Playing 82 games is a haul, and with eight or nine exhibition games, it's a long process. You've got to take care of your body and make sure you're getting your work in and staying healthy throughout the whole season.
Playing 82 games is not hard. The games are easy. It's what you do between games that wears you out.It's all about maintaining your body, maintaining your fitness and you do that by eating properly, watching your alcohol intake - I know I sound like an old-fashioned guy - but you do that by going home between games and getting your rest, taking care of your body, making sure you're getting the proper rest, the proper nutrition.
Honestly, I just try to take care of my body as much as possible: eating, recovery, just making sure that I'm always on top of staying healthy and making sure my body is 100 percent throughout the season.
Not only do you have 16 regular-season games, you also have four preseason games. Then if you make the playoffs, you can have four more games before you get to the Super Bowl. So you can already have 24 games without the 18-game season. And 24 games takes a real toll on somebody's body.
No matter whether you're hurting or it's just a precaution, you gotta eat right, make sure that you're protecting your body because 82 games and all those road trips - it's going to be a lot.
If you take minutes a day to take care of your mouth, the odds are you'll take the next steps needed to take care of your whole body, like exercising and eating healthy. It's a building block for other healthy habits.
Fortunately, I'm OK with my body. I try to take care of it. I played a lot of games over a season for several years, so, touch wood, I will stay fit and healthy.
I think that a lot of people are like, 'Oh, he only - he got hurt in the college season, where they only played 40 games. How is he gonna play 82 games in the NBA season?' They don't really look at the fact that in college, you practice way harder than in the NBA.
Some guys are more worried about their Vegas trip at the end of the season than playing the games, than playing every minute of the games. Quite frankly, I don't care about your Vegas trip right now.
Some people can get there in three or four games, some need eight or nine, but after 11 games, if you've been playing regularly, you're match-fit.
Inside the first 20 to 25 games of the season, we were losing these games, getting beat by two and three points. Over the last 10 games, it seems like we're starting to win these games and putting some good things together.
After three League games, we have the same number of points as last year even if we have played two away games this time round, ... As we got back on the right track last season, including making up an eight-point gap in a few games, we just need to stay calm.
I didn't know what it meant or what it took to be healthy and be prepared for 82-plus games... Injuries come with sports. I know that. But you can be prepared, get your body as prepared as it can be through practice and weights.
If you are not playing a player, any player, for two, three, four games, then you don't have to give a reason for that. But if it gets to eight or nine games, then you have to explain the situation. What's going on?
I believe that if we don't make moves to get people who don't play games to understand them, then the position of video games in society will never improve. Society's image of games will remain largely negative, including that stuff about playing games all the time badly damaging you or rotting your brain or whatever.
This is a very stressful profession. Not just coaching, but head coaching at this level with all of the variables that you have on your mind 24/7, it does take a toll on your health and you have to be very cognizant about what's going on with your body and listen to your body and make sure that you take care of your body.
During the season especially, we take a lot of swings, we play a lot of games, we swing a lot in games, batting practice, all that, so to maintain your shoulder the strongest is one of the key points that we focused on in the offseason.