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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (May 11, 2011)
local news Donaldson continued from page 1 level isn’t good enough if I really want to reach the top of my profession. My lesson of never being satisfied, which is a chapter in the book, is one that I carry to this day. tSn: Do you mentor a lot of young peo- ple yourself? JD: I do. I do. Both officially and unoffi- cially, there’s not a day that goes by where I don’t bump into a young person who wants to ask me questions or understand what I’m doing and what I’ve had to do to accomplish what I’ve accomplished through my years. And I’m always willing to offer a helping hand, or some suggestions or some advice or words of encouragement. I think I do a lto of mentoring in that regard, even more than officially mentoring someone. tSn: What is it that motivated you to write this book? JD: As I’ve gone through two or three careers in my working life, as far as being a professional athlete and a small-business entrepreneur, and political candidate in the city of Seattle and very involved as a mem- ber of my community, I just got to a point in my life, here I am in my early ’50s where I have been looking back to whence I’ve come and understanding what it took to stay on track in the first place. And I just wanted to offer that advice to young people who are going to be following in my footsteps just as I followed in a lot of other people’s foot- steps along the way. I look out there on societal land- scape as a whole and I see a lot of our younger generation really struggling, trying to focus in on what they’re going to do, what they’re going to be and how they’re going to accomplish that. There’s so many more distractions nowadays and tempta- tions and pitfalls than there were when I was a youngster, so I really want ot help younger folks navigate on that path to becoming successful. tSn: When you were a young man, was your future career pretty well mapped out on the way to a JD: Not at all, I actually didn’t play bas- ketball until my last year of high school. Simply because I was a youngster like other youngster, where I was full of insecutiries, lack of confidence, very uncoordinated with my height and size and weight. DIdn’t have a high self esteem with myself. Most youngsters to through that phase at some point. It wasn’t until I met the great mentor, my high school basketball coach, Chuck Calhoun was his name down in Sacramento, Calif. Where Coach Calhoun came up beside me and encouraged me to take baby steps, to start fulfilling that potential a long time before I could see that potential. So that’s where I came from. It also helps to come from a solid family background that really emphasized academics for the first part. I knew I was going to be a good stu- dent and stay in school and at least graduate from high school, that was my pathway, but athletics came into the picture pretty late. tSn: What separates this book from a lot of the other self-help books out there? JD: Well I think that due to the fact that I have gone through two to three distint, dif- ferent career transitions, a lot of people are struggling … how to remake themselves, how to keep a clear focus and how to keep a clear game plan and strategy when all of a sudden the rug gets pulled out from beneath them. So my book is really one of encour- agement, not just the commonsense approach, but one that encourages you to take a deep introspective look at yourself, continue to have faith and trust in yourself, a higher power and those that you keep around you. tSn: Was it difficult for when you went from basketball to having your own physi- cal therapy clinic? JD: Not really, I started the physical ther- make it back to play another 10 years to play professional basketball, but my clinic was off and running and maturing by the time I retired. During those early years, I was basically a hands off manager and owner, and after basketball I had something to transfer into. tSn: Do most younger professional sports players do a good job of looking beyond their athletic careers and planning for the future? JD: No, most players do not do a good job of planning past their athletic careers. You see a story in the NY Times today about Tiki Barber, a great run- ning back for the Ny Giants, where at 36 years of age, after being retired for four years, all of a sudden he’s coming back to try out for professional football again, because he never found that passion again, something that gets him out of bed, that has him putting the same amount of effort and emphasis to it as the sport that he loved. A lot of athletes are challenged with that. Most of us retire early. A couple of reasons I was motivated to join the Legends of Basketball, otherwise known as the NBA Retired Players Association as a board member because less than 20 percent of us have a college degree. And also, 85 percent of us will be going through a divorce upon retirement, for a career that lasts 3 years on average. Those are a lot of dynamics that are not in your favor. What we try to do on a board level, we try to create