Best NEW Stadium in Europe?? ($95M Basketball Facility Tour + Mic'd Up Team Practice)
In this 30‑minute vlog, professional basketball player Elijah Bryant takes viewers on a behind‑the‑scenes tour of Galatasaray’s newly‑built EuroLeague training complex in Istanbul, then joins teammates for a mic‑up practice session. The video showcases the practice gym, weight room, sauna/hydrotherapy area, treatment room, and both practice and game locker rooms, highlighting the modern amenities that mirror NBA facilities. Throughout the tour, Elijah and teammates (including D‑Pain, “D‑O”, equipment manager Erson, and trainers) discuss daily training routines (lifting three times a week, membership tiers for the weight room, cold‑tub recovery, and sauna use), the role of the equipment manager, and the importance of film study. The group also compares the physical and logistical demands of EuroLeague basketball to the NBA, noting the constant high‑level competition, travel challenges, and the need for consistent recovery protocols. The vlog blends informal banter, birthday shout‑outs, and a brief on‑court drill, providing viewers with a comprehensive look at how a top European club prepares its players both physically and mentally.
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We can show them this. What's up guys, welcome back to the channel.
So today we're going to be showing you guys facility tour, and stay to the end to see practice. But I had to bring my brother Fan favorite of the vlog, Mr. D-O. That's my son.
Let me talk to you. Let me buy you a drink.
I'm D-Pain.
When I came off the womb, this came along with it.
I know what you do. Hey, Minnesota's finest. D-Pain coming out.
Let's do it, gang. Let's do it.
So right here we're sitting in the practice gym where we are every single day. Compared to last year, what do you think this gym, and how would you explain it to the fans?
I would definitely say it's like a lot different. It's like obviously brand new. It's only like a couple months old. You know, I think the old facility was, has probably been there for a little while. It was pretty solid too, but you know, I feel like we got like, what would you say, in like a hotel or like a nice apartment complex, like more amenities here is what I would say is what we have here.
This is where we practice most of the time. This is our practice gym. This is actually the Turkish Federation where they practice as well with the men's and women's national team. So this facility really mimics an NBA facility when it comes to the weight room being right there. You have where scouts can sit up, up top. You have— they actually play some U17, U15, U16 games in this gym. So the ability to have this gym in Turkey is not going to only do wonders for us, but do wonders for the youth of basketball in Europe. But to be honest, how many buckets have I given you here?
Hey, bruh.
Zero.
Hey, ask him.
We was about to play 5-on-5, switching defense. Coach said, you know what, I'm going to save Elijah today.
D.O.
was about to terrorize him. That's all I'm going to say.
We get a lot of buckets in here, but we can go to the weight room and check that out.
See, I've definitely gotten better in being in the weight room, as our strength coach is right here.
Facts. I think that's very important. For me personally, I think the weight room is a staple to being successful on the court. Obviously having a great weight coach like my guy here has very helped us, helped us a lot, helped us, helped us a lot. So he's, he's been very beneficial. But I would say for me personally, I try to lift, you know, 3 times a week and just to keep the body strong, being that we play so many games and are always traveling. Some guys lift after the games. I know you do that sometimes, lift after the games. Yeah, to To kind of get your. Your workout in. But a funny thing about this weight room is that there's a membership class depending on how. How often you come. So. Right. Right now. So what's the. What's the. What's the membership status? How does it work?
Elijah right now is platinum.
Okay, But I don't want to comment about you.
Hey, don't do that.
At least. At least you got this.
I don't do this. Yeah, don't do that. Tell them what my current status is and tell them. Tell them what you told me was okay.
I give you gold.
I'm a gold member.
Gold member.
Okay, so it's based on who— how many times you come in, you know, what you're doing in here. And also, it's also based on, um, if you're looking on your phone, if you're bringing food in here, stuff like that. But this, this, this place is a very beneficial place to be successful on the basketball court. It's crazy because the coincidence, it was just on your birthday. So maybe it's good luck. When is it?
Today? Swear?
37th birthday! Happy birthday!
Why are you stealing my drills?
Come on.
Plantar fasciitis?
No, no, I need to be like you, bro.
Stealing my drills? What can I say? I do what I can. Good thing I starved myself today. This is the next big Turkish prospect right here. Baby Shaq, baby Jokic. Nah, they're not worth the work.
