Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Chris Paul said his daughter brightened his day with a very simple act.
“My daughter made my day yesterday. She finally called me when she got up in the morning,” Paul said. “One of the things with family, sometimes it’s sometimes out of sight, out of mind.”
Routine has been hard to come by for some Thunder players, especially when it comes to communicating with family often and consistently.
Initially, Paul said, his family was in North Carolina. Being in the same time zone made it simpler. Now, they’re in Los Angeles.
“We knew coming down here the mental aspect was going to be harder than the physical aspect,” he said.
Head coach Billy Donovan said the scheduling of practices and games makes it challenging to find a routine.
“No day is quite the same,” he said.
Donovan listed out their schedules from previous days:
The game against the Boston Celtics on Friday was at 5 p.m. Eastern Time. They next day, they practiced at 1 p.m. The game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday tipped off at noon, and Monday’s practice was at 9 a.m.
“I don’t know the last time our guys played a noon game. I don’t know the last time our guys practiced at 9 o’clock in the morning,” Donovan said.
After the practice or games, they head back to the hotel rooms. The activities available outside the room including fishing and golf give the people in the bubble more things to do, but there’s a feel of monotony.
“You can get caught, it’s like the same thing. It’s the same meeting room. It’s filling out your questionnaire in morning. Going through all these things, and you can kind of lose track of time, you’re just going through the same thing every day,” Donovan said.
“But can you really, really stay engaged to understanding that this is a little bit different (of) a routine and it takes I think a lot of focus and concentration on getting yourself ready to play.”
Three weeks into the bubble experience, there’s little feeling of routine even with those tasks they must complete every day.
Darius Bazley hasn’t been able to establish one.
“Not really much routine. There are things that I guess I do every day,” he said. “Everything’s kind of up and down so it’s kind of hard to get into a rhythm.”
Bazley said he has been reading the Bible while in the bubble to keep a level head, but even so, much of the day — practicing, going home and hanging out afterward — is similar to the 20-year-old’s typical day outside the bubble.
Paul’s daughter sent him coloring books, so he has found a way to connect with his life at home.
It’s just maybe not as regularly as he’d like.
And at practice, coaches have been planning more creative and competitive drills to keep players engaged and the activities fresh.
“As a coaching staff, you try to do different things to break up the monotony of the same old,” Donovan said.