Letters to a Young Athlete by Chris Bosh

Author:Chris Bosh [Bosh, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

LETTER 8

Take Care of Yourself

Playing alongside LeBron James means that I had the privilege of watching one of the greatest players in the history of our sport up close. A lot of what I saw wasn’t that different from what the fans saw watching on TV. But I also got to see behind the scenes. I got to see the discipline and routines that, in addition to his talent, built LeBron.

That’s important because we tend to think that heroes are born rather than made. We also forget, as far as athletes go, that it’s not just about getting in shape, but staying in shape. That no one can be great, consistently, without figuring out how to maintain and protect their body.

Being part of the team in Miami was a blast. I was an equal among peers. We got to hang out a lot, playing cards and staying up late every night, sometimes going out and having legendary parties.

But one thing that is seared in my memory from those early days is watching LeBron stretch. He had a thirty-minute stretching routine, and he told me he stretched every day when he woke up in the morning and then again before going to bed at night. And that’s on top of stretching before and after workouts, practices, and games. I’ve seen LeBron get up from card games to make sure he got his stretches in. How many times did I see him stretch? A thousand? More?

If you’ve never been around an NBA locker room, I can tell you: Everyone stretches. But LeBron’s commitment to stretching is, by comparison with everyone else in the league, way over the top. He said that he was inspired by a coach early in his playing days who told him, “All that dunking is great, but if you want to keep doing that, you need to stretch.” He took it to heart . . . and we mostly laughed at it. On top of that, LeBron has been icing his knees thirty minutes each day since high school.

I had heard since I was a teenager that I should stretch, too. But when you’re young, you don’t think about it. Because your body is so supple, so resilient that you can treat it like garbage and not even know what you’re doing to it. When I was young I wasn’t thinking about prolonging my career. I wasn’t thinking about improving my recovery time. I wasn’t thinking about regrets when I got older. Man, I wasn’t sure I would ever be old. My mentality was “hoop and go home.” I was taking it day by day, pushing through the pain, acting like I was going to be young forever. Get there early to stretch before the game? Stay late to stretch after? Who had the time?

In high school, my buddies and I were eating Quarter Pounders before every game. And we were not alone. For a long time, the most popular restaurant among NFL players was the Cheesecake Factory. Lots of options, big portions, big booths, lots of calories, at a decent price.

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