This was the last act of the World Cup preseason for Team USA.
A few hours before flying to the Philippines on Monday for its World Cup stay, a good portion of the USA Basketball travel party — some players and family members, along with coaches and staff — visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, a magnificent center of worship that has seen the likes of Pope Francis, President Biden, King Charles III and Rihanna shed their shoes to step on its gleaming white marble floor in recent years.
It is, after all, vacation time in the NBA. And USA Basketball went to great lengths to ensure that there would be a work-life balance for those who committed six weeks of their time with hopes of getting the Americans back atop the international stage. U.S. forward Bobby Portis was in Abu Dhabi last year as well; he and the Milwaukee Bucks flew over to play in the preseason against the Atlanta Hawks. He got a kandura — the traditional white long-sleeved robe — and matching headdress on that trip and wore them to the arena Sunday for the Americans’ finale in the desert.“I had to bring them on this journey,” Portis said. “They keep me going.”
“I get paid a lot of money to play a child’s game and I get a lot of opportunities that people would kill for just because I’m good at a sport,” Haliburton said. “Sometimes perspective matters. I brought my mom and dad and my girlfriend. My mom and dad have never been to any of these places. Probably dreamed of traveling like this. Now they get to do that and watch their son play basketball? It’s such a blessing that a ball can take you to these places.
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