<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Good morning, Steven Smith: Do you know where your team is? This was Saturday morning in Barcelona, Spain, outside the 76ers' training-camp hotel headquarters. There was Smith, the eager rookie forward from Northeast High and La Salle University who is trying to earn a job as a free agent. Coach Maurice Cheeks had determined that the team had worked hard enough and long enough without a day off. He canceled practice and took everyone to Montjuic, a 600-foot hill and 1992 Olympic site not far from the Palau Sant Jordi Annex practice site that offers a breathtaking view of the city. As part of the NBA's "Europe Live" production, a team photo was in order. Meanwhile... Smith rode in a swiftly summoned league-provided van to the gym, only to discover it was empty. The van driver took him to various tourist spots, in search of his team. Smith eventually went back to the hotel. In his mind, whatever was coming couldn't be good. If nothing else, his teammates, as good-natured as they might be, wouldn't let him easily forget. He not only missed the photo, a moment described by NBA vice president Terry Lyons as "unequivocally the best I've ever seen in 25 years," he missed fellow rookies Rodney Carney, Bobby Jones and Ivan McFarlin doing a musical reprise of "Lean On Me," first performed a few days earlier in the hotel lobby. There are rookies, and then there are rookies in other categories. Strength coach Jim Ferris, assistant trainer Scott Faust, publicist Michael Preston and interim big-man coach Steve Mix turned in an animated rendition of "Louie, Louie." How was it? "We bonded," Mix said. Mo? "All rookies are bad when they sing," Cheeks said, shaking his head in mock disgust. "Not that they can't sing, [but] they're nervous; all eyes are on them. Actually, [the players] were OK, but they have to get the approval of [the veterans]." The staff performance? "That was terrible," he said. Happily, it might not be as bad for Smith as it could have been. For one thing, it's pretty hard to fine a player who doesn't have a guaranteed contract. For another, if he plays well enough he'll still have a chance to be there Opening Day. "The penalty is more missing the bus on a day there wasn't practice, and that then he couldn't find us," Cheeks said. "[It's more] the ribbing he might take." The feeling, Cheeks said, had to be one "I can't imagine." Well, actually, he could. He was a rookie guard with the Sixers in 1978. Training camp was at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster. The team motel was several miles from the gym. There was no team bus. There were cars. "I was riding with Darryl [Dawkins]," Cheeks recalled. "[One day] he left me. I started running. I realized there was no chance of getting there, so I waved some people down in a mall." He got a ride. He got there. Smith, though, was nearly 4,000 miles from home, in another country. "I just overslept a little," Smith said. "A simple mistake. No excuse. I can't remember the last time I was late for something in basketball. I thought Mo was going to kill me at first, [but] he was cool about it. "I'm sure I'm not the first rookie to have gone through this. I'm going to have to make up for it on the court. Every rookie's got to go through something. I get to get it out of the way right now." </div> Link Very funny article. I suggest you all read it.
