Spurs: Game-day routine at home will remain pat
Web Posted: 10/17/2007 11:29 PM CDT
Mike Monroe
San Antonio Express-News
With a veteran squad primarily consisting of players who have been with the team for at least three seasons, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has chosen to continue a practice that worked well for his club last season — no game-day shootarounds for home games.
NBA teams have been conducting game-day practices and walk-throughs the morning before games for more than 30 years, but the Spurs, with one of the oldest rosters in the league, discontinued the practice after the All-Star break last season.
Skipping the practices coincided with the club’s late-season surge that led to an NBA title so home game shootarounds are out to begin this season.
The Spurs will shoot around the day of most road games.
“It’s just something we did a lot last year after the All-Star break, where we’re able to go through a team’s offense and some of the things we’re going to do on the day before the game,” veteran guard Brent Barry said.
“It’s just another day we don’t have to come to the gym and listen to the coaches bark at us. Some of the guys like that, but the gym is open, so even though we don’t have a formal shootaround as a team, we still have a lot of guys come to the gym for a routine to make sure they’re ready for that night’s game.”
But Barry doesn’t think other teams will follow the Spurs’ example.
“I don’t think it’s something a lot of coaches are going to embrace,” Barry said. “They want their teams in there and want their guys to be ready.”
When Toronto Raptors coach Sam Mitchell was told last spring that the Spurs no longer held morning shootarounds, he pointed to the championship banners hanging from the ceiling at AT&T Center.
“When you’ve got some of those hanging from the rafters,” Mitchell said then, “you can do whatever you want.”
Horry away: Veteran forward Robert Horry was on an excused absence from practice Wednesday for the third consecutive day to tend to some personal business.
His return to the team remains day-by-day.