We are on the ground. We're gonna squeeze the Swiss ball and hip raise, okay? The reps on the wall, probably 10 reps. Yes, 10 reps. You too.
Wait, so you didn't— you had off the last few days? Damn, I should have done that.
When I saw you not on the roster, I said, hold on a second.
How many do here. 6 total, 30 seconds.
Go! I mean, you jump a lot of higher before.
So you're saying I didn't jump higher there? Wait, time out, time out. Wait, time out, time out. Wait, did he do something different to his mustache? Look at his mustache.
Is she gone?
No, he did something. It's thicker now.
Shangoon, they be eating this meat out here. They're ready to go.
This is what our practice locker room looks like, and you guys will see, you know, so we have all our stuff, you know. Erson does a great— Erson's first team all equipment manager for sure, for sure.
He do so much, he does so much.
And if you guys are from the NBA or whatnot, he does it with no loops.
Exactly.
He knows everyone's stuff, folds it, packs it, and he has no assistant, brings your shoes. So shout out to Erson, but shout out to Erson. We're blessed, we're blessed. Now we'll go to the sauna area. Well, this is like obviously the shower area, but this sauna is next level. I mean, you can come in and see. We just recently started using this, but obviously, you know, sauna is very beneficial. You use the sauna?
Yeah, I just got out of it like 2 days ago.
Oh, so yeah.
This is nice to kind of get ready for practice or after practice too. Another way to take care of your body. So for sure, Federation is doing it, doing it right. And obviously, uh, the showers— use that too, right? So now we'll head down and you can see how long it takes us. There's another way to go to get to the game gym, but we don't have access to this yet. But this is supposed to be like hydrotherapy, so like cold tubs, stuff like that.
Cold tub mandatory, low-key now.
Oh, you weren't doing it last year though, right?
No, I was, I was really, I was, I really wasn't. But this time around, definitely have to.
What's the biggest change you've seen since using Cold Tub this year compared to last year?
I feel like just more, I'm more fresh, like each and like, especially because like, leading, like for example, we'll probably, we'll play Alba this week. So like once we start practicing down there, like I'll probably use it right after practice each and every day up until the game. And then like even on the morning, the morning shooting around, I use it too.
You played in the NBA obviously for way longer than I did. Would you say the season over here is like, in terms of load on body, harder compared to the NBA? Like, you mean you have domestically games, you have EuroLeague games, you have road travel on buses, like that type of stuff?
Yeah, you know, I definitely would say it has to be because like over here in Europe versus the league, the main difference I would say is that every game, like whether it's EuroLeague or domestically, it matters. And so like, you're gonna get every team you play their best shot. And so like, it's like in the NBA, there's nights where you can take off and there's nights where like, uh, the vets aren't gonna play, so like the rookies and the young guys can get a little opportunity to show out. But like, here it's like each and every night, doesn't matter if you're playing Pana or if we're playing Yalobospor or Marquez Efendi, Like your last team? My old team, yeah. Marquez's family. Shout out Denizli. Hey, shout out my boy Omer Hallett, Yusuf Hallett. That's my dog right there. All the people over there love him. Yeah, like you're gonna get everybody's best shot over here no matter where the team is.
So it's—
I definitely would say the load is harder. That's what I think makes it harder. It's because you have to try hard each and every game. Being overseas, it's I remember when I was in the G League for a little while too, one of my coaches played overseas. And when I was talking to him at the end of the season about like coming over here to play overseas, he, the first thing he told me was, overseas is not for the faint-hearted. I never forget that quote ever in my life. And he was absolutely right. Like being overseas is so different. You're away from all the people that you know, all times of the years. I mean, everybody's different. Everybody's circumstance is different. Like, you have your family and stuff out here for sure.
The camera will usually be right there, and we'll walk through here heading to our game locker room. Is this open? This is where we usually watch film. So, you know, the coaches will prepare film and we'll watch film. Dio will be sleeping over there. I'll be sleeping over here. Nah, we'll be locked in, but it's probably, what, 20, 30 minutes? We'll go over probably a postgame. Analysis and then get on to the, the next game. With so many games, it's especially overseas and travel, it's hard to watch every film session as a team. So yeah, me personally, I, I watch film. You probably watch film too at the house just to see what you're doing in the game and to kind of get better throughout the season. Any suggestions on young hoopers watching film? Did you always watch film, let's say, when you were younger?
