“I see you going for the pull-up the whole time! I’m a vet!” Does it really matter that John Wall is only 20 years old? He’s not exactly a veteran. But we’ll call him one because he looked the part at Reebok Headquarters on Tuesday, dominating in pick-up games and clearly standing alone as the face of the brand. While he is set to make the jump to 21 in another week, Wall is still a lot like the high school kids he was hooping with: young, excited and taking every challenge head on.
The Reebok Basketball Breakout Challenge is back again, albeit with a new name (it was formally Reebok U.). But the same mentality is there. This summer, the Philadelphia event provided opportunities for all of those under-the-radar players who might not have exposure to play and be seen: the small town kid who hasn’t grown into his body, the wing player who’s not big enough, the teen who has some game, but doesn’t have a national attitude, they all have a shot to impress. Reebok even added some extra incentive for the kids: If you impress John Wall, then we’ll fly you out to the Reebok Headquarters in Canton, Mass. for a chance to not only meet five NBA players, but train with them. If you’re a 16-year-old basketball player, does it get any better?
Wall is the perfect spokesman. He was once a no-name high schooler from Raleigh, North Carolina who drove out to a Reebok Breakout Challenge in Chicago and dominated so thoroughly that it propelled him to national status. Two years later, he was the undisputed No. 1 player from his high school class. One year after that, he was the top pick in the NBA Draft. So when we got the chance to set down at Reebok, it was only natural that the Wizards star was introduced last, only right that he was talking the most smack in the gym, only fitting that everyone cared whether or not he could master a few workout techniques during our time training with CrossFit. It was his world. Everyone else was engulfed by it.
After bearing the flight to Boston, and then the 20-minute drive through winding back roads, just past the prestigious Milton Academy, we entered Reebok’s campus, a heaven for anyone obsessed with activity. “Training day IS game day” is the mantra. Outside there are courts and athletic fields. Inside, there are weight rooms, cardio rooms and a basketball court that’s always filled during lunch hour.
However on this day, there won’t be a lunch hour run. Actually there will be, but instead of Reebok employees, it’ll include Wall, Jason Terry, Jameer Nelson, Ramon Sessions and Isaiah Thomas.
We first take a visit to the Reebok store and get hooked up from head to toe – I pick out a black PlayDry training shirt, some dope red shorts and a pair of red ZigNanos. Once we get laced up, it’s around 10 a.m. and the gym floor is packed. There’s a mic stand and a row of chairs stationed on the midcourt sideline and behind us, two floors of spectators lean out over the railings like we’re at Fenway Park. After a noticeable absence the last few years, Reebok basketball is back, Uli Becker, the company’s CEO, says, standing just in front of 10 huge blowout posters of today’s athletes. Darrick Wood… Jonathan Milligan… Daiquan Walker… Rysheed Jordan… Seth Allen… John Wall… Jameer Nelson… Jason Terry… Ramon Sessions… Isaiah Thomas. One by one they are introduced, with the building’s loudeset applause waiting for Wall to come out last.
Rocking his patented setup of what seems like 10 pairs of socks, and after strolling in with his famous JET pose, Jason Terry addresses the crowd, telling jokes (“Don’t ask me anything about Dirk,” to Becker, who is German) and shining light on the stories of all five NBA players – who overcame huge odds to make it.
After a fun 2-Ball event pairing an NBA player, a Breakout Challenge teenager and a Reebok employee, a contest where the JET’s team won (in part because he stationed himself behind the opposite shooters, acting like a rowdy heckler), the real fun began.
Drew Hanlen, one of the top young basketball trainers in the world and a former guard at Belmont University, came through to put everyone into an intense workout. It’s an unbelievable scene to watch Wall – who handpicked all these kids because he saw a little bit of himself in them – go one-on-one with the teenagers. During warm-ups he puts a spin on Milligan that’s so quick he loses his shoe, and serenades all of his jumpers by yelling, “Come back here” at the slight 6-2 rising senior. Milligan is here trying to follow the “John Wall Blueprint.” He went to the Reebok Breakout Challenge unknown in the state of Arizona. Now, he has much of the Pac-10 recruiting him.
