Inside the excitement and uncertainty as NBA players return to facilities

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DAMIAN LILLARD HAS never entered the Portland Trail Blazers‘ training center through the media entrance, but there’s nothing natural about May 8, the first time he walks into the facility since the NBA shuttered it March 20 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Wearing a mask, Lillard steps into a makeshift check-in area, where a member of the health and performance staff aims a no-touch, infrared thermometer to check his temperature. Next, Lillard empties his pockets — phone, car keys, wallet — and places them into a ziplock bag. He then washes his hands in the media bathroom, after which he is presented with a pair of rubber gloves. The whole process feels more like getting prepped for surgery than for a 90-minute training session.

Lillard would normally head to the locker room, but the players’ inner sanctum is off-limits for the foreseeable future. In this new, stripped-down routine, Lillard walks immediately to his assigned court, where his gear is waiting for him along with a rack containing only two basketballs, a towel, water and Gatorade.

Geoff Clark, the Blazers’ head athletic trainer, designed this air-tight, regimented schedule to conform to the NBA’s protocol for reopening. Four players will spend 90 minutes each at the practice center at an appointed time, each given a rotation to ensure they won’t come into contact with one another. For example, only one player can be in the weight room or therapy area at a time.

The Blazers were among the first two NBA teams to return to facilities three weeks ago, when eight of their rostered players showed up. Most of the league has since followed suit — the Dallas Mavericks will open their gym on Thursday, leaving only the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, San Antonio Spurs and Washington Wizards shut down. The challenges and joys the Blazers have been experiencing could be guideposts for the rest.

On Day 1 of the reopening, Lillard draws the 10:30 a.m. slot and starts his session with longtime Blazers assistant coach Nate Tibbetts. Lillard has worked out with Tibbetts more than 1,000 times over the past seven years, but never before has Tibbetts worn a mask and gloves on the court.

Lillard sees longtime teammate CJ McCollum going through his routine with Blazers player development coach, Jon Yim, but the backcourt running mates won’t get a chance to chop it up, at least not face-to-face. There exists a cardinal rule: one guy, one coach, one basket.

Then for the first time in what feels like an eternity, Lillard runs through his greatest hits, the barrage of long-range bombs, the floaters, the repertoire that makes him Damian Lillard.

“The whole first week was a breath of fresh air,” Lillard says. “On a certain level, it was exciting. You’re finally back on the court and you’re seeing everyone’s faces again.”

On a typical non-game day, Lillard might stick around after his workout — hang out with teammates as everyone ices, enjoy the steam room or hydropools, grab a bite to eat in the cafeteria, maybe perform some cardio on the Alter G anti-gravity treadmill. But not today. The horn sounds at noon so the next group can enter, because only four players can be on the premises at a time. Besides, the wet areas of the facility are off-limits during the reopening period, so he isn’t even allowed to shower.

With sweaty clothes stuck to his body, Lillard leaves at noon sharp through the front door to avoid the next group on his way to his car. The parking lot is a popular place for players and staff to chat. To discourage that, an empty spot must now be left between each vehicle.

Though Lillard’s workout is abbreviated and restricted, he can finally release the pent-up energy accumulated while being locked out of the gym for nearly two months. The return for Lillard and his teammates comes with both anticipation of what he hopes will be more basketball ahead, but also some disorientation.

“There’s so much stuff you never realize or appreciate you have access to until you’re without it,” Lillard says. “But it was still good to be back.”

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Brian Windhorst details the various challenges the NBA is facing in its attempt to return to action.

FOR THE PLAYERS who work at an NBA facility, it’s an office, a health club, a refuge from the glare of the public spotlight, even a social service center where their daily needs — material, physical and emotional — are addressed. For the Blazers, it’s also a clubhouse where a team that has achieved a particularly strong cohesion during the Lillard era develops that esprit de corps.

“The practice facility is a home away from home,” McCollum says. “You probably spend more time there than anywhere else. For a lot of us, it’s really therapeutic. It’s where you find your overall balance in life. A lot of people were lacking that, and had to figure out that balance without it.”

For all the ways the May reopening has allowed players to reassemble the structure they lost when the season was suspended, the restrictions limit the true benefit of the facility: team-building.

“[The facility] is the place where the culture is built,” Lillard says. “It’s fulfilling to be in that environment. It’s part of the balance of our lives and you come to count on that. But right now, that’s unavailable, so it’s tough.”

In some respects, social distancing put a team whose social capital is its strength at a competitive disadvantage. It’s difficult to embrace teammates when they must stand at a distance.

“I don’t see how you can do it,” says Lillard, lamenting that the joy of sitting over a meal with teammates after practice is still absent. Now, players are offered a box lunch on their way out the door.

While Blazers get up shots, never closer than six feet from one another, Terry Stotts can only watch through the glass wall that separates his office from the court. Stotts, the fourth-longest serving head coach in the NBA, is not permitted to associate with his players right now. The league has determined that face-to-face interactions between a head coach and players at a training center — or even having a head coach observe workouts — would provide a team with a competitive advantage over rivals whose facilities are still closed.

“One of the best things as a coach is when you have a relationship with players,” Stotts says. “But that relationship is built on the court.”

For now, Stotts keeps himself busy in his office. Though there’s very little specifically he can do for his players as they trickle into the facility, he feels it’s important just to be around.

All 10 Blazers who live nearby are participating in the voluntary workouts in the week that followed the reopening. Though they can’t soak in a cold tub or rib one another in the weight room, a new brand of structure has asserted itself in Portland.

BY MAY 15, one week after the Blazers reopened, the novelty of returning to the facility has worn off for Lillard. While he still values the opportunity to get some portion of his work in, the restrictions are becoming onerous and, truthfully, just strange.

“The second week everyone is like, ‘All right, this is kind of weird,'” Lillard says. “The excitement is gone and now it’s, ‘What going on?'”



Source : ESPN