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The Footage of LeBron James, Tyrese Maxey, and Jaylen Brown Working Out Together is Miraculous
By Matt Schultz
Published:
Don’t get me wrong: I’ve been having a good time thinking and talking and blogging about the new Sixers squad for the last month. It’s great. I’m still very excited. If I sit down and really think about it for a few moments, it’s still pretty hard to believe this team actually came together. It’s sick. For sure. But I must admit, a big part of me is ready to move on to the next part of this whole thing.
I feel an itch to move beyond just the hypothetical, the projections, the hope of what this team can be. I want to see what this thing will look like with my eyes already. And on Wednesday, we were all given that gift – it’s a small glimpse, but it’s something, and it’s incredible:
Everything about this video is miraculous:
-The fact that LeBron, Tyrese Maxey, and Jaylen Brown are working out together is so sick. That’s meaningful. They don’t have to do this. Teammates don’t have to get together in the offseason to practice and hang out and start building their chemistry. These guys chose to do this. They care enough about blending their games and learning to play together that they started the process early and on their own time. That’s something you do if you want to win. That’s a nice thing to think about. LeBron is on our favorite team and he wants to win. Plus there’s JB and Maxey. That’s what we’re looking at in this video. Unbelievable.
-All of their play looks so good in this clip. I know it’s just a training video. I know they’re playing against a couple short coaches who aren’t actually trying. I know that even Ben Simmons looks like a good basketball player in these kinds of clips. I get all that. But nevertheless, the shots are falling. The passes are crisp. The cuts are perfectly timed. And they all look bouncy as hell. Did you see all their dunks at the end? Did you see JB’s alley-oop to LeBron? That one was even more impressive than the ending dunks. LeBron caught this ball and flushed it:
After JB threw him this pass underhand from the elbow:
The chemistry! The dunks! The shooting! It’s all the best stuff! Incredible.
-LeBron reposted this video on his Instagram. That’s good stuff! He didn’t have to do that! LeBron seems amped about all this, which makes me amped even more about all this.
-Whatever drill they’re doing looks awesome. I don’t fully understand it — I don’t get who has to cut when and how they decide on who’s off-ball and who starts each new possession and all that, but I don’t care. It’s sick. One of the underratedly great parts of being a professional athlete is that you always have a bunch of people around passing you the ball like this. You never have to worry about rebounding. There are always a bunch of basketballs around so you can just rotate them/you don’t have to pause the drill to go chase down your one ball after a long miss. The basketballs are all high quality, good balls. They always have the correct amount of air. All that would be extremely nice and fun. I’m going on my bachelor party next weekend. Maybe I’ll demand everyone do this confusing drill/rebound/pass me the ball while I take all the shots for a few hours on Saturday. I’ll tell everyone to buy/bring a bunch of nice Wilson Evolutions and those long padded blocking sticks. I am in charge… Who’s gonna stop me…
-I’m okay with Joel Embiid not being at this workout. Not gonna think about that. It’s fine.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com