NBA players going vegan because of 'What the Health' documentary

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NonZeroSum
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NBA players going vegan because of 'What the Health' documentary

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So was just browsing podcasts for interesting content on veganism and found this story of NBA stars going vegan after watching the new ‘What the Health’ documentary, getting each other to watch it and in turn go vegan. Also the push back they’ve gotten from coaches expressing scepticism about protein. On the slate magazine podcast they got some scolding for possibly taking all the claims in the documentary hook line and sinker, but opened up conversation on the benefits of cutting out junk food, and dense meats especially on off-season to fitness train, whether this is a practical long term diet for the athletes on the road, getting enough energy etc. Anyways good article below by the guy they had on. And I'll link a video from ESPN also.

Will more NBA players go vegan/vegetarian like Kyrie Irving and Damian Lillard? | The Jump | ESPN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmmotLch4_E

The Most Valuable Vegan Edition | Slate's Hang Up and Listen
https://www.acast.com/slateshangupandlisten/the-most-valuable-vegan-edition
Stefan and Josh talk to Tom Haberstroh of Bleacher Report Magazine about his recent feature on Boston Celtics star point guard Kyrie Irving eschewing meat, and whether slimmer NBA players are better NBA players.
Tom Haberstroh wrote:I think one reason you're seeing it now is "What the Health" documentary from this summer, Garret Templar watched it this summer as well as many other NBA players and they got spooked! It's a pro-vegan, almost radical extremist vegan documentary, I don't know if you guys have seen it, but it's pretty strong and so I think a lot of the players, who by the way are on airplanes and in hotel rooms late at night with not much to do, they watch these netflix documentaries and I think a lot of them got spooked and decided to look into their diet.
The Secret (but Healthy!) Diet Powering Kyrie and the NBA
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2744130-the-secret-but-healthy-diet-powering-kyrie-and-the-nba

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The Secret (but Healthy!) Diet Powering Kyrie and the NBA

Chicken wings are vanishing from the locker room. Superstars are slimming down—and speeding up. If 'skinny ball' has arrived, could the performance-enhancer sparking a revolution be...veganism?

The M-V-P chants shower Kyrie Irving as he toes the line for two free throws. The point guard is putting the finishing touches on a 35-point masterpiece against the Atlanta Hawks, and the crowd bellows with praise from every corner of the arena.

This kind of hero worship is commonplace for the star of the home team having a good night. Except this is an away game for Kyrie. The Celtics are playing in ATL, not Boston.

Irving is that good. He looks like a Harlem Globetrotter and Houdini all in one, darting and dazzling through Atlanta double-teams from start to finish. Down the stretch, he's masterful. When the Hawks go up 100-99 with 3:07 remaining, Irving single-handedly outscores them the rest of the way to help ice the game for his new team. He walks off the floor, untying his Nikes and handing them to a throng of adoring fans.

It's around this time that LeBron James grabs his phone and sets the basketball world ablaze.

After the M-V-P chants for Irving, James feels compelled to type "Mood…" into his Instagram and posts that meme of Arthur the Aardvark's clenched fist. Whether it was LeBron's intent to nod to Kyrie or not, the post makes it clear: Irving is right there, on top of the basketball world circa November 2017.

It might be too early to talk about Irving's MVP candidacy, but there's something different about Kyrie right now. His already skinny frame is noticeably trimmer—gaunt, almost. But he's outlasting everybody—not just the Hawks.

In late-game situations while other players are gassed, Irving has looked bouncier than ever. So far this season, in clutch situations (games within five in the final five minutes), his numbers are unfathomable. In 24 minutes of action, he's tallied 41 points on 57 percent shooting while handing out seven assists with no turnovers. Yes, that's 41 points in what amounts to one half of basketball.

This development has caught the eye of some basketball people and health fanatics around the NBA. Why? After a preseason game on ESPN, Irving announced something intriguing to Chauncey Billups and the NBA Countdown crew, who noticed how much...thinner he looked:

"Been on more of a plant-based diet, getting away from the animals and all that," Irving told the broadcast team. "I had to get away from that. So my energy is up; my body feels amazing."

So, is it possible that the secret to Irving's hot start is...that he's gone vegan? B/R Mag asked him just that.

"I think we can credit that in the win column," Irving told me after the Hawks game, rocking a gray sweatshirt inside a slim-tailored navy suit. "We lost the first two games, won the last nine games. I haven't changed any diet. I don't plan on changing anything in my diet. It's working out great so far."

Indeed, the Celtics are now an NBA-best 13-2, ripping off 13 straight wins without the injured Gordon Hayward, thanks in part to Irving's heroics.

"He's had great energy all year," Boston coach Brad Stevens says of Irving. "The nutrition side is huge."

The only other player with more clutch points than Irving this season? That would be Damian Lillard, who—you don't say!—went vegan this offseason, too, dropping almost 10 pounds in the process.

