With 17 seasons of playing in the NBA under his belt, Suns center Jermaine O’Neal has long started the process of starting his life after his basketball career ends. Check out what the six-time All-Star has in store for himself when he’s finished on the court. [Read more...]
(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)
Oct. 4, 2012
The player that has impressed me the most thus far has been Markieff Morris. He’s like a sponge.
That’s the first thing I noticed about him. I always stay after our workouts and get some extra work in, and the first two days I looked to the side and saw him just sitting there watching.
That’s a sign of a player that wants to be better, has a plan, and wants to be really good in this league. He went from watching the first couple days to getting in there and doing drills with me.
You could tell that he wanted to get in and work hard. I was impressed with a lot of guys, but I was probably most impressed with him because he is a young guy with a very hard work ethic. You don’t see that a lot in our league.
It’s my position to really help guys, not only on the court, but away from basketball. Mentally if you’re there, you’re going to get better physically.
Oct. 3, 2012
The Suns training staff is just unbelievable. They do a lot of things that I haven’t seen in a while.
This is a billion dollar business, but you’d be surprised, certain teams don’t go to the extent of keeping those entities healthy to win games. The routine on a day-to-day basis is not always the best.
It’s like an assembly line in a factory, where you go down the line and everybody’s touching you. You go from one person to the next to the next, until you’re ready.
But Grant Hill sold the Suns’ training staff to me and the importance they put on being healthy. Grant and I went to Germany for the treatment and started talking about that. And then Jared talked more about that to me in Vegas.
But coming back all started with going out to Germany and getting that treatment. It went phenomenal.
I did a four month training session to try to change my body, change everything about it. It was like starting with a clean white board.
Instead of working out like I have done in the past, it was like starting over as if I was a rookie. The more I got into the workouts, the better I felt. I started noticing that I got lift again.
It wasn’t just my knee, it was more mental. I had to ask myself: is this really what I wanted to do going into my 17th season?
But the more I got into the summer, the better I felt. I told teams that I had a due date that I wanted to get to before I decided to play.
And I did…
Oct. 2, 2012
Day one of training camp!
Entering my 17th NBA season, I’ve obviously participated in a lot of them, but I’m really looking forward to this one because it’s different. It’s a new system for me, new teammates, a new philosophy and a new challenge, which is what our league is all about. [Read more...]
