Culture Shock Overseas, Fit In or "Fit Out"?

I read Kevin Love's Instagram post the other day and he was poking fun at LeBron for telling Luka to "Fit the f*** out". It was funny because when K Love was on Cleveland with Bron, Bron told him the exact opposite.

But this situation had me thinking about my overseas experience and the experience of many other guys across that water. There's 2 ways you can go about being an import. Be strong in your approach and show everyone why you are special or you can play by the rules and be digestible for everyone around you.

Luka is a Slovenian player with Serbian roots. When surrounded by his American teammates, he's clearly different. On the court and off.

The things that make him different are the reasons why he is such an effective NBA player. He doesn't take himself too serious and can often be spotted post game with a wind down beer. But that mentality allows him to have peak creativity and play with a level of freedom that leads to huge performances.

In his country, it is not unusual for players to be drinking beer after the games. The first time I realized that was when I played in Serbia and guys drank post game and even smoked cigarettes during HALFTIME.

Luka is not scared to stick to his roots and has no problem feeling like an outsider. Players that hoop overseas should have the same approach as him.

Don't forget what got you there in the first place.

Too often I see players lose their individuality by conforming to the norms of whatever country they are playing in. They do that so they can't be singled out whenever something goes wrong. But in the process of doing so, they get comfortable and complacent.

This looks like: constantly going out with the team, hanging out late with the team, looking for approval from the coaching staff, wanting to be liked. None of these things are bad but in the process of doing these things players start to forget that they were brought in to be different.

And sometimes it won't work. Sometimes people will dislike you because of who you are and the fact that you refuse to fit in. Look no further than Luka for an example of that. He got traded because he was misunderstood.

But in the context of playing winning basketball and earning the most money from your playing career, being misunderstood will lead to more good than bad.