Spurs Brazil
10-17-2007, 03:06 PM
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/courtside/archives/2007/10/mike_monroe_thi.html
Mike Monroe: This should be a trend
There was a little bit of news at Spurs practice Wednesday morning that ought to reverberate around the league. With a game against the Warriors scheduled for AT&T Center on Thursday night, Tom James, the team's media relations director, informed the media assembled to talk to coaches and players that the team would continue the practice it began after the All-Star break last season of skipping a morning shootaround before home games.
This announcement was received gleefully by reporters who already spend too much of their time at the team's practice facility on a daily basis.
Game-day shootarounds were started back in the 1960s by legendary Lakers coach Bill Sharman. The story I have heard is that Sharman was concerned that some of his players were spending a little too much time on the town the night before games. His solution was to schedule a morning practice on game days so the players would have to get up. Whatever the reason, as soon as Sharman's highly successful Lakers began having a game-day shootaround, other NBA teams fell in line and began scheduling them, too.
At first, shootarounds were just that: The players would loosen up and shoot around, perhaps getting a quick scouting report about that night's opponent. Over the years they became true practice sessions, with an emphasis on preparation for that night's opponent.
It seems that the Spurs, the NBA's most successful franchise for the past decade, might start a new trend and help rid the basketball world of the shootaround. Of course, as Raptors coach Sam Mitchell pointed out last season when told that the Spurs were doing away with them, when you have very recent championship banners hanging in your arena, you can do just about anything you want.
There is a funny story about the early days of shootarounds, though I have no proof of its authenticity. Wilt Chamberlain is supposed to have told his coach that he would show up at the arena once on game days, and the coach could choose: shootaround or the game. I'd like to think it's a true story and that Wilt's coach knew which choice to make.
Mike Monroe: This should be a trend
There was a little bit of news at Spurs practice Wednesday morning that ought to reverberate around the league. With a game against the Warriors scheduled for AT&T Center on Thursday night, Tom James, the team's media relations director, informed the media assembled to talk to coaches and players that the team would continue the practice it began after the All-Star break last season of skipping a morning shootaround before home games.
This announcement was received gleefully by reporters who already spend too much of their time at the team's practice facility on a daily basis.
Game-day shootarounds were started back in the 1960s by legendary Lakers coach Bill Sharman. The story I have heard is that Sharman was concerned that some of his players were spending a little too much time on the town the night before games. His solution was to schedule a morning practice on game days so the players would have to get up. Whatever the reason, as soon as Sharman's highly successful Lakers began having a game-day shootaround, other NBA teams fell in line and began scheduling them, too.
At first, shootarounds were just that: The players would loosen up and shoot around, perhaps getting a quick scouting report about that night's opponent. Over the years they became true practice sessions, with an emphasis on preparation for that night's opponent.
It seems that the Spurs, the NBA's most successful franchise for the past decade, might start a new trend and help rid the basketball world of the shootaround. Of course, as Raptors coach Sam Mitchell pointed out last season when told that the Spurs were doing away with them, when you have very recent championship banners hanging in your arena, you can do just about anything you want.
There is a funny story about the early days of shootarounds, though I have no proof of its authenticity. Wilt Chamberlain is supposed to have told his coach that he would show up at the arena once on game days, and the coach could choose: shootaround or the game. I'd like to think it's a true story and that Wilt's coach knew which choice to make.