"I wanted to eat cleaner," Lillard told The Oregonian this offseason. "Also I want to play lighter this year and be easier on my joints and feet. I'm getting older, you know what I mean?"

Irving and Lillard aren't the only ones. Wilson Chandler, Al Jefferson, Garrett Temple, Enes Kanter, JaVale McGee and Jahlil Okafor have all made the switch to a vegan or vegetarian diet in the past year or so. For the uninitiated, vegans don't eat animals or animal-derived products like eggs or milk. A vegetarian can order the omelette with cheese; a vegan goes for the oatmeal with soy milk.

The rise of plant-based diets in the NBA follows a worldwide uptick in meat-free meals. According to research firm GlobalData's report, 6 percent of U.S. consumers identify as vegan, up from just 1 percent in 2014. In the United Kingdom, veganism rose by 350 percent from 2006 to 2016, largely from the country's younger demographics.

And now some of the NBA's very best have ditched meat. So, is veganism the NBA's new performance-enhancing diet? Is this even a thing? Or is it just an empty-calorie fad aligned with the league's shifting stars and skinny point guards?

Harvard stat gurus have discovered a trend in the NBA. The study, published November 1 by the Harvard Sports Analysis Collective in a blog post titled "Maybe We Should Call It Skinny-Ball," found that there has been a subtle shift in the league: Teams are getting faster…and lighter.

It's a recent phenomenon. The weight of the league (adjusted for minutes played) rose by seven pounds per player from 2000 to 2013, but has fallen three pounds on average per player over the last four years.

While small ball has become a leaguewide buzzword, there is no evidence that the NBA is actually getting shorter. But skinnier? Now we're talking. And the link is stronger for the faster teams.

"This may seem like an incredibly obvious result," the Harvard analytics group concluded, "but it highlights another efficiency that NBA teams have gravitated toward in the last five years. Teams are slimming down and using their athletic advantages to run the heavier teams off the floor."

"I haven’t changed any diet," Irving says. "I don’t plan on changing anything in my diet. It’s working out great so far.”
"I haven’t changed any diet," Irving says. "I don’t plan on changing anything in my diet. It’s working out great so far.”(Getty Images)

This result, however, might be surprising once you look at the bigger picture. The league is richer than ever by a count of billions, but the players aren't responding to the surge of cash by getting fat and lazy. They're going the opposite direction, cutting weight and getting faster.

The change has been seismic. According to Basketball Reference tracking, the league-average pace (estimated number of possessions per game) is higher than it's been since 1989. It's more of an up-and-down game built on speed and quick decisions. It's true, however, that teams are generally faster in the opening month before season-long fatigue kicks in. So far, the median team pace is 101 possessions per game. Looking at pace just in November, that's still six possessions faster than it was 10 years ago, and 11 possessions faster than it was in 1996-97.

In fact, the league's fastest team in 1996-97 would be the slowest in today's NBA—by a wide margin:

Get this: The average NBA team covers about 3,000 feet of extra ground per game than it did just four years ago, per player-tracking metrics on NBA.com. Or about a half-mile every night. Why?

Call it Warriors copycatting. Quick pace and even quicker threes. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban explains this meteoric rise in pace succinctly: "Because it works."

And few players represent this speedy shift more than Irving. This season, his average speed has jumped by 0.30 mph, or 26 feet of extra ground per minute on the floor. Among players averaging 30 minutes per game this season, it's the second-highest acceleration year-over-year.

For Kyrie, most of that increased speed has come on the defensive end of the floor. And that activity has led to results. Long perceived as a poor defender, Irving now ranks top five in both steals and deflections this season. And the Celtics are the league's top defense by a mile.

David Griffin was Irving's general manager for three years in Cleveland and the vice president of basketball operations when the team drafted Irving No. 1 overall in 2011. Griffin isn't surprised at all by Irving's commitment to vegan food or his energized defensive contributions.

"Kyrie is one of the most—what's the word? 'Stubborn' isn't the right word. He's really convicted," Griffin tells B/R Mag. "If Kyrie decides he's going to do something, it's going to get done. He's really one of those guys who I think has the ability to do anything he puts his mind to."

Irving would get 10 assists before halftime just to prove he could do it—and then go right back into scoring mode. When the Cavs won the 2016 NBA Finals, Irving averaged 2.1 steals and blocked as many shots in the final five games as any Warriors player (five).

"Kyrie is absolutely capable of being a menace defensively," Griffin says. "He can be completely unscreenable if he wants to be."

With his new team in Boston, Irving attributes this energetic output to his nutritional inputs. Call it energy enlightenment.

"It works," Irving tells B/R Mag. "I mean, I'm not eating a whole bunch of animals anymore. Once you become awake, you don't see that stuff anymore."

John Salley opens our conversation about veganism talking about dead basketball players. The four-time NBA champion wastes no time getting to the point, rattling off a stat about how many former players recently died early. The names are piling up. And Salley believes healthier diets could have helped prevent tragedy.

