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By Mark Woods
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| Samuel Dalembert is ready to play in Europe. NBAE/Getty Images |
It’s training camp time in the National Basketball Association. The season before the season where the education takes place in the gymnasium rather than in front of thousands of fans and the glare of the television cameras. This is where the coaches have the time to implement their ideas and inject their philosophies. Once the real action starts, there simply isn’t the time. An hour or two here and there, maybe. A video session at a hotel in a far flung part of the country. A quiet word in a player’s ear. After October, it’s go, go, go.
“I know that each day is important,” admits Philadelphia 76ers forward Andre Iguodola, who will join up with his team in Spain this year for camp as part of NBA Europe Live presented by EA Sports. “We need to get certain things done on each day. Everyone has to be on the same page. Overseeing the rest, understanding how we’re out there each day, in order to take a step back in order for us to get better and go to the season.”
Sixers head coach Maurice Cheeks has a simple regime. Two practices a day. Shooting drills. Play learning. Study in the classroom. It’s not meant to be easy. But it also has to be fun. "I want them to feel good coming to work," he insists. "It's where we're going to be for eight or nine months. I want them to enjoy coming here, and I try to make it as enjoyable as possible but also a working environment. "
NBA training camps are five weeks of hard work, sweat, duress and intense learning. And that’s just if you’ve already got a guaranteed contract. For those who are still battling to make a roster, it’s a daily opportunity to prove your value to a coach, a chance to catch the eye by being that little bit hungrier than the other hopeful or providing that something extra which wasn’t there already. The vacancy may be, initially, to fill that seat at the end of the bench. But, hey, everyone has to start somewhere.
For San Antonio, Phoenix, Philadelphia and the Los Angeles Clippers, this campaign will not begin at home but on the other side of the Atlantic. Setting up camp in Europe is a new challenge, taking them further away from their families and their familiar environment, closeting each group of coaches and players inside a bubble in which the only thing that counts is the route to a championship.
“That’s going to be a great experience,” offers Sixers center Samuel Dalembert. “It’s a really nice idea, you get to go out of the United States and know a different part of the world and the game over there.”
For a rookie the adjustment is additionally hard. A new league. New team-mates. A new style of basketball. The responsibility of justifying a salary and the pressure of living up to the expectations of the team’s management. There will be mistakes made – and adjustments. No-one expects perfection on Day One. Just application and a willingness to get better.
Yet that applies to every player. There can be no relaxation, no coasting and no slacking off. A minimum of 82 games lie ahead. 82 stages on which to perform. 82 nights when 100% effort is demanded. Training camp is when the tone is set for the season ahead. Titles may not be won here – but they can be lost. It is definitely, assuredly, no vacation.