Halfway through the first quarter of the Spurs\u2019 final game of the regular season, Stephon Castle makes a free throw, and the Frost Bank Center erupts with cheers.<\/p>\n
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After the Denver Nuggets inbound the ball and move down the court, everyone\u2019s attention shifts to the opposite hoop.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Juan-Alberto Garcia springs into action.<\/p>\n
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As quickly as he can, Garcia pushes a mop around the paint, making sure the free-throw and lane lines are dry and free from sweat. NBA players perspire a lot during the game, and that perspiration ends up on the court during almost every play, especially when they line up for free throws, or fall and hit the ground. It has to constantly be cleaned to prevent players from slipping and falling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After this particular cleanup mission, Garcia tucks the mop back into its place behind the basket, then returns to his own designated spot, a painted box on the baseline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll have a chance to watch the game for a bit\u00a0\u2014 until the next time someone takes a spill and hits the ground, when he\u2019ll be ready to wipe the court again.<\/p>\n
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Garcia, 27, is one of a dozen \u201cteam attendants\u201d for the Spurs\u00a0\u2014 the formal name for the job that includes mopping sweat off the court during games, loading and unloading luggage, stocking locker rooms and doing endless loads of laundry, washing, drying and folding hundreds of towels every night.<\/p>\n
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Team attendant Tyson Coleman runs off the court after wiping sweat from the floor during the San Antonio Spurs’ 139-120 win over the Dallas Mavericks at Frost Bank Center on April 10.<\/p>\n
Sam Owens\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a job that goes largely unseen unless something goes wrong\u00a0\u2014 if someone slips on a wet spot on the court, or reaches for a towel that isn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf no one notices you, then you\u2019re doing your job correctly,\u201d said Tyson Coleman, 24, who is in his second season as an attendant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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But for Coleman, Garcia and their coworkers, it\u2019s a job that lets them be a part of the team they grew up cheering for\u00a0\u2014 and one they\u2019ll gladly do behind the scenes, late at night in quiet corners of the arena, on top of their full-time jobs, if it means they get to be part of the Spurs team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just a ‘Spurs-crazy San Antonian’<\/p>\n
The attendants arrive early before each home game\u00a0\u2014 typically at least three hours before tip-off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For most of them, that means coming straight from their regular full-time jobs. Garcia works at\u00a0USAA, and Coleman is an elementary school physical education teacher in Gonzales. A few of their coworkers are still in high school, while the most senior attendant has been in the job for more than 25 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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One of their first tasks\u00a0\u2014 and one that will continue until their night ends eight or more hours later\u00a0\u2014 is preparing hundreds of towels for the game, so any time a player needs one, a fresh towel is ready.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tucked away in a corner of the Frost Bank Center behind the visiting team\u2019s weight room, the attendants man a large washer and dryer and fold bins full of towels to bring out to the court,\u00a0and throughout the game, they\u2019ll run a steady stream of used ones back off the court to wash and fold again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other items on the pre-game checklist include unloading the visiting team\u2019s luggage when they arrive, stocking locker rooms with supplies and setting up coolers, ice packs and hot packs in their designated places behind\u00a0the teams’ benches.<\/p>\n
When the teams take the court, the attendants are on hand to catch rebounds and shots and pass the balls back to the players, a chance to interact directly with the Spurs stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Team attendant Juan-Alberto Garcia, right, stands beside San Antonio Spurs player Carter Bryant before the Spurs’ regular-season finale against the Denver Nuggets at Frost Bank Center on April 12.<\/p>\n
Sam Owens\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n
Team attendant Juan-Alberto Garcia, left, talks to Spurs players Julian Champagnie and Carter Bryant as they warm up before the Spurs\u2019 regular-season finale against the Denver Nuggets at Frost Bank Center on April 12.<\/p>\n
Sam Owens\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n
Over the course of 82 games each season, they build up relationships with the players, Garcia said, chatting with them and other Spurs staff members about \u201canything but basketball\u201d to keep the mood light on the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey talk to us normally. They make us feel really welcomed,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cWe\u2019ve built really cool relationships with a lot of these players.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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A casual joke with Spurs forward Harrison Barnes during one of those warmups led\u00a0to what is now one of the highlights of each shift.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHarrison and I, we joke around, we talk to each other, and at some point, I think I talked smack to him,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cHe said ‘OK, you try to stop me.’\u201d<\/p>\n
That turned into a drill they repeat before each game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just a typical Spurs-crazy San\u00a0Antonian that\u2019s trying to stop Harrison Barnes, an NBA player, from scoring,\u201d Garcia said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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He\u2019s won that drill once so far this season\u00a0\u2014 a badge of honor for the lifelong Spurs fan in his fifth year with the team.<\/p>\n
