![img-4812-1-2](https://snworksceo.imgix.net/dpn/2e0b4bca-a0ee-45bb-bcbf-da599153f8e3.sized-1000x1000.jpg?w=1000)
Center Evan Mobley of the Cleveland Cavaliers walks by the Palestra on Jan. 24.
Credit: Nathaniel SirlinOn a Friday morning in the Palestra, the sounds of bouncing balls and swishing nets fill the air, the same way they would for a typical day of Penn basketball practice. But a different team in red is calling the Cathedral home today: the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavs are in town to play the local Philadelphia 76ers later in the day, looking to strengthen their hold on the top spot in the Eastern Conference. But before then, the team makes sure to pay a visit to the nation’s most historic basketball arena.
“This is the jewel,” Penn men’s basketball coach Steve Donahue said. “This is what they want to see.”
The Cavaliers are far from the only professional team to utilize Penn’s facilities during their stints in the city. In recent years, Donahue says “numerous” NBA franchises have used the Palestra and neighboring Rockwell Gymnasium for practice and shootaround, including the San Antonio Spurs, Golden State Warriors, and Memphis Grizzlies.
Penn’s other historic venue also has its fair share of professional visitors: multiple NFL teams have utilized Franklin Field for walkthroughs ahead of matchups with the Eagles, including the San Francisco 49ers, who practiced at the Birds’ former home ahead of their NFC Championship clash in 2022. The school has also hosted multiple MLS franchises, who prefer to practice at Penn because of its FIFA regulated real grass field.
Joe Haughey, Penn Athletics Assistant Athletic Director and head of Business Development, handles many of the professional requests. Though he says most teams only use the facility for around an hour, their visits still require an administrative lift.
“Whether it’s NFL or NBA, our [director of basketball operations] or our director of football operations gets contacted,” Haughey said. “They’ll loop in myself, and then our scheduler, Mike Manson, to see if it works. We say no — sometimes if we have practices or if we just don’t have the time.”
“We have a security detail that we put on,” Haughey added. “They basically go through the same process as an usage of our space externally, it just has a little bit more of a security element because of the high-profile athletes that are coming in.”
Haughey also noted the importance of small logistical tweaks like adding an NBA three-point line in the Palestra and re-installing the uprights in Franklin Field when necessary.
Which teams choose to practice at Penn depends on a number of factors. Existing relationships are one — Donahue personally knows Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson and Warriors coach Steve Kerr, while Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins is a Penn alum. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich’s friendship with former Penn coach Fran Dunphy has made San Antonio a frequent guest.
But both Donahue and Haughey agree that the legacy of the venues is the primary draw. Donahue said that NBA players “appreciate this kind of building,” including the Cavaliers’ Donovan Mitchell, Ty Jerome, and Georges Niang, all of whom Donahue recruited during his time at Boston College. Haughey added that coaches like the 49ers’ Kyle Shanahan have “an understanding of the historic value for Franklin Field and the Palestra.”
Hosting professionals also has its perks for Penn.
“It builds our brand when we get to have these teams and host them here,” Haughey said. “So it’s a mutual benefit. They get to show their teams the history of the sport … but then we also get to say ‘Hey, we have some of these teams coming in to work out at our facilities.”
Outside of a branding and recruiting boost for the school, Penn’s current athletes also get the rare chance to meet and learn from the best in the sport. Donahue specifically mentioned that the Spurs have been consistently willing to speak with Penn’s players, while Atkinson and the Cavaliers also made an effort to introduce themselves to the Quakers during their recent visit.
“I think it’s awesome for our guys to be around it,” Donahue said.
In other ways, the impact of rubbing elbows with the best in the sport is impossible to describe. When asked his favorite memory from an NBA team practicing at the Palestra, Donahue smiled and pointed to the court’s west baseline.
“The Warriors used our team room, and as they’re going in to watch film, [Steph] Curry shoots it from there, and hits it on [the opposite] basket. Some of our guys saw it.”
“It was beyond the court, and he swished it,” Donahue said with a laugh. “We should have had it filmed.”
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