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Alexander Zverev of Team Europe shoots a basketball as Gui Santos of the Golden State Warriors looks on at Chase Center. Photo: Ezra Shaw\/Getty Images for Laver Cup<\/p>\nJimmy Butler is a diehard tennis fan. So much so that, instead of taking a breather during this year\u2019s NBA All-Star break, the 6-foot-7 forward known as \u2018Jimmy Buckets\u2019 hopped a plane for Doha to go see his favorite player, Carlos Alcaraz, in action at the Qatar Exxon Mobil Open.<\/p>\n
Butler\u2019s Golden State Warriors teammate Steph Curry is a bit of a tennis head, too. The two-time NBA MVP could be found courtside earlier this month at the US Open taking in the Alcaraz-Jannik Sinner men\u2019s singles final. And there\u2019s Warriors power forward Gui Santos, who\u2019s a big backer of his countryman, the Brazilian teen sensation Jo\u00e3o Fonseca.<\/p>\n
So it seems fitting that Laver Cup 2025 should come to the Chase Center, home turf for the Warriors. On Wednesday, members of Team Europe, including Alexander Zverev, Casper Ruud, Holger Rune, Jakub Mensik and alternate Tom\u00e1\u0161 Mach\u00e1\u010d, got a chance to visit the team\u2019s state-of-the-art practice facility located just below the 18,000-seat arena. They even shot around with Santos and guard\/small forward Moses Moody.<\/p>\n
Alexander Zverev of Team Europe shoots a basketball as Gui Santos of the Golden State Warriors looks on at Chase Center. Photo: Ezra Shaw\/Getty Images for Laver Cup<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving these courts underneath the stadium, it\u2019s phenomenal,\u201d said the 6-foot-6 German Zverev, who had no problem dunking a ball on command. \u201cIt\u2019s a great training facility. That\u2019s why the players feel so comfortable here. I already told them, if they need another five-on-five player, I\u2019ll be here for the next few days.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Laver Cup has afforded Zverev an opportunity to visit the home arenas of the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics, but this was special. Though he\u2019s a professed Miami Heat supporter, the world No. 3 says he\u2019s been rooting for the Dubs of late.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re an NBA fan, you\u2019ve always known about the Warriors. It\u2019s definitely the team that I watch the most.\u201d \u2014 Alexander Zverev<\/p>\n
\u201cSince Jimmy\u2019s come on board, yes,\u201d said Zverev, a nod to the six-time NBA All-Star Butler, who was traded to Golden State by Miami in February. \u201cI love Steph. I love how the Warriors play. You always watch them. If you\u2019re an NBA fan, you\u2019ve always known about the Warriors. It\u2019s definitely the team that I watch the most.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to be here,\u201d echoed the Czech Mach\u00e1\u010d. \u201cIt\u2019s such a special opportunity to see the stadium and everything. I\u2019ve watched them many times. Steph Curry is one of my favorite players. It\u2019s a pretty nice setup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Santos got to meet Fonseca when the 19-year-old was coming off the practice court.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody in Brazil has been watching him,\u201d said Santos, 23. \u201cThe last big idol we had in tennis was Guga [three-time Roland Garros champion and former No.1 Gustavo Kuerten]. He\u2019s so young and playing at such a high level. It\u2019s a pleasure for us to see. When I found out that he was coming here to play, I was saying, \u2018I\u2019ve got to meet him.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me very happy, especially because he\u2019s representing my country,\u201d he added. \u201cI know how tough it is to get to that level. When you see a guy achieve this goal, you know how hard he\u2019s had to work to get in the position he\u2019s in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
So which sport is tougher, tennis or basketball?<\/p>\n
\u201cIn basketball, we have more physical contact with players on the other teams, but I get tired just watching tennis matches,\u201d said Santos with a laugh. \u201cAll that change of direction. We do that a lot on defense in basketball. We change direction quick like they do, but in tennis you have to have such great endurance. I think it\u2019s even tougher than basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jimmy Butler is a diehard tennis fan. So much so that, instead of taking a breather during this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[5244,64,63,726,51612,8399,96073,43284,85,101814],"class_list":{"0":"post-151747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-alexander-zverev","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-casper-ruud","13":"tag-holger-rune","14":"tag-jakub-mensik","15":"tag-joao-fonseca","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tomas-machac"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}