Buford sheds light on his call with team presidents and provides update on the Spurs' organisation
Friday 1 May 2020 08:40, UK
San Antonio Spurs executive RC Buford says NBA teams have 'every intention' of returning to finish the 2019-20 season.
San Antonio Spurs CEO RC Buford spent more than 30 minutes on Thursday on a video conference with local media, and made it clear the organisation is on board with returning to play as soon as the NBA deems it safe enough.
"Our position all along has been we want to do what's right for the league and for the fans," Buford said. "I just got off a team presidents' call before I jumped on with you guys, and every intention is to return to play, and to try to create the best environment we can for the league, and for the fans. We're all on board for that."
Buford's video call marked the first time a team official had addressed the media since the NBA suspended the regular season a day after San Antonio's March 10 win over the Dallas Mavericks at the AT&T Center.
Buford also addressed a variety of other subjects, ranging from the team's preparation for the NBA Draft and virtual workouts and rehabilitation sessions with its current players, not to mention the technological proficiency of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.
When the league opens back up, are you anticipating fans will be able to attend?
We're having those discussions with the league, and most of those discussions will be league-wide determinations on how we present our games at the point and time when we do present our games. There are committees going on both from the sporting side, from the media side, from the arena operations side, from the ownership side, from team presidents. There's so much conversation right now about how we can best engage our games and our fans. No decisions have been made.
As the league looks at a potential return, is it too early to tell whether the NBA picks up the season from where it left off or would the end of the regular season be condensed in some form?
Until we are clear on the timing for a safe environment, it's impossible to designate the individual scenarios that might happen. But we're modelling multiple scenarios that have not only our teams, our league, our players, our media partners, there are multiple people at those tables having those decisions, and we hope we'll do what's best for our fans. I think we all know, not only in our community and our region, but around the country and around the world, people are missing sports and we're missing playing. I think that's the problem we're trying to solve.
How has the team been able to keep up with the players to keep them prepared to play when the season resumes?
Our coaching staff and our performance team were really creative and really proactive early on in this process. The front office, the performance team, and the coaches got together and really systematically set up opportunities that we could get with our guys and help them during this time. We had no idea what we were going into. There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered around that before there's a safe environment for our players to get back together.
But there have been virtual workouts. [Athletic performance coordinator] Anthony Falsone has been in 15 different garages over the iPads helping guys workout together. We've had players in different locations working out together. We've had team virtual calls and communications. Getting [Spurs coach Gregg Popovich] on a virtual call was the biggest challenge we've faced during the hiatus. But I think our group has been really creative in keeping the team as connected as we can be, at the same time maintaining safe environments and sheltering from home.
Where are the players for the most part, and how do you monitor them health-wise during this time?
We're having systematically timed calls with everybody or virtual meetings with everybody. Most of our group is in market. I think we've been really fortunate that a big percentage of our group has been in market. We've had virtual workouts. We've had virtual rehabilitation sessions. So, guys who are fighting through injuries are doing virtual rehabilitation. We've had coaching and video sessions. When we're not all together, I think they've done a good job of staying connected.
Do you have plans to open the practice facilities once the league actually clears it?
We're gonna make that decision as we get more information, as we have more data around our own local environment as well as the national environment in doing what we can to create a safe place for the team to come back together. We're not putting any dates on it. It's gonna be more how we get the information that we need to be comfortable to provide the right atmosphere for our players.
What's been the mindset of the front office as it pertains to preparing for the Draft and free agency?
Scenario planning has been really important, and our front office has continued to prepare for the Draft, for free agency, for team building as we normally would be during this time. But there are no target dates, they're more target responsibilities.
We just got the early-entrant candidates list in the last couple of days. That at least gives some kind of clarity on who the draft pool will be. But from there, we don't have clarity on a Chicago pre-Draft, or medicals or all the things that go along with Draft preparation. It was interesting to watch the NFL Draft and to share some of the learnings that we found observing there depending on where we might find ourselves at a later time. They at least had the opportunity to have their combine before the hiatus started. So, we're working through the places that we need to fill gaps right now.
Before this all started, there had been owners discussing changes to the NBA calendar long term. Any chance that could be considered moving forward, that the whole NBA calendar could be permanently changed?
Those are decisions that will be made at a league level. There are all kinds of discussions going on now. But we recognise whatever decisions we make currently are going to have an impact on more than just the current season. They are modelling significant scenarios. There are media partners that have an influence in those decisions as well as teams and league personnel. The Players Association would have opinions around that. So those scenarios are being modelled.
How do virtual workouts work? Is the entire team on the same Zoom call?
Maybe not the whole team. I don't know if we can get a dozen guys, but we're bringing groups together, a lot of them in their garages or their living rooms that have turned into a gym now. It's really just a virtual conversation with Anthony Falsone going crazy.
How much has Pop's technological literacy improved during the last month or so?
I know he knows how to use a cell phone still. I'm not sure outside of that! But he has gotten on to a virtual call, or multiple virtual calls. I'll let you ask him that when we get him back in the gym.
