Wednesday, October 3, 2007

It's on to Day 3 of Camp

It's on to Day-3 of camp...so far, 95% of work has been done in drills...over and over...which is typical for NBA teams the first week of October...last night there was a spirited 5-on-5 half court scrimmage if you will, where the guys, really got after it.

The biggest reaction from the players comes during a 2:00 drill, where they run a 3-man weave, sprinting the 94 feet, without the ball touching the floor...then back the other way...they do the length of the floor with 3 passes....the task is to make 20 lay-ups in that 2:00 stretch...it takes about 5-6 seconds to go the length...so, if you do the math...there is no margin for error...in fact, if the ball touches the floor, if there is a turnover or a missed lay-up, the clock starts over..22 is the high number so far, but it really gets the guys flying up and down the floor.

At the end of practice the entire team sprints up and back from the the baseline...LeBron cracks me up...he'll stay near the head of the pack, and then the final 30 feet turn it on, to make sure no one beats him....yesterday, Boobie was in the lead, LeBron took a peak at him, and turned on the jets...I don't need to tell you who hit the baseline first...I'd hate to play the guy in pool or video games...he hates losing period!!!

More tomorrow...looking forward to Friday night's Wine and Gold scrimmage at Rhodes Arena.

2 comments:

Tsunami said...

Fred - what is LeBron's role in practice? Does he let Mike Brown do all the coaching, or is he more vocal. Also, how does he treat the rest of the players, especially the young players - with a tough love stance, or more of a supportive role?

Fred McLeod said...

Hey Tom...

LeBron is very much in tune with Mike....he, like the other players, often makes suggestions, which this coaching staff is very open to...and some head coaches do not invite that kind of input..

LeBron is what I would call an embracing teammate...there is chemistry that has been built here and continues to be built..along with that comes trust in teammates, which we really saw from 23 last season.

LeBron is not an in your face guy in practice...and frankly on good teams that isn't necessary...his hard work of leading by example sends a more resounding message.