Bazzell and Anthony were connected through Anthony’s physiotherapist Fabrice Gautier. They worked from June to August in Los Angeles. Bazzell also worked with Anthony in New York prior to the season and in the days leading up to his Portland debut. He says Anthony, 35, was very much open to making changes to his game: “He was actually extremely receptive. I was actually kind of surprised that a guy who has had that much success playing a certain way (was so receptive). He was completely bought into the (idea that on) the defensive side of the ball, he’s got to get better. He was bought into not being able to hold the ball (on offense). We would still work on his mid-post because I think that’s going to be a part of his game that he’s going to have to rely on to score every now and then. You don’t take that away, you keep all of that fresh. When we would play one-on-one scenarios, when he’d catch, it’s hard because sometimes you just have a tendency to hold it, relax and kind of let the defense make a mistake. It was just trying to break habits that he’s built up for so long and he was never defensive about it. He was always 100 percent in agreement with what I was saying, which makes my job and my life 100 percent easier.”