"And perhaps when he took the head coaching job this summer, Mike Brown might not have made his first choice to fly about 7,000 miles from New York to Abu Dhabi, a decision that predated his arrival and was more tied to the NBA's global expansion and Madison Square Garden leadership's intention to build a second Sphere project among the entertainment options being rapidly constructed in the desert."
"The long - really long - flight through the night toyed with the finely tuned bodies and minds of the players, upsetting sleep cycles a week into training camp to rush into a pair of preseason games. And it is hot. Not just the temperature, which if the team could figure the conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit topped 100 degrees every day."
The Knicks held training camp and preseason games in Abu Dhabi roughly 7,000 miles from New York, a site chosen partly because of the NBA’s global expansion and Madison Square Garden leadership’s intent to build an entertainment Sphere there. The long overnight flight disrupted players’ sleep cycles a week into camp. Daily temperatures often topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with humidity around 50 percent, making conditions stifling. The team stayed at the St. Regis on Saadiyat Island where ocean water felt like a bathtub and was very salty. Players engaged in local experiences, rode camels, ate regional cuisine, and practiced amid extensive construction.
Read at Newsday
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