DIARY: My day at the Kings practice facility

(From the diaries. I wanted to get this one a little more attention - it really shows us an inside glimpse of assistant coach Mark Hughes, trainer Mark Shapiro, and pesky swingman Francisco Garcia. -TZ)

I work downtown running all the sports programs for a non-profit organization.

I received an invitation to go to a coaches clinic held at the Kings practice facility last night.

The practice facility is amazing.  Two full NBA courts, one with the Kings Logo, and one with the Monarchs logo are inside.

A big deal was made of the signs Musselman had put up as motivation, and you really cant miss them if you tried.  The 42% was still up though, and I really thought they would have scrapped that one a long time ago.  Some of the other signs, like the Kings core vales made me laugh becasue I could not remember seeing them do things like paint catches, more free throw attempts, out-rebound, and defend in a long time.

As guest speakers, we had the Moarchs head coach (whoever she was), Kings strength and conditioning coach Daniel Shapiro, and Kings assistant Mark Hughes.

I didn't get too much from the Monarchs coach, but I got some really great insight from Mark Hughes, who might possibly be the most polite person I have ever met.  He was really working with everyone who was there, and going through drills.  He was great in answering everyone's questions.  He sounds a lot like Avery Johnson with his knowledge of the game.

I was most interested in Daniel Shapiro.  This guys resume read off like a list of Shawn Kemp's kids.  Bachelor's, Masters, Seattle's strength and conditioning coach during their heyday in the 1990's, head coach in college, and now the Kings strength and conditioning coach.

I was interested to learn that he no longer stretches the players out. Instead, he has them go through an aerobic workout to stretch the players.

Something kind of clicked with me as I realized, I watched the Kings do this before the game.  But not before the second half starts.  So then I kind of pieced together why the Kings might be so bad in the third quarter, because they are still cold coming out of the locker room.  I dont know, it might just be chemistry, but it is interesting to see the consistent bad play in the third.

Things wrapped up about 8:30, but guess who was walking in while we were leaving?  Francisco Garcia, shooting jumper after jumper.  That right there is dedication.