Kobe inspires Durant

Good story on espn.com about Kevin Durant being a major player on the USA team this summer. He offers up a good quote about the impression Kobe Bryant made on him during Team USA tryouts back in 2008:

Some of the roots of what made Durant such an efficient scoring machine can be traced back to the summer of 2008 when he was trying to make the roster for Beijing and the team was given a day off in Las Vegas.

We'll let Durant pick up the story from there.

"We had the day off, but they said we could get some shots up if we wanted, so I decided to head over with [Oklahoma City teammate and Team USA hopeful] Jeff Green.

"Kobe [Bryant] was the only guy on the bus, and that spoke volumes to me -- he's the best player in the game, yet he's always willing to come work on his game, so that kind of motivated me and Jeff," Durant said. "He went by himself, he got a lot of shots up, and by the time he was done you could see he had gotten better over that hour. Like I said, it was a big inspiration to me and Jeff."

Roy Has it Figured Out

Great article here from Sports Illustrated on the work ethic and preparation of Phillies ace pitcher Roy Halladay. Here is a little from the article on his relentless work ethic:

Roy Halladay is the Lance Armstrong of pitchers. His capacity for work—both his physical endurance and his obsessive need to train his body—is freakish. Before the Phillies were required to be on the field this spring, Halladay had already worked out for 90 minutes nonstop: lifting weights, fielding a multisided rubber reaction ball, sliding laterally on a slide board, using the elliptical machine, running on the treadmill, pulling on rubber tubing and tackling other assorted exercises, capped off by stretching and then soaking in metal tubs, alternating between 110° water and 50° water to open and close his blood vessels, which helps his body recover more efficiently. In Toronto many of his teammates tried the lower-body regimen Halladay does on the day after starts. "None of them made it halfway," says former Blue Jays pitching coach Brad Arnsberg.

Roy Halladay is the Peyton Manning of pitchers. "That's what I call him," says Yankees starter A.J. Burnett, a former Toronto teammate. "No one is more prepared."

Halladay sums up his preparation:

Halladay controls as much as he can, including his own body. He takes the ball knowing that he has run not one less mile, done not one less repetition of a leg press or worked out for not one day less than what he planned to do. Halladay takes off only two weeks out of the year, in October. When he works out he never allows his heart rate to drop. Instead of resting between sets he jumps on a treadmill or mixes in another exercise. One reason he likes to train before anyone else arrives is that he never has to wait for a piece of equipment.

"Everybody always talks about the workouts," he says, "but I really don't do anything different. I just try to be more consistent and pay more attention to detail. I do it every day. And if it's 15 reps, I do 15. Not 12 or 13."

Halladay also worked with a sports psychologist:

And that's when I saw the biggest difference," Halladay says. "The first part was trying to rebuild that confidence, having a positive mentality. The second part was to simplify things. Sometimes you get caught up in the big picture—the seven innings, the three runs or less, who you're facing—and you get away from what makes you successful, which is executing pitches.

"Knowing when I go into a game that I had prepared the best I possibly could was a way to help build confidence. I didn't always need success on the field to feel like I was going to be good. I felt like I could create that on my own the way I prepared."

Says Brandy (His wife), " Roy was taught to focus on one thing at a time. When he gave up a hit, he learned to think about the next hitter.

Coach K on Getting Better

Thanks to DECA guru Coach Penas for sending out this Coach K quote!

"I'm on to the next thing, and the next thing is getting better as a basketball coach," Krzyzewski said Monday during his annual midsummer news conference. "You've got to get better each year, so the opportunity to coach the United States gives me an opportunity to get better. I'll coach this summer more than anybody in the United States.

"As long as I take my breaks and stay fresh, I think that's a good thing," he added. "You would want the guy defending you [in a courtroom] to get better in law. You would want the guy or woman treating you in health to keep up to date, and I think as long as you're in any profession, you should get better, because it's constantly changing."