DALLAS – It's about a 15-minute drive up Interstate 35E from American Airlines Center, the home of the Dallas Mavericks, tucked away in an inconspicuous industrial park: The Mo Williams Academy, the eponymous gym and training center owned by the Cleveland Cavaliers’ reserve guard.
Williams and his team practiced there Monday in preparation for their game against the Mavs on Tuesday, bringing an idea that was hatched months ago finally to fruition.
Sometime after signing on for a second stint in Cleveland, Williams contacted longtime Cavs employee Mark “Cobra” Cashman, now the team’s director of operations, about the practice plans for when the team visited Dallas.
Cashman is the jack of all trades on the Cavs’ staff, responsible for everything from travel arrangements and gym rentals on the road to making sure the players’ uniforms and sneakers make it from city to city.
“I just went to 'Cob’,” Williams said. “It’s great for us; it’s great for the facility. Hey, I’m a business man now. Get them in here, take some pictures. So, it’s a good thing. Then again, I wanted the guys to come see it. I wanted them to see where my passion is.”
Before Williams could trade the free gym time for the publicity that would come from LeBron James & Co. visiting, Cashman had to do some reconnaissance. He wouldn’t cancel the team’s original reservation at Southern Methodist University, which is about five minutes closer to the arena than MWA, if Williams' spot didn’t check out.
“He said he had a gym down here, so he gave me a little bit of information,” Cashman said of his initial conversation with Williams. Next he followed up with Tracey Bingham, the academy’s executive director, for further details.
Cashman needed to know how many baskets there were. He needed to know if there were showers and towels available for the players to clean up after Wednesday’s practice before heading straight to the airport. He needed to know that the gym would be private and closed to the public for the practice sessions.
“So once I knew all that stuff, then we were fine,” Cashman said. “And we were relatively close to the hotel. I mean, I didn’t want to go to Fort Worth to use his gym when we could use SMU or somewhere else that was closer. So, it was pretty simple once I knew what they had.”
One thing Cashman had to be sure to pack for the Cavs’ six-game trip were regulation NBA basketballs. While visiting teams are usually given access to balls to use when they have shootarounds at the home team’s arena or practice court, when they practice at an alternative site, it gets dicey.
“I always just have basketballs just to make sure,” Cashman said. “Seems silly that a basketball team wouldn’t have basketballs, but it’s actually an easier thing that can happen than what you might think. Because normally everywhere we go, they’re there. They’re provided. So you don’t often have to have them. But I always have them.”
The majority of the time, the Cavs will practice at the other team’s facility, but there are a few notable exceptions in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, where either because of the location or the demands on the home team’s arena, alternative plans must be made. Cashman calls those “trigger cities,” and when the schedule comes out in the summer, the first thing he will do is try to find gym availability in those towns and then commit to the team’s plane and hotel contract to accommodate the gym time. Usually it’s the other way around.
When finding the practice space, one feature is an absolute must. “As long as it’s not a rubberized floor, anything like that,” Cashman said. “Because that’s a quick way to get practice called off.”
And so that’s how the Cavs ended up at MWA, which has a full hardwood court, complete with the NBA 3-point line, as well as several murals on the walls depicting all the teams Williams has played for with their logos and also a big, bright yellow painting of Mr. Peanut, representing his nickname.
“It started out as a private facility and it turned into a business,” Williams said, detailing how Julius Randle, Emmanuel Mudiay, J.P. Tokoto and current top high school prospect Billy Preston have come through his gym or participated in his AAU program. “I tell guys all the time, we go out and buy all the nice cars and big houses and these things like that, I mean, invest in a gym. That’s your craft. ... Splurge off that.”
The Cavs are the fourth team Williams has played for to use his gym, joining Portland, Minnesota and Charlotte. “Everybody gave me a thumbs-up,” Williams said, smiling. “Even the guys that are hard to get credit from gave it to me.”
Include James among those to give MWA a rave review. As the vice president of the players’ union, James is well aware of the NBPA partnering with Williams’ gym to sponsor his annual “Grind Week” that gathers players from various teams who spend their offseason in the Dallas area for an unofficial minicamp around Labor Day to get them prepared for their respective training camps.
“I was just all appreciative, first of all, for him to open up his doors to us,” James said. “It’s definitely pretty cool to see a teammate of yours doing some great things off the floor as well to help not only himself, but for others, and you can appreciate it.”
For Cashman, it signified another successful itinerary completed.
“Definitely one of the more unique places,” he said. “But you find some of them. You know, like Orlando, we were at a volleyball academy that happens to have basketball courts. So, go figure.”
