Highs and Lows | Game Days Asvel and Bayern Munich
In this candid vlog, Elijah Bryant reflects on the challenges of playing professional basketball overseas during the Thanksgiving holiday, sharing the difficulty of being away from family and the quirks of finding familiar food like Chipotle in Europe. He describes a team discipline rule that fines late bus passengers €100, and provides a play‑by‑play recap of ASVEL Villeurbanne’s EuroLeague loss to Anadolu Efes, noting his own performance and key game moments. The narrative shifts to a deeply personal revelation: Bryant’s grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, passed away just before the game. He discusses his grief, the decision to play, and how his faith and sports psychologist help him cope. Bryant expands the conversation to his broader purpose—using his basketball career and YouTube channel to build a community that fosters confidence, mental resilience, and faith. He outlines upcoming challenges, including a game against Bayern Munich, and wrestles with questions about his long‑term career path, the balance between professional obligations and family, and the meaning of purpose beyond the court.
Chapters
I have a job that I have to do that I want to be the best at, and this is the hard part. This is the hard part. The easy part is when you're playing well, when you're winning, everyone's doing well, you know, no one's passing. That's the easy part. The hard part is when you're back against the wall, no one believes in you, you have personal things happening off the court. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do during a hard time? That's the message I have to you guys, and I'm trying to tell you guys that it's going to be hard times. Put your hard hat on and get to work.
Bryant goes with the long heave. Oh, well, the foul is didn't work because to close out the first period, Elijah Bryant from another postcode.
All right, so we made it to Lyon, France, and it's actually Thanksgiving. So Happy Thanksgiving to all the people out there that celebrate Thanksgiving. And that brings me to basically, again, being on the road during holidays that are very special for players overseas. And it's, it's hard because like I didn't even realize it was Thanksgiving until I called my wife. She said Happy Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, even though I saw her this morning.
But it's—
you definitely miss those moments that, you know, the Christmas, the Thanksgiving, those times to be around family. And most of the time, like, what you know, it's gonna, you know, whip up some food, some, some stuff, and we'll make it special for our little family, maybe some teammates.
But it's not the same.
It's not the same as being in America and just having that Thanksgiving vibe, seeing all your family. So I'll be lying if I said wasn't difficult, but this is my 7th year playing, so I'm kind of used to this. This is what kind of what I know.
Guys, I might have figured out how to order Chipotle here.
Chipotle is only in 30 places in Europe and like 2 in France, so I'm trying to make sure I get this.
You allow yourself to get in a mindset of gratitude and seeing through a different lens instead of having like a victim mentality. So Thanksgiving's in a great day, whether it's overseas or whether it's in America with family. And let's build this community.
About to head to shoot around, but my back has been freaking tight from all the travel, so I'm gonna wear this. We have a new rule: if you're late to the bus, then you have, uh, you gotta pay, put €100 in the pot. So everyone be moving to get there like me.
Everybody late?
All on the steps at 9:20.
You didn't get your seat at 3:00.
The bus can't move if you're on the steps.
Oh, we got video, we got video proof.
Hold up.
Oh no, you're late. You're late.
So this team, particularly Asheville, isn't the best team in EuroLeague, but they have some very experienced players like Nana Dikolo, who's won MVP. And they actually have one of my former teammates, Tariq Black, that I played with in Maccabi. And they have a bunch of new players. So after I wake up from my nap, I'm gonna watch some film just to see their tendencies. Even though the coaches give us stuff, I like to watch their last games, you know, to see their psychology.
Asvel Villebonne host Anadolu Efes in round 12 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, and Elijah Bryant will try to lead them out in his 6th EuroLeague season. He is the leading scorer on the team with 12.8 points per game. Poirier trying to return the favor, he does. Dame Nice pass, good extra pass to the corner. Can Thompson make that? Got it! Both teams playing straight man-to-man defense. Ah, bullet pass down to Poirier. What a great feed from Elijah Bryant. So this is the Colo at his best. The Colo, the feed inside! Again, the curl cut from Moboah. Oh, what a classy finish! Sends Elijah Bryant to the strike. Just his first point tonight. Bryant all by himself. Elijah Bryant had all day to look at that one. And now another break. Leite, can he punctuate it with a 3? Can! Voilà! Elijah Bryant's been quiet, 8 points so far, averages just a touch under 13, and misses both free throws. 17 lead changes so far in it. Di Colo, that is just as pure as you like. You see the attention Di Colo gets. What a steps out on him now, the EuroLeague rookie. With the yearling master. There ends the lesson. Nando Di Colo. That's a deep 3 from Paris Lee. Why not? Voilà! Well, FS lose tonight. Here's your final score. It is ASVEL Villeurbanne 97, Anadolu Efes Istanbul 82.
