Before anyone arrives there is only the hum of the lights and the floor still cold from the night. I used to get there early just for this. Nobody talks about this part of the sport — the waiting, the taping, the first ball against the wall that echoes too loud.
We spent years in rooms like this. Most of what we know about discipline, and about each other, we learned in the hour before practice and the hour after.
TH1RT3N started there. Not with a logo, but with a feeling we wanted to carry outside the gym.