Photo Credit: Winslow Townson/AP
The Sixers Now Have Fultz Use Virtual-Reality Goggles To Help Him Visualize Making Basketball Plays
This season’s number one draft pick, Markelle Fultz’s saga is still as strange and controversial as it was three months ago. To start the season, Fultz played through a shoulder injury that apparently caused him to forget how to shoot. He is still out indefinitely, but not because of the soreness and scapular muscle imbalance in his right shoulder, but because he can’t shoot?!
Well, to be honest, noone knows what is really going on and we haven’t gotten a full explanation of what the issue really is. All we know is that Fultz did not shoot weirdly in college, but does now. While he is currently working on his shot, it still is broken.
As we all know, desperate times call for desperate measures, and according to phillyvoice.com, the Sixers now have Fultz use virtual-reality goggles to help him visualize making basketball plays.
The Sixers, according to multiple people who spoke with PhillyVoice for this story, believe they are one of a small group of NBA teams with a setup that allows them to train players in virtual reality. It is something the organization has been toying with over the last half year or so, which they believe is primarily useful to help put players inside a game situation, like being part of an inbounds play. It is a way to keep them involved in the program when they can’t participate physically, as they’ve done with injured rookie Furkan Korkmaz.
With Fultz, there is a different motivation to get him behind the VR goggles. The Sixers, according to multiple sources, wanted him to be able to visualize the mechanics he’ll use in a game, to remember how easy it once was for him to rise up with the ball and shoot from anywhere on the court, and to be able to do so without the glare of the cameras or other people around him. With pressure coming down on him from all angles, turning part of a teenager’s job into a video game is one way to relieve the stress of the situation.
Via Sixers reporter Kyle Neubeck:
We all hope Fultz will eventually find his shot again, he’s just too good of a talent. It would be a shame if we never got to experience the real Fultz in the NBA. As for now, his story is one of the weirdest stories in NBA history, hopefully with a happy ending.
