Getty Professional basketball player James Harden gets hands on time with Destiny at the Activision booth during E3 on June 10, 2014 in Los Angeles, California.
While traditionally all that is thought of in NBA training camp is the hours of hard work that each player puts in, there is plenty of time throughout the day that is not filled with basketball. Tyrese Maxey recently gave a window into what the Sixers have been doing during these times when speaking to reporters. He discussed the importance of the time spent off the court with each other and hinted at the fierce video game battles that occur behind the scenes. The 21-year-old can be seen given his full experience in recent days in the clip below.
Tyrese on post practice activities in Charleston. (playing cards, Madden, Fifa etc.)
Sixers Team Bonding
One of the reasons Doc Rivers discussed bringing camp to Charleston was the opportunity for more team bonding. With each player stepping away from their normal lives and out of their comfort zones, they have an opportunity to experience training camp together. Just as Maxey pointed out in the video clip, this is exactly what seems to be happening behind the scenes with the Sixers.
While everything that happens on the basketball court is obviously most important, this off-court connection can play a major role in ensuring the team is on the same page this season. There has been plenty of off-court drama surrounding the Sixers organization in recent years and to see the team getting along should be a sigh of relief for fans.
In the video clip, Maxey mentioned spending several hours with Joel Embiid, James Harden, PJ Tucker, De’Anthony Melton, Tobias Harris, and Georges Niang. One can only imagine the things being said in these intense matchups of FIFA and Madden between the NBA standouts.
Importance of Video Games
It should be no surprise that video games were the activity of choice. Embiid has been extremely open about his love for FIFA and regularly tweets out about the video game. During one of his earlier years in the NBA, Embiid went over to then assistant coach Billy Lange’s house for dinner. This meal turned into a video game competition as Embiid brought his Playstation along with him.
The superstar spent the next few hours playing video games with Lange’s kids who at the time were seven, nine, and ten. Embiid reportedly showed no mercy and beat the kids in a massive way without taking his foot off the gas. The former assistant coach was asked about Embiid’s video game performance when playing 2K with his children and put it that:
“He was beating them by like 200 points. He was unrelenting and he was talking smack. “Can’t guard me. You can’t get a stop.” All of it. Just giggling. Unbelievable. While my wife is cooking for him,” per Jayson Jenks, Rich Hoffman, and Rustin Dodd of The Athletic.
This type of competitive drive is part of what makes these players so elite on the court. While Embiid admittedly may have taken it overboard when playing against the children, he has full reign to trash talk as much as he wants when playing against his current teammates. He may have publicly reeled in the amount of trash talk that is being done, but it should not be forgotten that the superstar is one of the best wordsmiths in the NBA.
The Sixers have now wrapped up training camp in Charleston and are set to travel back to the Philadelphia area. Their first preseason game will take place Monday night against the Brooklyn Nets. It will soon be seen if this off-court bonding can translate to on-court success as the Sixers get their first test against an opponent.
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The Surprising Way Sixers are Competing Off the Court at Training Camp