“We talking about practice.”
–Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers, circa 2002.
It’s been more than 22 years since Iverson went on that memorable infamous rant during a post-season press conference in which he said the word “practice” 22 times.
It had been a rough season for the team, one made even more difficult for Iverson, who experienced the murder of his best friend, Rahsaan Langford. A few days before the presser, the trial began for the man accused of the murder.
76ers head coach Larry Brown often complained publicly about Iverson’s practice habits, so his emotions spilled out when he was asked about it.
In a portion of his answer, Iverson said, “We sitting in here; I’m supposed to be the franchise player, and we in here talking about practice. I mean, listen: We talking about practice. Not a game. Not a game. Not a game. We talking about practice. Not a game. Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it’s my last. Not the game. We talking about practice, man.”
So, you might ask, why is this the lede of a story about the Arizona Cardinals?
It’s simple. Because head coach Jonathan Gannon would likely throw a fit and escort a player out of the building if they ever said anything like that about “practice.”
In fact, on Monday, the day after the remarkable come-from-behind win over the defending NFC champion 49ers, Gannon was asked how proud he was with his team.
Brace yourself.
“Very proud,” Gannon said. “Honestly, you guys are probably going to not like this answer. I’m more proud of the week of practice than the actual game probably. Honestly, I really am. It just shows you the leadership and that you’ve got the right guys in the locker room because (in) the NFL it’s week-to-week. You’re going to go through ups and downs, and you try not to ride the emotional roller coaster, but that’s real in the NFL. The sky’s falling. You’re the best. You’re the worst.
“You have to block that out and you have to maximize the day. I thought that—and I told them this—I thought Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday we maximized the day. On the grass, in the weight room and with our health bucket. They did a really good job because it took all of that to get it done, but they set themselves up to have a chance to win the game. They did that and the challenge is now to do it again.”
As for how critical the overall team response was after the 28-point loss to the Commanders the week before, Gannon said, “Critical because if you don’t have a good week of practice, you’re probably not going to win a game. We are where we are right now. A lot of work to be done, a lot of corrections that need to get done, but if we keep stacking good days, good weeks, keep winning behavior on our mind and do things the right way, the league’s fair.”
He then explained how he evaluates what an excellent practice week looks like.
“The first thing I would look at is energy, how we practice and then the mindfulness of the details of each play and the plan,” Gannon said. “We put a lot on our guys mentally. It’s not easy to play here. We give them a lot of things, not just schematically but I put a lot on those guys — not just offense, defense, special teams — but the global view of the game. Our guys take to that because we show them why it’s important. I expect them to know a lot, and they do. When I ask questions in meetings, I can tell by the response that they’re on it.
“That’s a good thing, so again, you’re trying to behave in a way that’s winning behavior. Our process is kind of the same week to week and then every game is different, but you have to take care of Monday through Saturday up until game time to have a chance to win or you just won’t. I mean that’s just how the NFL is: To even do that a very high level, to even give yourself a chance to win — not to win the game — to even give yourself a chance to win. Our guys understand the correlation between that, and they go out and do it.”
In essence, it’s all about, yes, “practice.”
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