The Wright Stuff

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SEPT. 18, 2007 - So right now I'm in the middle of nowhere. Apparently, I'm somewhere in New York, but it's hard to tell. There's really nothing out here. I'm out here for the league's rookie orientation program, which all rookies have to attend. I flew in, drove over to the hotel, checked in and walked around the lobby, but I haven't seen any other rookies yet. They've got us here in some random hotel through Friday. They will walk us through all kinds of seminars on media training and business and stuff. I've heard the whole program is long and drawn out. But it's probably good to go through something like this. I don't know who the guest speakers are, though. Hope they have someone good lined up.

Every day we're in conferences and meetings and stuff until pretty late, so there isn't too much time for us to work out afterwards. It doesn't matter too much because the gym here isn't all that great. And there's no basketball court here, either. That's too bad, because with all of the rookies here, we could have some great pick-up games.

I'm not really super tight with any of the guys in the rookie class yet. I missed a lot of the actual draft itself back in June because I didn't get to New York until late the night before. So I missed a lot of the time you usually get to hang out with the other rookies. But I'm sure I'll get to know some of them the next few days.</p>

I am pretty good friends with Greg Oden, though. I hung out with him a bunch at the rookie photo shoot. He's a really cool, really quiet guy. He's nice and down to earth too. We talked a bunch, played video games, typical guy stuff.

His whole situation is really unfortunate. Injuries and surgery are part of the game; it's just one of those unfortunate things. But I think Greg will come back strong. He has to be patient with the process, though. It's tough to sit out for a long time and then have to come back like you've never been gone.

What's most difficult is he's going to have to be a rookie again next season. I think a big thing about your rookie year isn't just playing the games but learning about all the off-the-court stuff. Unfortunately, he's going to have to wait to learn a lot of this stuff. But I'm sure he'll be fine.

(I've been lucky. The worst injury I've ever had is a sprained ankle. I hurt my hip a little while ago, but it's totally fine now. I've never even had to have surgery or anything. Knock on wood ...)

Anyway, before coming out to New York, I've been in Oakland for the last month or so. During that time I bought an apartment and a new car. My apartment is a three-bedroom place in a high-rise building in Oakland. It's pretty close to the practice facilities. I think five other guys on the Warriors live there. I know that Stephen Jackson and Stephane Lasme live in my building. And apparently a couple of other guys do too; I'm just not sure who.

As for my car, I bought a BMW 750Li. That and the apartment are pretty much the only things that I've bought since going pro. I'm big on saving money, so I don't plan on spending too much. It was weird, you'd think buying a car like that would be a big moment, but it wasn't a huge thing. Maybe it'll seem like a bigger deal in a few weeks, but I didn't have one of those, "Wow, now I'm an NBA player" moments when I got behind the wheel or anything like that. In fact, I don't even remember what song was playing when I first drove it back to my hotel. It was on some urban radio station in Oakland. That's about it.</div></p>

Source: Blog the Wright Stuff</p>

So far, the only players to work out at the practice facility are me, Stephane Lasme and Kosta Perovic, who are both rookies, and Patrick O'Bryant. We've all been working out together for about the last five weeks, just getting ready for camp. </p>