Chasing a Dream

December 1, 2011   ·   3 Comments

Cam Long played four years for the Patriots, scoring more than 1,400 points over an illustrious career.

by Cody Norman

Cam Long is no stranger to the hardwood.

He enjoyed one of the most successful tenures in the history of Mason basketball, posting an impressive 1,416 points over an illustrious four-year career. He was projected to go in the second round of the 2011 NBA Draft but, after falling short, signed a contract to play overseas in Siauliai, Lithuania – a place where the collegiate star is a stranger.

Before leaving to join his new team in August, Long thought back to the Patriots’ trip to Italy and expected his overseas basketball venture to be equally fascinating.

“We had such a great time in Italy sightseeing,” Long said. “The people were easy to talk to and some things were comparable to the states. I can’t say the same for out here.”

With little to no background in the native language, Long has struggled to adjust to a culture in which he is an outsider. He has struggled to find an efficient way to communicate with his teammates, making it difficult for Long, the point guard, to call plays and direct traffic for his team.

“On the floor, there is no communicating at all,” Long said. “As the point guard, how are you supposed to lead a team that might not understand you?”

Even in practice, Long has had a difficult time understanding offensive plays and defensive schemes. His coach speaks very little English and goes over game strategies in Lithuanian, leaving many of the American players, including Long, lost.

“There are times in practice that he’ll talk for a while and the translator on our team will say one sentence,” Long said. “So there is no telling what I am missing out on.”

For the first time in his life, Long has been forced to deal with such a rough transition into an unfamiliar world on his own. Without his mother and his brother, who were regulars at Mason basketball games, in Lithuania with him, Long has had to learn to cope with the stress while doing his best to keep an open line of communication with his family back home.

Soon after Long arrived in Lithuania, he got word that his grandmother had passed away.

“We were very close,” Long said. “It’s definitely tough on me. And it’s tough on my family.”

When Long was a young boy in Palm Bay, Fla., he spent a good bit of his time with his grandmother. During summers and off-days, Long would walk through the door of her house at 7 a.m. to the smell of fresh eggs, grits, sausage and buttermilk biscuits.

“She used to throw down in the kitchen,” Long said. “I never ate a bowl of cereal at grandma’s house. There was no telling what she was going to cook, but whatever it was, I was definitely ready to eat.”

He and his grandmother developed an incredible bond over the years. She did her best to keep him entertained, all the while keeping him in line no matter how old he got.

“You go over there and do what you got to do, but hurry back home as soon as possible,” his grandmother told Long, the last words she would tell him before her passing. “Be safe and behave while you’re gone. If you don’t, you’ll have a whooping waiting for you when you get back home.”

Yet, through all the trials and tribulations involved in immersing himself in a new culture, Long appreciates the opportunity to play basketball overseas and would consider making it a career.

“If I’m going to different places, at least I can say I got the opportunity to travel the world,” Long said. “How many other people can say that?”

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