Henry Abbott from ESPN’s basketball blog, TrueHoop, has some questions about Michael Beasley’s workout routine.
There are all kinds of moments on this video, when Beasley is on the court not going hard. In one drill, there is a row of chairs around the hoop, each with a ball on it. There are a million such drills. The way I have seen it described, these kinds of drills are essentially a race, to dunk all those balls as hard and as fast as possible.
But Beasley’s walking to get the ball between dunks. Coach Adkins is hollering at him to go hard.
There are other moments like that, when he seems to be jogging lightly when most coaches would want to see a sprint.
I don’t want to read too much into this moment of video.
But he’s definitely doing some resting on the go.
Maybe this is not alarming to anyone but me. Maybe this is a sign that Beasley doesn’t go as hard as he could. Maybe this was an off-day. Maybe it’s a sign he’s too young to feel that kind of urgency.
Or maybe three hours is just too long.
As regular readers know, I played college ball for Bo Ryan at UW-Platteville, and his philosophy is that it’s better to practice hard (and the right way) for an hour and a half than it is to go for three hours and develop bad habits because you’re tired.
I was surprised when I heard Beasley say in the video that he worked out for three hours. There’s no way to practice at full speed for three hours straight, even with breaks. Even in a game situation, players get breathers, either on the bench or during free throws.
There are some questions about Beasley’s character, and he might have had some off-the-court issues, but between the lines the guy is a monster. If I were the Bulls, I’d take him #1.