We lost.
After the loss, I got some bad news.
My grandma actually passed, so She moved on. Her time on this mortal journey was done. You know, my grandma, she—
when she wasn't doing well, like, ever since I've been playing, she deteriorated really fast, just from like stress.
She had Alzheimer's. So I never felt like, like when I would call her, like she would remember me, but it was like I didn't like seeing her like that, so I wanted to remember her as like the fun grandma, the grandma who took us on the Europe trip. Like, I don't want to see her like that, but I'm glad she's like, she's doing better. She used to always support me. Like, okay, so I kind of really haven't explained, um, what's going on. I didn't tell Jen my grandma passed, and I didn't tell my mom, didn't tell her because they didn't want to tell me before my game. Maybe I would have played better if they told me. But so she had made some Thanksgiving stuff, like some mac and cheese, some sweet potato soufflé, some ambrosia salad. So that made me feel better. And I was talking to her and I was just thinking, this is the first time for me that someone close to me and my family has passed. It's weird because I'm sad, but I understand the plan of salvation and I understand that I'll be together with my family again one day after this life. Our time here on earth is just a test for us to see if we'll follow our Lord and Savior. But it's still sad. So I got on the phone with my grandpa after and we cried. And I feel bad for him too, you know what I mean? Like, losing my Janelle would be freaking devastating. Like, not even knowing the plan of salvation is so devastating. I didn't tell anyone, oh, my grandma died, or this, that. I mean, I cried in my room, but they asked, and coach asked me, do I want to play? He found out.
I don't even remember telling anyone, but—
and of course I want to play because my grandma would want me to play.
That's what she'd want me to do, not be sad for her. I want to remember this feeling, not for like—
I don't know, I don't care about— I don't care about optimizing for YouTube. I want this to be a real authentic life of an overseas basketball player, and I want to remember these emotions that I feel because It's one of the hardest things in the world to manage your emotions. I struggle with it a lot, necessarily on the court when I talk to refs, and that's something that I'm working on. I'm human. But it's something that I think if we don't talk about it more as our community or people that watch this video, it's like I'm not a superhero, you know what I mean? Like, I have good days, I have bad days, and I don't think enough people share that. And that's why I'm trying to share this with you guys. This community we're trying to build is that it's okay to be sad. It's okay to not have good days. It's okay to be mad. It's okay. I think too many people put out the image of I'm perfect, my life's glamorous. It isn't. Like, I'm sad right now and I have a job I have to do. I have to go and play basketball and that's my obligation. And being a professional, that's what I'm going to do. But am I sad? I'm sure sad. Like, it's the first person in my family that's passed away that I was close to. And sad for my mom, I'm sad for my grandpa. I mean, it's tough, it's tough, but that's life. And many more people will die that are close to me, but that's how it goes. And today we, we have a, we have a game against a former coach that was the coach last year. It's a really good team, uh, in Turk Telecom. They play Eurocup competition, so the level right below EuroLeague. Um, really talented team. And after that, uh, we have a game on Tuesday and we have a game on Thursday, so I guess the message I'm trying to say here is that it's okay to be sad, but at the same time, no one cares. Other team doesn't care that we traveled back and my back's tight and that they don't care. No one cares. I think we always want someone to care. We all, oh, are you okay? Are you this? No. Put your hard hat on and get to work. You can be sad. You can be sad, but put your hard hat on and go do what you have to do. Problem solve. Like I said, no one cares if my grandma went back to heaven. She's probably watching down smiling right now, but I have a job that I have to do that I want to be the best at. And this is the hard part. This is the hard part. The easy part is when you're playing well, when you're winning, everyone's doing well, you know, I have no, um, no one's passing. That's the easy part. The hard part is when you're back against the wall, no one believes in you, you have personal things happening off the court. