Every day we hear a new story about how much fun everyone is having over in Italy. One day they are shaving their heads, the next they are giving book reports on Ubuntu , the next they are touring the Vatican. Big Baby alone is worth an interesting anecdote a day (eating octupus, hit by a smartcar, eating oysters and having bad gas ). Even the sports writers are getting in on the act. And just about every day you read "practice was cancelled tonight."
Oh, and it took the first unit half the week to beat the reserves.
At least one commentor (by the name of Ancient Red) thinks they are having too much fun. In his words:
They're having too much fun here!!! Sorry but I don't like it.... This is trainnig camp....These players are suppose to be sweaty and leaving there souls on the court.... We don't have banner 17 yet...and I'm getting disgruntled about how they are all singing Kumbaya.....Doc better make sure these players are ready.... To me they don't seem hungry except when they are eating octopus.....
I kind of understand where he's coming from. At some point, these guys have to stop playing and start acting like this is their job. Training camp is supposed to be hard and you can see why some teams in years past might have blamed the trip overseas for a slow start. The Suns started out sloggy last year after a trip like this one and that was a team that returned pretty much the whole team from the year before. This Celtics team has a lot of new pieces to fit together. Can they aford to be goofing off?
I think so, yes.
If anything, the Suns team from last year was probably sick of each other after a long playoffs the year before. Traveling together was nothing new to them. This team of fresh faces really is benefitting from the fun time they are having overseas. They are getting to know each other off the court and developing bonds. Rookies are becoming less awed by the presense of 3 superstars. They are building a team identity. All these things are good things.
It is better than prior years when we had to hear about a player getting into a fight in a club or accused of being involved with shooting a rapper. If the team is going to have fun and blow off steam, why not do it together in a semi-controlled environment?
When they get back to the States they'll still have a couple of weeks to focus on the goal and get into a better rhythm, but they'll probably never get a chance to go to beautiful Italy as a team again. Trust me, I visited the country earlier this year myself, and it is a wonderful experience.
So live it up boys. Enjoy yourselves. Then, when once you've gotten that out of your system, you can come back here and really get to work.