The Los Angeles Lakers' new practice facility will be called the UCLA Health Training Center, according to the team. The Lakers announced this and other new details about their currently under construction facility on Wednesday, including that the team hopes to have it completed by the Summer of 2017 and that the new building “will house the business and basketball operations as well as a full NBA training center with an exhibition court and arena seating.”
In addition to training areas and business offices for the Lakers, the facility will also be home to the Los Angeles D-Fenders, which is why the two basketball courts will be able to host 750 people in arena style seating.
“We’re extremely pleased and excited about our new partnership with UCLA Health,” said Lakers president Jeanie Buss in a statement. “Their innovative, forward-thinking, research-oriented medical team and facilities are unsurpassed, and their focus on not only treating, but preventing, injuries will translate into the ultimate goal of helping our players perform better on-court and to prolonging their professional careers. In addition, UCLA Health’s community relations and community commitment views and philosophies are so closely aligned to those of the Lakers that they make us perfect partners to further those goals and programs."
Some other cool details about the Lakers new digs, per their website that holds a bunch more information:
• Double court gymnasium with on-court smart board and video displays for strategic planning and playbacks
• Plyometric training areas
• Weight and conditioning gym that opens to the court
• A video theater/screening room directly adjacent to the player lounge
• An indoor-outdoor lounge fully outfitted for video, sound and a myriad of digital connections
• A barber shop; a player kitchen and training table (as well as an adjacent commercial kitchen directed by a nutritionist)
• A player quiet room outfitted with blue light spectrum lighting
• A state-of-the-art training room with multiple whirlpools, two plunge pools, a resistance pool and dual cryogenics chambers
Here is a look at the new facility:
Go inside the Lakers state-of-the-art future home, the @UCLAHealth Training Center. pic.twitter.com/gPmIq1Ke3R
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) August 31, 2016
You can also find plenty of mock-ups of what the eventual facility will look like at that same website, but what’s immediately clear is that the Lakers’ upgrades will leave them with one of the top training centers in the NBA. The biggest updates a team can make are always going to be ones involving players or coaches, but side amenities like this facility are the types of things the Lakers can do to flex their big market muscle outside of the salary cap to help recruit free agents and promote internal improvement as they continue their rebuild.
You can follow this author on Twitter at @hmfaigen.