SportingNews

Since the earthquake in Haiti and its horrific aftermath, Samuel Dalembert(notes) has been a busy man. He’s suffered in solitude, traveled to his home country on a brief charity mission, and generally been doing everything possible to help the thousands of people devastated by the disaster.

Now he has even bigger plans. From Philly.com:

Before last night’s game against the Chicago Bulls, Dalembert mentioned that he has been granted a parcel of land by the Haitian government, and that he intends to build a center for children that will include recreation facilities, classrooms, a computer center and a cafeteria. […]

Dalembert, ever the optimist, believes he can have at least the base of the first center constructed in 2 to 4 months.

If he wants to hit that deadline, he’ll have to put in a lot of work, especially considering he works a high-profile job with lots of traveling. But if Dalembert thinks it’s an attainable goal, I’m inclined to believe him.

With all his efforts in Haiti, how does Dalembert have time for basketball? The answer might be that he’s not paying very much attention to it:

"I’m not focusing on [trade rumors] right now," he said. "I’m trying to maximize my talent and help us to win. I’m done trying to point fingers or anything like that. When I came forward last year, people took it the wrong way, tried to make it seem like I was complaining. I don’t like complaining. I like consistency."

Maybe Samuel would be saying this even if he weren’t spending so much time thinking about Haiti, I don’t know. Many players will make statements like this when their names come up in rumors, but Dalembert’s words ring a little truer—it’s understandable that he wouldn’t focus on potential trades now because he’s dealing with much more important issues.

Yet even with his attention elsewhere, Dalembert is playing some of the best ball of his career, turning in close to a double-double and a few blocks every night. Conventional wisdom says that players do better when they focus on basketball at the expense of all (or most) else. But what if something approaching opposite is also true? Forget about Phil Jackson—this is the real basketball zen.
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