Garcia grew up in San Antonio, and can still rattle off the exact seats he sat in at his first Spurs game: section 210, row 14, seats 19 and 20 with his dad during the 2006 Western Conference semi-finals against the Dallas Mavericks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He played basketball as a kid, and his love for the sport survived even when he didn\u2019t make the cut for the team at Marshall High School. He became a team manager there, then again in college at University of Texas San Antonio, where he met the former coworker who ultimately helped him get the job with the Spurs.<\/p>\n
Coleman, 24, also grew up playing basketball, and watching as much as he could. Raised just outside San Antonio in\u00a0Seguin, he was also a diehard Spurs fan, and jumped at the chance to work for the team. Now, everyone from his grandmother to his elementary school students tell him they watch for him during game broadcasts, and he takes pride in giving them a closer connection to the team they love.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Team attendant Tyson Coleman tosses basketballs to Denver Nuggets players as they warm up before a game against the San Antonio Spurs at Frost Bank Center on April 12.<\/p>\n
Sam Owens\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n
‘It\u2019s very cool’<\/p>\n
Among the attendants’ many tasks, mopping the court during games is their favorite, both said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During games, they each sit in designated spots behind the baselines, careful to keep their feet \u201cinside the box\u201d to avoid potentially tripping a wayward player.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou don\u2019t want to be that team where a ref or a player gets hurt or something, because they rely on that box to know their safe space, where their feet can go and everything,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s had only one collision, when a player made a diving save, sending the ball back in bounds before\u00a0sliding into Garcia\u2019s box and crashing into his ribs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coleman is in his second season, and has avoided contact so far \u2014 though he\u2019s had some close calls where he had to get off the court quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a couple of instances while I\u2019m out there mopping and then a steal or fast break will happen, and I\u2019ve just got to boot it out of there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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One of those moments was captured on camera: in a game against the Nuggets, Keita Bates-Diop stole the ball and was heading for the hoop while Garcia was still mopping beneath it. He had to hustle off the court as quickly as he could, trying to outrun a 6-foot-8 player going full speed \u2014 a feat that didn\u2019t go unnoticed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd a great effort by the ball boy to get out of the way. He turned the jets on,\u201d broadcaster Sean Elliott said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA hero moment for this kid,\u201d Michelle Beadle replied in the clip.<\/p>\n
The key to the job is staying aware of their surroundings, they said, and resisting the urge to get too caught up in watching the action.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf they\u2019re on the other side of the floor, I\u2019ll find myself watching a little more, but when they\u2019re on my side, I\u2019m kind of watching low, just trying to watch the ground, survey everything and make sure no one\u2019s falling down,\u201d Coleman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a fan, for both of us, it\u2019s very cool,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cBut we take off that hat of being a fan and put on the hat of being the best mopper and preventing our guys from getting hurt and from slipping.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Always a great day’<\/p>\n
On the sidelines, they\u2019ve been instructed to remain neutral. The No.1 rule, Garcia said, is to not react to any of the plays.<\/p>\n
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Occasionally, though, they slip up and their excitement breaks through.<\/p>\n
When Victor\u00a0Wembanyama dunked over opposing player Draymond Green in a game against the Warriors this season, just a few feet from where Coleman stood ready to mop, he couldn\u2019t contain himself. Footage of the moment shows him pumping his arms and starting to cheer before covering his mouth and regaining composure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Garcia said he had a similar moment in March, when the Spurs rallied from a 25-point deficit to beat the Clippers. As the arena exploded in noise around him, he was fighting to keep his reaction contained.<\/p>\n
When Devin Vassell made a three-pointer to put the Spurs ahead, \u201cI had never felt something like that on the court, ever,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cIt felt like something special\u2019s brewing here.\u00a0It was a teaser of what it\u2019s going to be like in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
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After the cheering stops, and the crowds have gone home, the attendants are at the Frost Bank Center for a few more hours after each game\u00a0\u2014 loading up the visiting team\u2019s luggage, washing the Spurs’ jerseys and carefully hanging them to dry and, once again, washing several hundred sweaty towels, then folding them carefully to make sure everything is ready for the next game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They\u2019re hoping to keep doing that as long as possible\u00a0\u2014 this spring, if the Spurs make a deep playoff run, and for many more seasons to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sure, they have dreams of maybe, someday, moving up in the organization, but neither plans to leave behind the mops anytime soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019ll do this for as long as I can, as long as they\u2019ll allow me to,\u201d Coleman said, praising the environment, his relationships with the other attendants, and the camaraderie with everyone from arena security up to the players and coaches. That makes it more than worth it, even when he has an early morning at school after a late Spurs game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I go home after a game, I\u2019m just reflecting on the day, and it\u2019s just always a great day,\u201d he said. \u201cI just love the feeling, and as long as I can have that feeling, as long as they allow me, I\u2019ll definitely gladly take it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Halfway through the first quarter of the Spurs\u2019 final game of the regular season, Stephon Castle makes a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-591507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}