Road Warriors

Hey, everyone! It’s AC, checking in from the road – what’s happening?

The Cavaliers have gotten back to their winning ways, but this week they face maybe their toughest test of the season when they meet the Spurs in San Antonio. I think it’s going to be a game where the team finds out where they are at this point in the season. It’s a gauge to find out: Are we ready? Are we back to where we think we should be? Or do we still have more work to do?

I think that’s the type of situation it’s going to be. And that means they should be hungry and they should play with a lot of enthusiasm.

Right now, I see the team being very comfortable out there because they know the rotations. There is something to the fact that they have been looking for the right rotation. This is bigger than fans think, because – as a player – you need to know when the Coach is looking for you, and what he’s looking for when he makes the call.

A lot of guys put pressure on themselves to perform because they’re outside the rotation. Now that they know what the situation is – and they know when they’re coming in the game – they can get their mind focused on what they have to do. When I had my injuries and I started coming off the bench, that was my toughest thing – knowing when I was coming in. And once I had that understood, I seemed to play a lot better.

Coming off the bench and being part of a rotation can be more difficult than it seems. First of all, you get your mind set on what you have to do. You’re able to figure out the guy you’re going to guard – and what he’s doing. You need to get your mind ready for action. You don’t have time to come in and ease into the game. You have to come right in and be ready to go.

When you come off the bench, you see how the game plan is working. You get a chance to watch it. You see how it’s going and there are some things you can tweak. But the most important thing is that you have the energy level where it should be. Because you know you have to come in and either maintain the lead, or get the lead back. So it’s a whole different mindset.

But it’s much easier on you when you understand when you’re coming in and when you’re going out. And you also know: you can let it all hang out when you know the timespan you’re going to play. You don’t have to hold anything back – you go in 100 percent ready to play because you have only X amount of minutes before you’re back out again.

When a team is on the road like the Cavaliers will be over the next couple weeks, the bench becomes extremely important.

The road’s been tough, but really, the schedule is set up now where the Cavaliers shouldn’t have too many more problems. We only have four or five road back-to-backs left for the whole rest of the season. From now on, there’s mostly a day in-between where you can get your rest and get your focus on who you’re playing.

So the schedule was set up for us – if we were able to weather the first part of the season – to make a run in the second half. The key is we’ve put ourselves in a situation where we have to start winning on the road to get back up into the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference. Each road game is very important now.

Without getting too nostalgic, the road is much, much different now than when I played. First of all, we traveled commercial. That was totally different. We had to catch the first flight out of town the next day after every game. You’d play one night in Golden State, stay over and the next day you’d leave for L.A. – getting on a 5 a.m. flight. You’d play in L.A. that night and man, that just wore you down. And I think a lot of players back then had injury problems because of that.

Back then, they didn’t feed you, either. You had to fend for yourself. Now, players have good nutrition around all the time, so they can eat properly. Now, guys have the right types of food around all the time – they have people who set up a schedule for them. They eat properly; they know what to eat now.

I didn’t know what to eat. I was washing down a bag of Dorito’s with orange pop when I first came into the league. McDonald’s was just getting going, so we thought fast food was great. There weren’t any warning signs on fast food back then. As far as we were concerned, that was all good stuff.

The road was such a different animal back then than it is now. Back in those days, I’d tape myself sometimes. That’s just the way it was when I came into the league. And that’s just unheard of now.

We were responsible for our equipment, our uniform, everything. In my first two years, I washed my own uniform! And believe me, there were some funky guys out there – guys who didn’t smell good at all because they didn’t want to, or didn’t know how, to wash their stuff. But that was something you had to do. I’d get into town and instead of going out to get a bite to eat – like players do now – I’d go straight to the laundromat.

Nightlife was different, too.

Coach always had “spies” on the road. It would be the trainer or someone like that. But we always had a spy to figure out what the guys were doing, or what they weren’t doing. One way or another Coach Fitch always found out, and he had ways of making you pay for it. So you’d learn real quick. If Fitch knew that you were out carousing the night before … Oh man!

I’d be out there, I’d be playing 40 minutes or the entire first two quarters and you’d look over there to the bench wanting to come out and if Coach knew you were out the night before, he would just look away as if to say: “Keep going.” You’d learn your lesson right away that you didn’t want to do this too often.

And back then – something I don’t think they do a lot of now – the players policed themselves. After a while, when we started winning, players would keep one another in line. Because winning is what you’re there for. We were losing so much at first and winning was such a good feeling that we wanted to keep it going.

So you’d stop all that carousing, and the guys that were carousing a lot all of sudden were in bed. And Coach made sure you were in bed. That was the way life was on the road back in my early days in the league.