Temporary Practice Site Selected
Oklahoma City’s NBA team has reached an agreement to purchase the Performance Sports Center in Edmond to serve as its temporary practice facility for next season.
A permanent training location has yet to be determined.
Team officials began exploring temporary options two weeks ago, touring the campuses of Oklahoma City University, Southern Nazarene University and Oklahoma Christian University. Team chairman Clay Bennett, general manager Sam Presti, coach P.J. Carlesimo and director of basketball technology Paul Rivers were among the team executives that took the 30-minute tours.
“We were quite impressed with what Performance Sports Center was able to offer for our temporary needs,” said Presti. “The NBA size court and weight and training facilities are efficient for us in the interim. It’s an excellent location and we feel our players, coaches and staff will fit in well there. The Oklahoma City area offered several good facilities, but we decided this best met our needs.”
The team will use the Performance Sports Center as its full-time training site for the 2008-09 season, conducting all non game day practices at the facility and using the location as the center for the basketball operations offices.
According to its Web site, the 30,000 square foot Performance Sports Center has two full size basketball courts, volleyball courts, a state-of-the-art weight room a 65-yard indoor sprint track and full locker rooms showers and dressing areas.
Team officials said the facility will require some improvements to the locker rooms, training area, office space and meeting rooms to bring it up to NBA standards. The team won’t move into the facility until the upgrades are completed, which is expected to be around late September.
“This is a very important piece of our basketball operations,” Presti said. “It’s the players’ office, where they spend a great deal of time practicing, conditioning and continuing to develop as a team.”
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Comments
After the team gets settle into their new surroundings and get into a season routine. Will the OKC(TBD) ever have a open house so fans might tour their facilities? It would be interesting to see what “NBA Standards” are. Sure I would be blown away if I ever saw it.
I know that B-rad. Just thought it would be exciting to see where they trained. I would ask the same question about the Lakers, Mavericks, Celtics or Spurs. I am just a fan who would feel just a little closer to the team if I visited the facility or watch a practice. So just call me a sports dork.
Dude, I was joking. Of course there standards would be wicked. (And on the DL, I’m a huge sports dork too!)
Go OKC Potatoes!!!