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do during a hard time? That's the message I have to you guys, and I'm trying to tell you guys that. There's going to be hard times. That's when you rely on your systems. And today it's gonna be a tough game, but I'm gonna go out there and rely on my systems and get a win. Sorry, I know you guys are probably tired of hearing me rant, but another thing that I was thinking that crossed my mind after I found out the news of my grandma passing is that what's my purpose? Like, my purpose to want to score more points? Is my purpose to want to win more games? Is that my purpose really in life? Am I doing the right thing? Am I supposed to be overseas not spending time with my family? Family. Like, you just start questioning so much stuff. Like, should I be home with my family? Should I go back to the NBA and try to focus getting back there so I can be home? And I realized— I've kind of known that my purpose is to serve a lifelong mission of bringing or giving more people confidence. And that's the sole purpose why I'm trying to do this YouTube and build this community. I think too many people, especially young people in this world, grow up with no confidence, whether that's confidence in your faith, whether that's confidence on the court, whether that's confidence in what you're eating, whether that's confidence in school. Most people don't have confidence, so they turn to other things to find confidence— drugs, bad influences. And you guys help me with this. Like, I'm trying to give you guys more confidence. And anyone in the comments who doesn't have confidence, let's try to build them up. Anyone we come in contact with, our consistency community and confidence community, let's try to build them up and not break them down because So many people in this world break each other down rather than building them up, and in our community, we're gonna build each other up. So let's get to it. So I was just talking with my sports psychologist, trying to get get my mind right because the game is all mental. Everyone does all the physical stuff, but the game is, game is mental, to say the least. And tomorrow we play Bayern Munich, who basically has a bunch of Steph Currys running around. So I need to get some sleep, um, and God is still good through all the trials. Remember that, um, he's trying me for something, he's testing me for something to see if I'll be faithful. And maybe he's testing you. So what kind of faith will you have? As you guys know, these past few days have been relatively difficult for me, trying to do my job and trying to grieve at the same time. So we get to shoot around, I get to the huddle, and these are my teammates, but more like family. I spend more time with these people than I spend with my family, essentially. So I just tell them, I say, look guys, like, man, I didn't want to say anything before the last game, but this has been heavy on my heart. I'm grandma passed. And I'm not— I'm not like a— people don't need to feel sorry for me, like I don't need that. But it was just heavy on my heart, and like I'm not a crier, and I just started crying. And I felt like so embarrassed, but also like I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulder, like I wasn't like holding that in anymore. And I felt— honestly felt like a— I don't know what you would call it in a PG way, but I felt like a chump. Like I felt like you're soft, you know? And for crying, especially in front of my teammates because you're always supposed to be, you know, alpha, do this, do that, you're macho, you're never sad. And for the first time in my life, I cried in front of my teammates and it felt kind of good. But today's game day and my back is feeling better, so can't complain about that. But God will get us through this.
It's round 13 of the regular season and Adolu FS Istanbul hosting FC Bayern Munich. Here we go, Poirier versus Booker for the jump ball. Which is controlled by the visitors. Bogwat sits down. We're gonna have our first look at Elijah Bryant for FS Thompson. Thinks about the step-back three, misses it, but good offensive rebound. And Bryant finds Osmani underneath. Bryant goes with the long heave. Oh, well, the foul strategy didn't work because to close out the first period. Elijah Bryant from another postcode, his second appearance on the season for Giffey. Elias Harris has it stripped away. Bryant with the steal. Now it's Bryant's turn, working on the dribble against Harris. Good defense by the German big man, but it's no match for the footwork of Elijah Bryant. 35-28, make that 35-31. Bryant lobs off, Arturo takes the alley-oop slam. Don't be surprised if Bayern Munich does not get back into this one. They get an offensive rebound though. Elijah Bryant ends up with the ball in his hands courtesy of Dan Arturo, and Elijah Bryant says, I'll score the triple. Really bad 4 threes already, make that 5. He is on fire. So Shabazz Napier dribbles off his foot, shot clock running down. There's a travel called. Poirier offensive rebound, Mora misses. There's Smith again, and Roland Smith. Darius Thompson gets the dime, he goes to 4 assists. Jordan Warup to 12 points. And another steal, Bryant again. Thompson chased by a double team, which means someone's open, and that open man is Elijah Bryant. Well, neither team— I can't say 40 minutes defense between them. Both teams probably put up about 10 minutes of defense, but they put up 40 minutes of offense. Well, the last 6 times these 2 teams had met, it was the home team that won. That result there makes it 7 in a row.