The morning’s first drills are all mostly combination dribbling into pull-up jumpers. Wall is flying through the drills, adding in an extra between-the-legs dribble here or an extra step-back here. Sometimes, he’s off-balance when he shoots. Sometimes it looks textbook. Compare that to Terry, 13 years his senior, who is focusing on the little things. Every step, every bounce is done at a slower pace but smoothly and precisely. At one point, the players are finishing a combo dribble drill at the rim. Wall comes down the lane and smashes one loudly. Terry follows right behind with a floater. “I’m an old man!” he jokes, although not too old that he still can’t get up and put down a dunk when he wants to.
Once the morning session ended, they went five on five for six games or so, the five pros versus their four high school apprentices and Wall’s manager (Rysheed Jordan was sick and didn’t make the trip). From the jump, Wall dominates, going coast to coast the first two times he touches it. At one point, he finishes a fast break with a nasty dunk, catching Nelson’s off-the-glass lob after the Orlando guard caught a behind-the-back pass from Terry. It was gross. He’s doing everything: rebounding, blocking shots (in a later three-on-three drill, he punched a shot twice off the backboard on one play) and banged a three to end it.
“We gonna play for real?” he kept asking after the first couple of games were over. “Let’s hoop it!”
The young cats actually won a few of the final games on the day. Once they got a little confidence up, and once some of the NBA guys got bored (Terry even finished up the morning early to go stretch out) the games were somewhat even.
After lunch and spending a few minutes with all the guys, Reebok took us over to another building for a CrossFit training workout. We entered into what looked like a converted weight room with a huge opening in the middle, providing a much-needed breeze. We did some box jumps – up and down like pogo sticks – and a lot of squatting techniques. When the trainers asked us about our workout regimes, everyone kind of looked at Jameer Nelson to speak for the group. He was definitely the one most comfortable in there.
Terry was asking questions on everything. “What about one-footed jumpers?” when we were doing box jumps on a 30-inch height. “How does this affect basketball players?” when the trainers first instructed us to squat down with our chest straight and arms above our heads. At first, I thought he was doing it to help out the high school kids. But as the workout went on, I realized he really wanted answers.
The craziest technique we did was a three-and-a-half minute phase where you did as many squats – real squats – in 20 seconds, rest for 10, then do as many pushups as possible in 20 seconds, rest for 10, and keep repeating that until time ran out. Halfway through, there were moans and chests collapsing on the floor.
The trainers pointed out a good number of reps during that period is about 160. Nelson had much less yet still finished with the most in the group, laughing at the end, “I finished strong. They told me to turn it up… they told me to turn it up.”
Upon seeing some of the numbers everyone wrote on the grease board, Wall starting talking again. “Y’all are lying,” he joked, pointing at some of the high schoolers. When we left, Nelson and Sessions stuck around for a second, more intense training session.
Back in the gym, Thomas and Wall went three on three with all four of the Breakout Challenge kids. During those games, Wall went hard at Darrick Wood, but amazingly Wood came right back, matching him word for word and even scoring a few times in isolations situations. Wood is from Washington D.C., and said he plays against Wall a lot during pickup runs at the University of Maryland. There wasn’t a lot of fear, and soon, it was the high school kid dishing out his own smack.
“Battier…” he kept saying to Wall while mimicking the hand-in-the-face tactic Shane Battier has made so popular. “That don’t work!” Wall promised him.
Wood, who has committed to St. John’s, can really play. He’s super-long, is effortless finishing inside (he had one windmill where he seemed to hang at the rim forever) and once his rainbow J started falling, he held his own. Despite being skinny as a rail, the 6-4 swingman was rebounding over everyone at times. Between Wood and Allen, a smooth lefty, the high school kids won a few of those games as well.
By the time we bounced for the airport in the late afternoon, the players were going through some more ballhandling drills, but my legs were ready to collapse from all the standing, all the watching, all the CrossFit-ing. Seeing the difference up close between a player like Wall, a 20-year-old athletic machine and Terry, a 33-year-old veteran, in how they train was awesome.
When Wall was dominating the scrimmage, Terry was playing quietly from the perimeter. When Terry was stretching and asking questions during the training session, Wall was pushing the younger guys to keep up with him. Two great players. Two different emphases. 13 years makes a big difference.
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