The thing about basketball, compared to a lot of other sports, is that it takes endurance and muscle as much as anything else to have a successful career within the game. As long as you’re playing basketball, you’re going to be able to maintain your physical peak. Not everybody is going to go crazy hitting the gym, but being able to run multiple miles on the floor every night and keep up in the last two minutes of a game when the body is tired is proof of eliteness.
As the race for first intensities, make sure to check in with NBA Finals Odds, as the season in the league has been one to remember. The West is as close as it has ever been outside of the top four teams, as is the case in the East as well. With so many squads vying for just a few spots, it is going to make for a very intriguing conclusion to a year we will not soon forget.
Maintaining The Peak
Basketball is the easiest sport for somebody to play by themselves. It makes it an advantage when you’re trying to get better, and it really doesn’t take much, whether it’s just heading to the gym to lift weights or running for hours on end on the elliptical and the treadmill. Or if it’s just waking up in the morning and deciding to run a number of miles to prove yourself capable of doing it.
It could be that there is a great court/hoop nearby, and it’s time to start working on the shot. The secret to becoming Stephen Curry or Ray Allen isn’t really a secret at all. They talk about their process all the time in what made them great, and it’s just simply putting in the reps.
They play the game hard at all times and never show a sign of quitting. The fact that they can just do their thing every night is a testament to the number of shots they make each and every day.
That’s what anybody training to play the game can do. Step into the gym and shoot around. Heck, join a pickup game in progress to prove capable of keeping up with whoever else is in there. Practice free throws or dribbling.
It’s easy because this is the one sport where all you truly need is a basketball, a hoop, and in some cases, a place to run. That’s it. It’s the cheapest of all the games and is rather easy to get into in any part of the world.
There have been exceptions to those who haven’t been able to stay in shape but played/still play in the league, but the vast majority of hoopers look better during their training and careers than they ever will, and then most folks in any of the four professional sports in the US of A.
The Verticals are Insane
Hoopers aren’t the only athletes with insane hops, but it’s wild sometimes to see somebody shorter than six feet tall getting up to dunk. Kay Felder was only 5-8, but he was able to be a guy who could get up there during his college days and a brief stint in the NBA as well. Nate Robinson won the Dunk Contest three times at the height of just 5-7. And how can we forget 5-10 Spud Webb not only being able to throw jams but jump out of the gym too?
You have guys who can just hang in the air and throw it down. All of the time, practicing box jumps and strengthening their legs leads to just going straight up and coming down. Players on a pickup court won’t just magically become Zion Williamson, but putting in the work will lead to the talent to start jumping high. To become the rim protector. The denier of everything for the visiting players and team(s).
Basketball has always been a game that is used to keep folks in shape. It gets them out of the house for hours on end in the recreation scene, and in the professional one, it will lead to entertainment like viewers have never seen before.
It’s truly a beautiful game and one that is always going to be popular around the world. With icons paving the way during their playing years, they will maintain their relevance and will be an avenue to keep people in their best physical shape.
