Pre-game rituals are common for athletes to follow. Dwyane Wade did pull-ups on the rim, Jayson Tatum pulls his ears and LeBron James tosses chalk into the crowd before tip-off.
But there’s a lot more to pre-game rituals than what we see on camera. Former Lakers forward Nigel Hayes-Davis was on the Swish Cultures talk show when he got into LeBron James’ mindful pre-game practice.
In 2018, Hayes-Davis signed a 10-day contract with the Lakers. During this period, he noticed King James’ mental approach to the game.
“I’m just watching him. He did his warm-up, he does his stretches and then he does like his 20-25 minutes… You know, does his little meditation thing and goes out there and is LeBron James…What he does on the commercials is real, ” recalled the 29-year-old.
Avid fans of ‘The Akron Hammer’ will know about his meditation practice. James has partnered with Calm, a software company that sells guided meditations, since 2019. He even featured in a series of ad spots promoting the self-care app.
In the ‘Train Your Mind’ commercial for Calm, James revealed how meditation helps him as an elite athlete.
“The mind is like a muscle; the more you train it, the stronger it becomes. And while the greats mastered the body, the greatest mastered the mind.”
Nigel Hayes-Davis connected the dots while watching James during his stints in the NBA and looks like he carried it forward in his career. He currently plays for Fenerbahce and holds the record for most points scored in a EuroLeague game.
James also spoke about the need for meditation during the 2020 NBA bubble. Cordoned off from family and facing an anxious global pandemic, the King sought to re-focus his mind on the championship through meditation. “That definitely is something that keeps me sane in the bubble.”
You would be surprised to know how many championship-winning locker rooms were meditating. ‘Zen Master’ Phil Jackson introduced the practice to his 2000s Lakers, with Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and Pau Gasol all speaking about how they adopted it from their coach.
Luke Walton, who played under Jackson in LA for 8 seasons, also emphasized meditation as a practice. As head coach of the Lakers, Walton made younger players like Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma practice the same.
Though LeBron James hasn’t talked about how he got into it, he did describe that meditating came with its own growing pains.
“You feel kinda weird about it at first because it’s something that’s new…But I got more and more comfortable with my inner self, inner spirits and inner energy and things of that nature, I guess. So it works for me,” explained LeBron, providing a solid stamp of approval from the leading point scorer in NBA history.
