Playoffs?!

Whaddup fellow ballers? It's been a hectic week-and-a-half since my last post as many other responsibilities in my life have been tugging at me for my time, but you just KNOW that nothing's getting in the way of me being around basketball! Despite reduced time, I've still been able to play plenty of pickup games, read numerous inspiring articles, and enjoy this year's NBA playoffs! As far as the latter, it's been a fun and satisfying postseason so far even though my Phoenix Suns were in the race for the 8th seed for the entire season until they lost an underrated key player in Brandon Knight to injury, and gave up 9 of their last 10 games to teams who could actually keep their roster healthy and make a respectable push into the postseason, and I had to watch as those like the San Antonio Spurs, who looked like they weren't even going to win their first round postseason match-up throughout most of the season, somehow defied their age yet again to become the hottest team in basketball and went on an impressive win streak to finish the season... there's always next year.

As far as the pickup games, the combination of this project and the weather starting to finally move towards spring has made me JACKED to play basketball more than any time in recent memory (I hope you all feel the same)! More and more I've felt eager to go outside and enjoy the day with a good group of friends by playing the timeless game of basketball at our local (and may I add quite nice) court outside of the Midland Community Center. My friends and I love this place as there are two full, free-entry basketball courts that are open any day of the week at any time. An unexpected outcome of going there so often is that I've met many other ballers who do the same, and have formed some casual friendships with a few of them. To anyone who has the ability to come play here, I'm telling you it's a nice spot to shoot hoops and get pickup games going - I know you'll see me there more and more as the weather brightens up!

The picture above is of course LeBron "King" James himself. With the playoffs just beginning, I figured I was going to see a lot more wins and highlights from the Cleveland Cavalier's superstar (widely considered the best active player in the world) over the next few months, so I decided to read up on how the player I grew up idolizing prepares his mind and body to play at the level he does. Coming in, I had assumed that James trains himself strenuously and diligently to maintain the level of athleticism he's accumulated, however I had no idea just how strictly he diets and how intense his training regiment is. LeBron keeps himself under strict and consistent guidelines in order to be in the best shape he can, and his work ethic is awe inspiring. I think we all realize that professional athletes are paid to keep their body in top shape, but I also think that we all tend to underestimate just how hard these "professionals" work in order to be the best they can be - it's commendable.

Link to an article outlining James' workout routine: http://www.menshealth.com/celebrity-fitness/lebron-james-workout

Ballin' up this week and many more,

Brad