The Philadelphia 76ers are set to head down to Orlando on Thursday and resume the 2019-20 season which has been suspended since March 11. The team has been away from each other due to the fact that they had to be quarantined and it can be tough to keep a mindset on basketball during a time such as this one when health and safety come to the forefront.
However, for a team like the Sixers, they wanted to remain in contact and push each other forward in the case that they do get their chance to resume the season. Now, that they do have it, their time in contact can be beneficial to what they want to do.
A message that they have continued to push across during this time has been professionalism. Glenn Robinson III explained that their time together over video calls was nice for him and the team to get ready for this opportunity. The team took coach Brett Brown’s message about being in shape to heart during the time away.
“We created a team message while we were on Zoom and it’s just ‘be professional, take care of your business, handle what you got to handle, and come back in shape’,” said Robinson III. “Brett made a comment about ‘get yourselves to a ‘B’ and I’ll get you to an ‘A’ conditioning-wise once we get down to Orlando. I think just from talking to all the guys and listening to the hard work that they’ve put in, I think we’re going to be ready to go and I think that this is definitely what being a professional is about.”
Being a professional is hugely important in this league. All of the hard work that the team puts in and what an individual player puts in makes a big difference for any championship push. Robinson III was impressed with how the team handled themselves in quarantine as well as being able to stay together and build chemistry. That was something that was tough for these guys to come up with considering the overall newness of everybody.
“It’s how do you come back to training camp? What’s your focus level at? Have you been watching film? Those little things will be able to take this team to the next level,” he explained. “We have the pieces. We just have to form that mentality. That chemistry starts from things we’ve been doing leading up to this point now and I think from where I came in for just the three weeks that I was here, we’re way more connected now even though we haven’t been together and I think that’s really important and honestly, I’m really excited about that.”
The Sixers head down to Orlando on Thursday in order to get ready for the season resumption on August 1 for them. [lawrence-related id=34358,34321,34335]