Free agency had ended but, for Ersan Ilyasova, the work had just begun.
Scroll through the forward’s Instagram account, and you’d get a taste of how an NBA veteran stays busy when he doesn’t have an NBA contract. You’d see drill after sweat-soaking drill in a high school gymnasium. You’d see him get shots up in a blizzard. “No excuses,” he says.
“I tried to work on my game every day,” Ilyasova said. “I truly believed an opportunity would come at some point. I always tried to be ready — to practice and lift, whatever it takes.