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09/18/2002 12:00 AM
From the days of George Gervin to David Robinson's arrival in 1989 to the current Tim Duncan era, the Spurs have been a team on the move, dribbling from local gym to another, always looking for a place to practice and a home to call their own.
The players' lounge area at the Spurs' Northwest Side facility has a pool table and video-game consoles. 'When guys are home and they're antsy and they want to go do something, it's a great place to come,' Coach Gregg Popovich said.
The gym has two side-by-side full-length courts and is thought to be the league's only private practice facility with six baskets that have NBA 3-point lines.
"For as long as I can remember," said Spurs general manager R.C. Buford, "we've been vagabonds."
After years of shuttling between Blossom Athletic Center, HemisFair Arena, the University of the Incarnate Word, Trinity University and the Alamodome, the Spurs will put an end to their nomadic ways this month when they finish moving into a 37,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art office-and-workout headquarters that promises to be part practice facility, part resort.
"It took until his last year," Spurs chairman Peter Holt said, "but David finally gets a practice facility."
Robinson and the rest of the players will not only be able to finally kick up their feet, they can rest them on leather recliners while watching their favorite movies on a giant projection screen in the team's spacious theater.
"We wanted to create a place," Buford said, "where our players wanted to come all the time."
After scrapping plans to construct a practice court inside the SBC Center with arena funds — the new arena's numerous event dates would have restricted players' access — the Spurs decided to use their own money to build a more spacious facility on the city's Northwest Side. The project was initially supposed to be completed in time for last season, but was delayed in part by developmental issues.
The facility, which also houses offices for the team's basketball operations staff, cost about $6 million. Sean Elliott deferred about $4 million from the final year of his contract to help the franchise begin construction.
Buford spent the past two years planning and overseeing completion of the facility after touring many of the NBA's other practice sites.
Players will have 24-hour access to the complex, and gain entry by scanning their thumbprints. Offices and meeting rooms — outfitted with 9-foot-tall doors, leather furniture, flat-screen TVs and high-speed Internet connections — overlook the practice area.
"This is the best facility in the league," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "We incorporated everything we thought was necessary and then some."
The gym contains two side-by-side full-length courts and is believed to be the only private practice facility in the league with six baskets each with an NBA 3-point line. Unlike in the Spurs' cramped quarters in the Alamodome, the new weight room is large enough for the entire team to work out at the same time.
The training room/rehab center contains a steam room, separate hot and cold tubs and a rehab pool with an underwater treadmill and cameras to monitor players' progress. A lap pool and training hill similar to the one at UIW will be added in the future.
The new weight room is large enough for the entire team to work out at the same time, an improvement over the team's old cramped facilities.
Orthopedic Surgery Associates of San Antonio, which includes Spurs physicians David Schmidt and Paul Saenz, has plans to move its offices next to the facility — giving the team easy access to medical care. HealthSouth Corp., which provides outpatient surgical and rehabilitative services, also is developing a sports medicine complex for the center.
The Spurs' video room, little more than a cubby hole at the Alamodome, now features rows of satellite receivers and DVD players and burners, allowing staffers to compile personalized film clips and scouting reports for players to watch on their laptop computers at home or in flight. The theater houses a drop-down projection screen and another 60-inch screen with telestrating capabilities.
In addition to watching movies, players can retire to a lounge that contains a pool table and video-game consoles.
"When guys are home and they're antsy and they want to go do something, it's a great place to come," Popovich said. "That can build camaraderie."
The Spurs, one of the only teams in the league to not have their own practice gym last season, also hope to use the new facility as a recruiting tool to lure prospective free agents.
"I've come here every day since the first of August to practice," Tony Parker said. "We have everything.
"When you look at it, you can say, 'This is the Spurs' home.'"
Notebook: The Spurs have hired Olympic gold-medal-winning high jumper Charles Austin to work with the players this season.
"Our goal is to get Danny (Ferry) and Steve (Kerr) to dunk this season," Buford said.
