Friday afternoon bled into Saturday morning as the Thunder hopped from Oklahoma City, took a pit stop for fuel in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and then made its way across the Atlantic Ocean overnight.
As the sun ascended over the horizon, the Thunder’s charter flight descended into Madrid, Spain where the team will spend three days before moving on to Barcelona for another three days as a part of the NBA’s Global Games.
After a few hours of getting settled into the hotel, catching up on some sleep and getting a bite to eat, the Thunder wasted no time getting back to work. A brief drive to Real Madrid’s practice facility provided most of the Thunder players with a brand new experience, considering the world-renowned soccer and basketball clubs share a large swath of land outside of the city.
One player is familiar with the lay of the land – Kyle Singler – who played for Real Madrid before his NBA career began. In fact five Thunder players including Singler, Ersan Ilyasova, Alex Abrines, Domantas Sabonis and Joffrey Lauvergne all played in Spain professionally at some point in their careers.
Lauvergne laid the ground work for his breakthrough seasons in Serbia and Russia by competing for the Spanish club Valencia, on the eastern coast of Spain along the Mediterranean Sea. That formative time was crucial in his development, but also opened the Frenchman’s eyes to the quality of basketball being played just across the Pyrenees Mountains from his home country.
“Spain has always been a very good country to play basketball, probably one of the best,” Lauvergne said, highlighting the power and cohesiveness of both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, who the Thunder will battle on Monday and Wednesday night respectively.
“Two great teams, two of the best teams in Europe,” Lauvergne continued. “There are a lot of very good players and players who have played in the NBA before and will play in the NBA in the future. I think it’s going to be hard because they’ve practiced together for a month or a month in a half and we’ve only been together for a week. It’s going to be very interesting for us and for them I’m sure.”
U.S. Cellular Thunder Training Camp began last Saturday, and while the team still has a ways to go, newcomers like Lauvergne are getting acclimated to Head Coach Billy Donovan’s defensive system and offensive concepts. Playing against well-oiled, veteran machines like Real Madrid and FC Barcelona will really test the Thunder’s connectedness on the floor, a challenge that will prove fruitful as the team builds towards the regular season.
“I feel comfortable with the way we play and the atmosphere on the team,” Lauvergne said. “I really like it and I can’t wait to start the season now.
“We’re looking forward to improving in the game and knowing each other better than before we got to Spain,” he added.
The recently acquired big man is meshing on the court with his teammates, and if his answer to the number one thing he’s looking forward to this week in Spain is any indicator, he’ll fit right in with the likes of Steven Adams and Russell Westbrook off the court.
“The food is great here. You will see,” Lauvergne promised, listing off tapas, churros for breakfast and jamón as the must-haves on this trip.
The Thunder will practice again in Madrid on Sunday and participate in a community outreach event for fans here in the city before going into regular season-style game mode with a shootaround on Monday morning before the 1:30 p.m. CT tip-off on Monday night against Real Madrid. That game can be found on NBATV and WWLS the Sports Animal and the Thunder Radio Network.
Thunder Minute: Oct. 1