Lonzo Ball now has a bit more of Steve Nash’s game in him.
Courtesy of Steve Nash.
Ball recently worked out with the future Hall of Famer, a session he left feeling accomplished and enlightened. As he said on NBC Sports’ Pro Basketball Talk podcast (via SLAM’s Ryne Nelson):
He’s an MVP, one of the best point guards who was playing, so anything that he taught me is definitely useful.
“And just that one day alone I learned a lot, from coming off a screen, to guarding, there’s a lot of things that he helped with and I appreciate him taking time out of his day to do that because I know he didn’t have to.” […]
“Nutrition, keeping your body right in the training room and stuff, lifting weights the right way, so he helped me on more things than just basketball. He helped me with my all around game.”
I’ve always wondered how much these one-off meetups really impact players on the receiving end. Like, will a few hours with Nash really change Ball’s approach to nutrition? And how he comes off screens? Will he emerge from this tutoring block as a perpetual 40/50/90 candidate with a pretty quick-twitch release?
The answer probably lies somewhere between yes and no. Occasional workouts—let alone a single one—isn’t enough time for Ball or someone else to perfect much of anything, but he could certainly leave the gym hoping to master everything he’s just seen and heard.
Indeed, these mentorship parties are probably most valuable for kiddies like the Los Angeles Lakers newbie. They’re impressionable and eager to learn. They should also be less set in their ways, in the sense that they’re eager to soak up anything and everything a person who’s done what they’re trying to do is saying.
Anyway, on a less-profound level, the thought of Ball learning something, anything, from Nash is absolutely terrifying. He’s already among the most hyped rookies of his class, perhaps in recent memory. Adding some more Nash-ian flavor to his game—or his approach to fitness and nutrition—only raises the hypothetical bar.
