DURHAM, N.C. — When Joe Johnson first heard he would be heading to the pool for the second practice of the day Wednesday, he was looking forward to a chance to relax.
Soon, though, he realized he would be doing anything but relaxing.
“See, when they sent us down there, they made it seem like it was going to be all sweet and gravy, and we were going to just tread water for a little bit,” Johnson said with a smile after practice Thursday. “We got down there and [we were] swimming laps … oh, man.”
A tweet from Deron Williams labeled “pool time” Wendesday night showed all five starters — Williams, Johnson, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Brook Lopez — along with Jason Terry and Toko Shengelia smiling for the camera after the workout.
Coach Jason Kidd said the injured players — Williams, Terry and Shengelia — had been going down to the pool for the second session of practice, but he asked strength and conditioning coach Jeremy Bettle if he could add a few more to the list. When he got the OK from Bettle, Kidd had the rest of the starting five join them to see just what the other players were up to during their time in the water.
“We sent the rest of the starters to see what D-Will and those guys are going through,” Kidd said. “Because a lot of times, as a player, you hear people are going to the pool and you just assume it’s just fun and games, and so they got to see that it wasn’t.
“I haven’t seen the picture, but I can only imagine that in that picture they were all tired. It wasn’t the pool routine that a lot of those guys thought they were walking into, but from what I got from the report, everybody was tired leaving the pool instead of being on floaties. A lot of guys don’t want to go back to the pool.”
You can count Joe Johnson among them.
“Man,” Johnson said. “That was a beast. I would have rather been out here on the court. They ain’t going to ever get me in there again.”
The Nets’ practice Thursday was shown live on NBA TV as part of the network’s “Real Training Camp” series. Given how often teams are around cameras, no one seemed to be too bothered by it.
“I thought we were a focused group today,” Pierce said. “Whenever we’re in the gym, we have to get our work done. Nobody’s posing for pictures, nobody’s looking at the cameras. … We’re out here, and when we come into the gym we’ve got our work. That’s the primary focus.”
The only person who said it shifted their focus even briefly was Kidd, who admitted he had to catch himself from cursing at various points.
“I’m working on it,” he said with a smile. “But besides NBA TV being here, I thought it was a good practice.
Kidd, Lopez and Terry wore microphones during practice. One person who didn’t change his demeanor was Garnett, who at one point caused the producers to mute Terry’s microphone for several seconds.
****
There wasn’t any news on the injury front, as Williams and Terry remained limited in practice and Shengelia remained out. Terry, who is still recovering from offseason left-knee surgery, is the closest to returning to full practice.
“We didn’t let him go contact today, but we let him do everything that was non-contact,” Kidd said. “He’s going in the right direction. He’s close to being cleared to do everything.”
Kidd did say, however, it was “too early” to determine whether or not Terry would participate in Tuesday’s preseason opener in Washington. It appears extremely unlikely, however, that Williams will play in that game. Kidd repeated yesterday that there’s no timetable for Williams’ return.