SAN ANTONIO — With plenty of fresh faces and returning players looking to fulfill new roles, Spurs big man Zach Collins will be a veteran presence at just 24 years old.
This is his first summer in the NBA without facing major injuries.
"It's huge man, it just makes it a lot easier to go into every day knowing that you don't have to wake up and worry about rehabbing an ankle or a knee or whatever, and you can just go and work on your game," he said.
"You can go out and you can be creative, like do yoga, you can do boxing, you can go bike riding in the hot desert in Vegas like where I'm from, you can do whatever you want. That freedom is something that I haven't had in the offseason, and now I get the freedom to also specifically focus on getting better, and that was the biggest thing for me. I just felt like the last two offseasons I couldn't really do that, it was all just trying to get back to the court."
He says it was important to stay grounded and take things day-by-day in that time.
"I think definitely what what grounded me was trying to think about every day is its own thing and trying to make that specific day a fun day, a good day, and have fun with the whole process. I definitely told myself like, I don't want to look back on this time of rehab as a time, whether I'm rehabbing or not, whether I'm playing basketball, it's still a time in my life where I want to look back and say I didn't waste it being upset all the time."
The company he kept, and the way the people close to him treated him, also made a difference.
"I also just had really good people around me too. They didn't really treat me any different," he said. "They were just kind of like, 'Hey, it is what it is, we're here for you, but don't don't stop living your life,' type thing."
One of those people in the last year has been Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich.
"He doesn't really care who you are, and he doesn't pick favorites. He'll treat everybody the same. And I really I think athletes especially NBA players, I think we all can respect that. Because I think there's a lot of fakeness surrounding us sometimes and with him, you know he's keeping it honest with you at all at all times."
Pop is demanding, but Collins says the guys can feel that he's in the trenches with them.
"I feel like he's out there fighting with us every night. You know what I mean? Like he'll coach you, he'll jump on us really hard. But when it comes down to it, when it comes down to playing against the other team, I feel like it's really just us against everybody and he's with he's right with us in that fight too," he said. "And then on top of that, he's a genius. He knows the game inside and out."
He hasn't played 200 games yet in his NBA career due to the injuries, but on a rebuilding Spurs squad he'll be an elder statesman.
"It feels weird, and going back to the injury I felt like I kind of lost a couple years on the court," he said. "But now I mean, I'm going into what is it, year five I think? Maybe six? Six. I forget sometimes, it's just crazy how fast it went."
"But now, regardless of how old I am, the way we are, our team is and how young we are, I am considered a vet," he said. "So that's just something you got to step up in and be ready for. I think naturally you go through things and you have life experience and those are just things I can take to younger guys and try to help them. I say younger guys, I'm like two years older. Yeah, it's gonna be fun, I'm looking forward to it."