleveland — we went 6-0. So we’ve done it before, and we’re capable of going in, being really focused, and playing with a championship mentality on this trip. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter how you start the season, doesn’t matter how you play in the middle. It really matters how you finish. And we want to finish strong.

I talked about averaging 24 minutes the last couple of games. Coach Jackson spoke to me and wanted me to be more aggressive. I knew I was going to get a little more time and I got 13 points, 3 assists, 3 steals and a dunk in our last game. I felt good. Playing more minutes definitely helps because it’s about rhythm and timing. The reality of our games, which are all televised, is that coming off the bench means more sitting time than most people realize. Once we’re done with warming up before the game, you go through the National Anthem, announcement of starting line-ups for both teams, all the TV commercials before the tip off, and then the reserves are sitting for about 30 minutes of real time — even though it’s nine to twelve minutes of game time. So it’s like forty-five minutes from the end of warm-up to when the reserves get a chance to go in. Then you play for six to nine minutes, sometimes spread over the first and second quarters. Then the reserves sit for the rest of the half, maybe six minutes of game time, but probably twenty minutes of real time. Then you got a fifteen-minute halftime, then another twenty-something minutes before you go in again right before the fourth quarter. That means you’ve been away from game action for almost an hour.

So in the last couple of games for me, it definitely makes a difference when you have a chance to go out there, get up and down, get your blood flowing, get that sweat going, feel like you’re actually in the rhythm of the game, that you’re a part of it. Having said all that, the team and our mission to win the championship always comes first. You got to keep your eye on the target and ask yourself what you really want from the game and from life.

BTW, you been watching the NCAA Tournament? The good teams this year are really good, and have been playing well when they really need to, so it’s going to be tough for the other teams. I think it’s going to be a pretty good tournament. There’ve been some early surprises like Wake Forest being upset and my Bruins going out after making the Final Four the last three years. I like Hasheem Thabeet on U-Conn, a seven-plus-footer, whose game is just good. Then there’s Blake Griffin of Oklahoma, a real powerful presence on the court — he could be a #1 pick in the Draft. North Carolina has a very good team with some veteran leadership like guard Ty Lawson, the ACC player of the year. Enjoy the Madness!

Thanks to Playboy.com readers Aidee, Pamela Anne, Jennah, Elisabeth and others for your comments. They’re appreciated. Speak to you next week.

— JFarm