The San Antonio Spurs are having one of their worst seasons ever this year, but their new far Northwest Side practice facility could help return the team to its winning ways.
The $100 million Victory Capital Performance Center by the architecture firm ZGF is part of a half billion dollar complex known as the Rock at La Cantera.
The facility projects a winner's confidence through sturdy construction, using mass timber from Oregon and Montana.
At the heart of the building is the Spurs practice gym with long timber beams running across its entire length. Some of the beams in the building run 130 feet long. Phil Cullen is the team's senior director of basketball operations.
"We wanted to have a sense of awe and wonder," he said. "When you get in here, in the gym itself — there is that little moment of just wow."
Visible above the court and through large glass windows on the front of the building are five NBA Championship banners won by the team. Players must see those banners every day as the drive up to the front parking lot or drive a ball down the court inside.
Cullen says there's a reason for that.
"It's one thing to capture the legacy, but then also understand that we have a lot of work to do in the future as well."
The building is also a winner for the environment. Two-point-four million pounds of mass timber hauled in on more than 50 big trucks went into the facility. It was all custom cut with large machines at Boerne-based Timberlyne before arrival at the construction site. Michael Ratliff is the executive director of commercial sales at Timberlyne.
"Timber is renewable, he said, "so it's one of the few construction materials that can say that. It's just a natural product ... from its initial state to its final state here in this building — [that's one of the] very few processes of energy to get it there."
The building also includes a rain water capture system used for landscaping and a splash pad outside. And the one-acre roof is covered in energy-saving solar panels from Holt Renewables. Kevin Chavez is its sales operations manager.
"We're looking to offset anywhere between 60 and 80% of the annual consumption of the facility year over year," he explained.
Cullen said the Spurs wanted their new home to have a positive environmental impact on the community and serve as a place to focus on basketball.
"More than anything this building is designed for basketball, to facilitate the interactions between players, coaches, front office staff. Dining has expanded as well, but it is the home for the San Antonio Spurs for the future."
That future includes winning through hard work. That hard work and the name of The Rock at La Cantera itself are both inspired by the "Stonecutter's Credo." The words of the credo are displayed at the Spurs gym and have been cited by coach Greg Popovich.
The words were written by journalist Jacob Riis and can be applied to any situation that requires perseverance, like winning a game.
The credo goes like this:
