Chasity Takes On Jia

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Hi everyone, I�m here in Israel writing my first blog of the off-season. I decided to write tonight while I was watching my Sunday NFL games, because I love some football. I have been in Israel a month now, and I�m starting to get readjusted to playing games and practicing twice a day. I had some time off after my two-game, season-ending injury. I�m sure everyone remembers the infamous EYE CARAMBA incident � it�s cool, everyone can laugh now. My eye is great and it was truly a blessing that the injury wasn�t as serious as it looked or felt. I often get asked about my eye and my response is �My eye is okay, I just have to keep looking up.� I thank everyone for their prayers and concern; it truly meant a lot to me. I can�t say enough about the support I received from all you Sky fans, and the many Mystics fans who reached out to me.

I�m playing for Elizur Ramla with Tangela Smith of the Phoenix Mercury and Shay Doron of the New York Liberty. Right now my team is still trying to find our chemistry. We are currently 5-1 in the Israeli league and we lost our first Eurocup game, but I feel like we are improving and getting where we need to be more and more everyday. I always believe it�s not how you start but how much you enjoy your journey and how you finish.

We have a very important game on November 12 against our rival team Electra Ramat Hasharon. I�ll be playing against someone we all know, my Chicago Sky teammate Jia Perkins. I don�t know what we are going to do with them on Monday, but that�s why I love basketball, it�s a team sport. We are going to have to play well as a team to come out with a win. There is a lot of hype going into this game because these two teams fought for the championship last season. Ramla came out on top in the best of five series. There are a lot of new players, but both teams currently have the same record, so this game is really important. I played with Ramat Hasharon two years ago, so I�ll just say I�m feeling pretty comfortable going back there to play against them. It will be weird playing against Jia -- I hope I don�t pass her the ball out of a double team! I know I don�t have to worry about her passing to me because she�s gonna be firing it up. I just hope a couple of them miss the target. Don�t worry, Jia, I got your rebound (LOL).

That�s enough about the game, there�s so much more to do and see in Israel then just play basketball. This is my fourth year here and after a long winter in Russia, Israel was my first option. The sun is shining everyday and I�m only 20 minutes from the beach. I mean, other than North Carolina, this place has some very beautiful days and when I have time to catch the sunset, it�s just amazing! The shopping is great at the markets, but the mall is overpriced. I�m not even going to talk about the gas prices over here, it is so expensive. I drive a Ford Focus hatchback and it�s close to $60 dollars to fill the tank. Because I�ve played here before, I pretty much feel at home � in fact, I know my way around Israel more than Chicago.

Okay, I wrote too much, I�ll save some for next time. It should start out something like this, �Hi everyone, we won.�

~Chasity Melvin


Click here to find out more about Sky athletes during the off-season.