The Los Angeles Lakers commenced preparations for the 2014-2015 NBA regular season.
According to Lakersnation.com, all Lakers players, except Xavier Henry, wrapped up their first official day of practice on September 30. Henry had to miss practice due to back spasms. The theme of the day was defense and conditioning.
John Black, spokesman of the team, stated that Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash were very active during practice. Kobe trained for about two hours and 15 minutes while Nash spent one hour and 30 minutes
After they finished practicing, Bryant said he felt great and shared via Lakersnation.com, "This is the most running I've ever done in an NBA practice. It is, for sure. I've never run this much in an NBA practice."
Point guards Nash and Jeremy Lin also said that they felt good after practice, the report added. Nash, 40, reportedly shared that this would most likely be the last training camp of his career and wished to focus on staying healthy and enjoying the process.
Nash said, "I need to not get injured and I don't mean that in a factious way. It's important not get an ankle [injury] or a thigh bruise or all the little injuries and try to manage them as much as possible. If I can manage the amount of minutes I'm on the court and keep myself going and don't overdo it to where I can't recover, maybe I got a chance to play a lot more."
New Lakers coach Byron Scott said in a report by ABC News, "Kobe looked good. The first drill, the 10 minutes you could see the guys were in shape. Kobe looked good. Steve was in great shape. Both of those guys did about three-fourths of the practice. I basically had to ask Kobe to shut it down. We got another one tomorrow. He went through one more drill and then shut it down. He felt he felt great and could have done more but right now it's a progression of just going a little bit today."
ABC News added that the Lakers will proceed to practicing twice a day, beginning October 1. However, Kobe and Nash will only join the morning session, which includes a scrimmage, the report added. The two stars missed most of the previous NBA season due to injury. Bryant suffered from a torn Achilles tendon in December 2013 while Nash had a nerve root irritation in his left leg.
Coach Scott explained his practice sessions. "Every day until we get to the point where I don't think we need to and I don't think that's going to happen. I know from my years of playing and coaching, that's what wins championships and that's something we have to continue to work on every single day."