BOSTON -- When it comes to veteran NBA players aging gracefully, the measures taken to best ensure their longevity range from changing up their diets, partaking in various “weird exercises” to … air filters?
I’ll let Arnie Kander, former strength coach of the Detroit Pistons and a former Vice President of Sports Performance with the Minnesota Timberwolves, explain.
“Maybe the last 10 years of my career, we traveled with filters on the road that we put into rooms because we don’t know what’s in that room,” Kander, now a consultant to the Pistons, told NBC Sports Boston. “We don’t know if there’s mold in that room. We don’t know what kind of chemicals were used to clean that room so we traveled with filters.”
Players who are talented enough to stick around in the NBA for many years understand that with that longevity comes an increased need to take added precautions that ensure good health that younger players either don’t necessarily think about or just aren’t as much of a necessity for them to be effective.
“Back in the day, you didn’t stretch,” said Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki, now in his 20th NBA season. “You just get on the court. You shot for a little bit and go right in the game. Now, you get here three hours before and do all sorts of weird exercises to get going, get halfway loose. So that’s sometimes a little frustrating and challenging. But it’s part of the process you have to do to still somewhat enjoy playing.”
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But that love of the game will only take you so far when you are a veteran player.
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It ultimately comes down to what you do on the court, something that becomes all that more challenging as a player advances in experience and age in the NBA.
Boston’s Al Horford isn’t quite there yet, but the 32-year-old big man is in his 12th NBA season and wants to stay around for as long as he can.
To do that, he knows there are several factors as they relate to his health, diet and playing time that can only help aid him in his quest to be at the top of his game for years to come.
Develop a routine
Finding a routine has proven to be one of those things that all players, young and not-so-young, are seeking. Vince Carter and Jamal Crawford rank among the game’s all-time leaders in seasons played, but their paths to getting there and maintaining a relatively high level of play could not be any further apart.
“I don’t play pick-up in the summer,” said Carter, who will be 42 years old later this month while playing in his 21st NBA season. “That’s really important. That’s just wear and tear on your tires. I’m still on the court, doing court work. But I’m not playing, running up and down. I can’t do that. If I do that, by the time January comes … just being smart about my approach and big picture, which is the season and my willingness to do whatever it takes to keep playing this game.”
And then there’s Crawford, whose outlook on offseason basketball is at the other end of the basketball-playing spectrum.
I asked him if there were a couple of things that jump out to him when he thinks about what he’s done in his career to have this kind of longevity where he's now in his 19th NBA season.
“Staying active,” said the 38-year-old Crawford. “Even time off technically in the summer, I’m playing every other day. That’s helped me tremendously; and not drinking and not smoking.”
Producing on the floor
With the Boston Celtics well in control of their Dec. 14 matchup against the Atlanta Hawks, Celtics head coach Brad Stevens called a time out soon after an Atlanta Hawks player ran the floor and finished the play with a lay-up against an out-of-position Boston defense.
“Brad’s not going to like the fact that a 41-year-old beat them up the floor,” said NBC Sports Boston analyst Brian Scalabrine moments after Stevens’ time out.
The 41-year-old that Scalabrine was referring to was Carter, who, despite his advanced age, is still capable of impacting games and showing others exactly what aging gracefully in the NBA looks like.
Carter, who is averaging 7.3 points this season, came off the bench against Boston to score 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting, which included a vintage jam that drew a considerable amount of applause from the TD Garden faithful who put their usual Green-tinted fandom away seemingly whenever he did something positive, which he admitted afterwards was a pleasant surprise.
“I’m grateful because I know on the other side there is a lot of boos playing here,” Carter told reporters after the Celtics win. “I don’t expect it, obviously … it’s a pretty cool moment. Very appreciative.”
Healthy eating
Al Horford considers himself one of the lucky ones when it comes to eating right.
The son of a former NBA player, Horford learned at an early age the correlation between how you perform and what you put in your body.
But don’t get it twisted.
Horford is quick to say that he’s no berry-loving, flax seed-eating, non-meat lover.
“Nutrition is a big thing for me,” Horford said. “It doesn’t mean I still can’t have a cheeseburger or pizza; I definitely will. But my diet has changed in a big way.”
The biggest change, Horford said, is that he eats a lot more vegetables now.
“That, and more fish,” he said. “Before, my diet was very little vegetables. But now, that and more salads with meals or as a meal by itself at times. Those are probably the two biggest differences.”
Much like conditioning, figuring out the best diet for players as they advance in their careers varies from one player to the next.
“I’m not a big, ‘You gotta eat kale’ or, ‘You gotta eat this vegetable or that one,’” Kander said. “Find foods that work for you.”
For example, Kander said former Piston Grant Hill was a big steak eater.
“That worked for him,” Kander said. “He had great energy. You find what works for that athlete. I don’t think it’s a good idea to get too rigid, ‘you have to have this amount of fish and seafood, this amount of vegetables.’”
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There are times when blood tests may reveal what’s the best diet for a player.
Kander recalls athletes having taken blood tests which determined what their sensitivity is to certain foods.
During his time in Minnesota, Kander recalled having a player who was sensitive to chicken which, according to Kander, he ate seven days a week.
“I told him, ‘Don’t get rid of chicken. But let’s reduce it to five days a week’ and everything changed for him in a positive way,” Kander said.
Prior to the change, the player had sinus issues, bloody noses and earaches.
“We reduced the chicken by two days and as soon as we reduced the chicken by two days, all those symptoms went away,” Kander said.
Another player had a similar sensitivity to eggs. And a reduction in his egg intake alleviated some recurring soreness he had experienced in one of his knees.
Kander has a simple theory on why you look to make reductions rather than flat-out eliminate certain foods.
“If you tried to take chicken from his diet completely, it might change his brain chemistry and there’s no telling what effect that might have on his mental approach to the game or his actual play. You just don’t know,” Kander said. “So you have to take things like that into consideration whenever you are looking to make some kind of change or modification to a player’s diet. And if they’re playing most of the time with little discomfort, you don’t want to do anything too drastic if you’re making a change. But if it’s a guy who misses like 40 games a year, we might have to have a different kind of dialogue when it comes to changes with his diet.”
Staying in Shape
One of the bigger challenges facing players as they advance in age is conditioning.
As players get older, developing a routine becomes critical.
“You’re really trying to substantiate a routine that works,” Kander said. “Cut out the extraneous. Because as athletes get further along, that becomes even more significant.”
When Kander was working with the Pistons, he worked with Ben Wallace and Chauncey Billups, who were among the stronger players in the NBA at that time at the center and point guard positions, respectively.
But as they got older, each had a different but still effective approach to maintaining a high level of strength.
“Ben is a specimen as we all know,” Kander said. “He also had such an incredible knowledge of his body.”
For Wallace, he was intent on continuing to lift weights as a means of maintaining his strength.
Meanwhile, Billups was more interested in working with resistance bands.
“You find what makes guys click and not get caught up in the methodology,” Kander said. “You have to be unique with each athlete, find out what raises the bar for them and then create that.”
Horford has a variety of lifting and stretching components that he’s involved with on a daily basis, often involving work in the morning and later on that evening.
Most of Horford’s work involves a combination of lifting weights and stretching with the emphasis being to, “try and get a better range of motion to different parts of the body.”
“I found that combination has been very beneficial to me,” Horford told NBC Sports Boston.
Not only for how he feels now, but for what he hopes will be a career that will continue to see him age gracefully and continue to be a major contributor for the Celtics.
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