programs that will be help- ful to the guys on their transition, even before they retire. tSn: Did that experience help you craft the book? JD: It did. It really did. Part of my frater- nity, is hundreds of hundreds of retired players who are trying to find themselves. I was lucky that out of an adverse situation such as the devastating knee injury, to find what I wanted to do next that wasn’t about playing. tSn: Now a basketball question. I’ve read that you never even attempted a three- pointer in your entire NBA career. Why? JD: Well, you gotta remember, I played back in the 80s and 90s. the three-point game wasn’t as totally utilized by every player on the court back then. You had guys on the team whose specific job was to shoot three-pointers. So, I played my whole career – and I’m the answer to a trivia question if you ever here this – who played the most amount of games, the most amount of sea- sons without ever, ever attempting a three- point shot and that’s me. As the years wore on and I became aware of this trivia, I just said, it’s not my role, not my strength to hoist up three-pointers. I’d see guys like Manut Bol throw them up there from all over the place and Ralph Samson from time to time and other 7-footers. But it was not my game and I had no inclination to give it a try. would be disappointed with the news. “They’ll be happy to know that we tried,” she said, adding that she learned a lot from the experience. “That we can work together,” she said. “And that our school has done a lot for us.” Jackson also announced that Gov. Chris Gregoire and an as-yet-unnamed cabinet secretary would attend graduation, and teachers handed out ice cream to celebrate. Gregoire said in a statement that the pres- idential challenge highlights some of the most innovative and inspiring high schools across the country. Bridgeport fits that cate- gory, she said, and the students are rising above the odds and breaking barriers of the past. “They have made Washington proud,” she said. Nain Sanchez, a 14-year-old freshman, said people haven’t heard the last of Bridgeport. “I’m thinking my senior year,” he said. “We can do it again. We’ll try harder.” That positive attitude is exactly what the school has tried to foster in the students, Jackson said. “We have now received information that she is being held in Tehran,” the Al-Jazeera statement said, adding that the network is “deeply concerned” for Parvaz’s welfare. The State Department in Washington also expressed concern, and said it was striving to get further details about Parvaz’s situa- tion. “We continue to ask and press the Syrian authorities for more information regarding the circumstances of her deportation,” said department spokesman Mark Toner. “We’re obviously concerned about her well-being, as an American citizen, and are working to get more detail.” He said U.S. officials were seeking assis- tance from Swiss diplomats who represent U.S. interests in Iran. Al-Jazeera said the information about Parvaz being in Iran came from Syrian offi- cials who had previously told the network the journalist was being held in Damascus but that she would be released. ‘I actually didn’t play basketball until my last year of high school. Simply because I was a youngster like other youngster, where I was full of insecutiries, lack of confidence ...’ apy clinic 21 years ago right in the middle of my 20-year basketball career. I had a devastating knee injury 10 years into my career, I was in my early 30s and the prog- nosis and outlook was very bleak on whether I’d ever return to playing again. So at that point I had what I call a lightbulb moment to go to therapy for five months. I asked myself, if I cannot play again, what am I going to do? I was a college grad so I was ok with that, and I had other skills, but there was nothing that I was as passionate about as basketball and that’s when physical therapy came to the forefront. I said, I know what I want to do now, create an envi- ronemtn where people can come and get well again, be surrounded by great physical therapists, my massage therapist, my nutri- tionalist, my athletic trainers … that’s when my epiphany hit hard and I went ahead and opened my first clinic. I did eventually Visit www.StandingAbove TheCrowd.com for more information. If you order the book from his website, Donaldson will personally autograph the book. School continued from page 1 the only members of their household who speak English, and some are the first in their families to finish high school, let alone go on to college. Yet all 37 seniors at Bridgeport will grad- uate this year, and all plan to attend college or trade school. Ana Soto, a senior who will attend Whitworth University, said her parents reporter continued from page 1 could reinforce allegations that Iranian authorities are working closely with Assad’s government to crack down on protesters and choke off independent media coverage. A statement by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera urged Iranian authorities to provide details on Parvaz, who works for the news net- work’s English-language channel. The Seattle Skanner page 3
