On the second day of training camp, players again echoed Antawn Jamison's sentiment that the new iPod Touches that Flip Saunders gave them before camp were awesome. Saunders credited his son, Ryan, the Wizards assistant coach for statistical analysis, for coming up with the idea to place video and diagrams from his 250-page playbook on the high tech devices.
"Players are in that age right now, where they love an iTouch or whatever," Saunders said. "Talking to the players, they've all gone through it a lot. It's another resource for them, besides having a playbook. They can see video. They can see the plays on paper. They can see a lot of things."
Saunders told his players in the summer that he planned on doing it, but it still caught some of guys off guard when it really happened. "I was surprised. It was an expensive gift," Caron Butler said about the iPods, which retail at about $200 a pop. You factor in 14 of them and it was a pretty nice investment to spread Saunders's message.
Saunders will pass along updates throughout the season, and keep players on their toes from time-to-time with surprise entries, from what I understand. In addition to watching the players, Butler said Saunders has planned out the entire schedule, from traveling, bus rides, flights, all the way through June. Yes, June.
"Everything. When we leave, whatever you need," Butler said. "You don't have to ask any questions. You don't need nobody to print nothing up, it's already right there."