No, definitely not. I feel like this is like, um, this year I definitely took another step in that area as well. It's just like, like basically it's like the answer to a test. You just, uh, cheat sheet. Yeah, exactly.
For sure. I think it's a— it's been a big cheat sheet for me, and it's very— I would say very objective. You can't— if it's facts, if you missed the closeout, like you can't say, oh, there's no emotion involved, you missed it.
Yeah, exactly. Like, it's just like, like you— that's a perfect way to put it, honestly. Oh, here's the man himself, the man, the myth, the legend, the man himself.
This is the first team, first team, all EuroLeague equipment manager. We're just doing a little— so this is the treatment room. This is where all the massages go down. This is where Body takes care of us. Body, so here you can see all the modalities We have— we spent some time— I don't drink any coffee, but thank you.
Yeah, Susu and Barry do a great job, honestly, doing their best to help us out and stay ready. Um, you know, all the guys use this pretty frequently, so everybody's in here for different, uh, different reasons.
And so check out the famous Game Gym locker room. We'll see you guys.
We can show them this.
Okay, so this is our game locker room. It's different than the other locker room. I mean, it's more personalized, you would say.
So yeah, I feel like I haven't been in here in like a minute, actually.
That's what I'm saying, like we don't come in here a lot.
These are some, some of my, some of my pairs in my collection right here. This is not all of it, but I got flavors, as you can see.
We got— he got some heat.
I got heat. I stay with the heat, whatever you want. Hey, anybody that got size 15 that's watching this, bro, hit me if you want to shop.
They get your pictures, you can see deals. Oh yeah, that's my picture right here. Shout out, man. Juice, right?
Shout out Juice, man. Man doing his thing over in— back in Germany.
Yeah, buy a locker and then you have where you can open up and put extra stuff. But yeah, yes, nice setup. It gets the job done. So in here you also have like obviously the showers and stuff, but it's nothing crazy, nothing crazy, normal showers. You can show them that. Yeah, so we're not in here often, but when we do need it, it gets the job done. Now let's show them the— this is where Dio singing goes down. This is the coach's locker room, pretty much same as ours, but American Idol. Dio, this is where the ice tub— you might be saying, oh, we don't have like a cold tub, cold plunge. At the end of the day, like, this gets the job done.
This gets the job done.
You also have another weight room down here as well. I don't know if I said this, but we share this gym not only with the Basketball Federation but also Galatasaray. So Galatasaray has— this is their area, the same exact thing of what we have on the other side. From the EuroLeague practice facilities that you've seen, which one's been your favorite?
Yeah, I would probably say, uh, Sagiris.
Sagiris got That was tough.
To me, in my opinion, I think that resembles most like— yeah, the league. You got the practice gym in the game arena in the same area. They got their weight room and stuff like that. Every time you go play there, it's always a nice place to go play, and their fans is always rocking.
In terms of arenas, I mean, this has to be up there.
Yeah, it's brand new.
It has to be up there in terms of arenas. Now we just gotta We gotta fill that mug out. So come to FS fans, come to our games, man. We're gonna start putting some, putting some wins together. Yeah.
Oh, they're turning the lights on for us.
I already know the go-to move. What's the go-to move?
Go-to move?
Turnaround jumper.
Oh, ease, cash.
Let's get to this practice. What's up, brother?
How are you?
I'm Frederick today.
Frederick? I'm Frederick today. Sir Frederick. Hey, did you watch the Netflix thing?
Yeah. You have a break in the middle of the season. Some guys are here, some guys are not.
This won't be your team for the next 10 years.
Big man, big man inside.
Guards on court. Let's go!
He's, he's still traveled.
He's traveled.
Why?
Here we go. Break. Good job, good job, good job, good job. Beat the birthday boy. Ah, oh yeah, birthday boy, he got back. Good, good. That's you first. You got 2. You missed. Oh, job! Thank you all for really— thank you for working out. Happy birthday, dear Arigo. Birthday to you. Go blow it. Go blow it. Blow it, Roddy. Speech, speech, speech, speech.
