Brent Barry’s Europe Live Blog

So many teams in the league try to do different things for training camp. It's nice to get out of your own practice site and have a chance to bond. Some teams go different places in the States, but to have an opportunity to go abroad and experience a new culture and see new things -- obviously, it's home cooking for Tony -- but for the rest of us there are a lot of guys who haven't been here before and it's nice to have a bonding experience away from you normally go to work all season long.

We're looking forward to being back to work. We had some guys real busy this summer playing in the World Championship and we hope they got enough rest, but it's nice to see familiar faces and get back to work. I know our staff is excited about the season and this is just a necessary step toward the end of the year and the training camp's to get in shape. So, we're happy to be here.

I stayed in shape by chasing around my kids. That'll do it. That's a full-time job if you're a parent. And if you're playing basketball, it's a full-time job. So, between chasing them around and surfing in southern California all summer long, I had a good offseason. But, all the preparation you do to try to get in shape before the season never works. I was just talking to Tim Duncan about it. Tim's been in the gym for the last month and I've been in there for four weeks and we've had guys in and out. You think you're in good shape and then you come in to the first day of practice and it all goes out the window. We're back at square one and we'll just work from here and try and get ready.

Now that we're in Lyon, if we keep doing what we're doing, these double-days, nobody's going to have time to eat. Our coaches are going out and making sure they're experiencing the fine wine and the cuisine. If they give us a little bit of a break, I'm sure our guys will go out and grab themselves a good meal while we're in Lyon and Paris.

I'm looking forward to visiting Paris and walking around there. I've never been there before and my wife is coming over. So, to have some time with her and to share some time with her there will be nice. Along with getting our work done and also being ambassadors of the States and for the NBA game coming over here and playing against two teams over here, hopefully we'll represent the NBA well while we're here. We're coming over here to represent the Spurs and the league as best we can, and hopefully we'll get a couple wins.

We haven't really had a chance to go out and do much. When you start training camp and you have two-a-days, there really isn't much time other than sleep and then back on the training table. I think tomorrow we're just going to have one practice, so that might afford us the opportunity to get out and see the city a bit. So, I think some guys are looking forward to that and getting some fresh air. As long as it doesn't rain and we get some sun, I think guys will look forward to seeing the town a little bit.

Practices yesterday and today were good. We're just putting down a foundation of the things we want to build on and fundamental things -- getting everybody back to thinking basketball and trying to get a feel for one another and at least have some semblance of what we're going to try to do in the two exhibition games that we play over here. It's just really about conditioning and starting to think basketball again. It's just fundamental things so that when we do get started, for both of the preseason games over here, we can carry over what we're doing on the practice floor to the games here and then when, obviously, we get back to playing NBA teams back home.

I really haven't heard much about Thursday's opponent, Adecco ASVEL. I'm sure our coaches have some idea what the team is like and maybe Tony even knows some of the guys who are playing. But I'm looking forward to the reception Tony is going to get on game night.

We had just one practice yesterday so I think it afforded guys to get out and see the town a little bit. I know Tim took full advantage, going out and getting the Royale with Cheese at McDonalds. Most of the other guys went out to see Old Lyon, which was amazing, and tour a little bit. We often think of cities in our country being old towns -- like Boston and Philadelphia -- and it just pales in comparison, obviously, to what happens over here. Stepping into buildings that are a thousand years old, you can't help but marvel at something like that.

So, Matt Bonner, Jared Reiner and I just went around Old Town yesterday. I think some of the other guys were touring around with their wives. They probably were shopping, but we went to see some buildings and got a good French meal.

I took my camera out last night and took some good shots (see a few below), just of the places we went -- the Notre Dame Basilica and the Saint Jean church. There was a great little miniature museum that was located near Saint Jean that had all the very intricate, detailed, ornate little scenes that were all done to scale, but they were smaller than my hand. All these little minature scenes were quite impressive. They were scenes of old sewing shops, one was a dinosaur exhibit/museum, one was an old French restaurant. They were so, so small and so ornate and detailed, they were very, very impressive. So, that was kind of a cool thing to see.

In practice today, Pop just wanted us to get a chance to catch up and get our legs back. I'm sure tomorrow we'll come in and do a little bit more than we normally would do on a game day, that would just be a shootaround. I'm sure tomorrow we'll move around a bit. We're just trying to prepare ourselves physically for the game come Thursday and make sure we have a bit more energy for that game and still go over some of the fundamental stuff that we're trying to build on for the season.

Now, I'm sure tomorrow in the morning when we have a chance to get in here, it'll be much like a shootaround but I'm' sure we'll do a little more running tomorrow, but it'll be a lot like a shootaround. We'll talk a lot about the team and then we'll talk, really, more about what we want to try to accomplish through the game in terms of trying to build on the fundamentals that we've talked about in the first couple days of training camp.