In middle school, I joined an AAU summer team and that was my first time flying around the country to play basketball. It was a small sample of the NBA lifestyle (I now fly 50,000 miles a year). The travel was an experience, but it was more fun to compete against the best players in the country and know how we measured up. We had a lot of memorable moments together on and off the court in places like Las Vegas, Orlando and Arkansas. Later, I played for Indiana Elite which had some of the top young players from the state.