Sean Rooks, 46. Fab Melo, 26. Moses Malone, 60. Darryl Dawkins, 58. Jerome Kersey, 52. Anthony Mason, 48. Jack Haley, 51. Christian Welp, 51. Joe C. Meriweather, 59. Robert Traylor, 34. Devin Gray, 41. Armen Gilliam, 47. Orlando Woolridge, 52. Pat Cummings, 55.

"The oldest being Moses, 60 years old."

And that is just since 2011.

Salley brings this up because he's a vegan who is worried about the health of NBA athletes and their lifestyle. He applauds the league and the union for initiating last year what he calls a "life-saving" heart-screening program for former NBA players. Salley is one of the most vocal leaders in pro-vegan lifestyle. In 2015, Salley penned a letter to Michelle Obama, challenging her to go vegan.

"Vegan eating is not just a slam dunk for human health; it's also the most effective way to combat climate change," Salley wrote, citing a 2010 report from the United Nations, which has since been removed from the UN's website.

“It makes all the sense in the world why the elephant is an herbivore,” Salley says about eating plant-based foods. “Elephants, gorillas, giraffes are herbivores. Huge bodies, they can’t process animal flesh.’’
“It makes all the sense in the world why the elephant is an herbivore,” Salley says about eating plant-based foods. “Elephants, gorillas, giraffes are herbivores. Huge bodies, they can’t process animal flesh.’’(AP Images)

When Salley was 27 years old, a doctor told him if he ate animal fat, it was going to block his arteries. "And us being so tall, it's not good to have it blocked all the way down these long legs," says Salley, who is 6'11".

That's when Salley started doing his homework and soon went vegetarian to try to avoid artery-clogging food.

"It makes all the sense in the world why the elephant is an herbivore," Salley says. "Elephants, gorillas, giraffes are herbivores. Huge bodies, they can't process animal flesh.''

Salley insists that many African-American eating habits remain the result of slavery-era circumstances.

"They used to make us eat chitterlings—the intestines of the pig—because we weren't allowed to eat the bacon," he says. "We ate pigs' feet because they cut them off after they walked in their own shit and they didn't want to eat the thing. And we would grab them, wash them and pickle them because we had nothing else.

"Only because it was what we were forced to do, it became natural. And that's where we run into this huge problem."

Salley is talking on the phone from the set of his latest film, Detox Your Life, when he brings up another health movie, Netflix's What the Health. The pro-vegan documentary takes on the big-food industry, claiming that meat, fish, poultry and dairy are together making us obese, giving us cancer and essentially injecting toxins into our bodies.

"If you ever see that movie and you still eat meat," Salley says, "then you're just stupid."

This past summer, Sacramento Kings guard Garrett Temple found out about the Netflix doc through his buddies' group chat. They were picking a spot to go eat wings, but his best friend opted out.

"Nah, I don't mess with those no more," Temple's buddy texted.

Why, Temple messaged back.

"You watched that documentary? I'm trying not to eat meat no more," his buddy replied.

Temple has always watched his diet. But give up chicken? That seemed extreme to a guy who already prided himself on his nutritional knowledge.

Now 31, Temple gave up red meat and pork five years ago thanks to—of all people—Ray Allen, the future Hall of Famer. Temple signed a training-camp contract with the star-studded Heat in 2012 and latched on to Allen, a fellow guard who, like Temple, was working his way into shape and Erik Spoelstra's playbook.

"The guy was 37 but looked 27," Temple says of Allen. "How does he stay in shape?"

Allen told him to stay away from the bacon and the beef. Temple hasn't touched the stuff since.

Temple didn't make the Heat's roster, but Allen's advice during that training camp stuck with him. Temple focused on leaner meats like chicken, turkey and fish. That is, until July 24, when he tweeted out in shock: "Watched the documentary "WHAT THE HEALTH" on Netflix. So eye opening!!!! Must watch."

His tweet generated 11 retweets and 40 likes. One of the replies came from the official @PETA account:

Temple began diving in.

"Holy shit, can all this be really true?" he thought to himself.

Temple responded to a reply from a fan: "If we can't trust doctors to tell us the truth, who can we trust?"

What the Health may have been a wake-up call for NBA athletes like Temple. But the film generated an avalanche of critical reviews from doctors and nutritionists, who questioned the accuracy of some of its claims.

I got on the phone with former three-sport collegiate athlete Marie Spano, who is the sports nutritionist for the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Falcons.

"The movie itself," she says, "there was so many ways that the science is misconstrued."

Still, Spano says she has seen a surge of athletes inquiring about the benefits of plant-based diets, which she sees as a net positive. In the last two years, veganism has "really picked up steam" with her athletes because of documentaries like What the Health and Food, Inc. More recently, she visited with the Braves' minor league system and got bombarded with questions from up and down the organization.

"They were all talking about it," Spano says. "That's when it hit me: Oh, my gosh, this is really a big thing."

Kip Andersen, the director of the What The Health documentary, says his friends joke that the NBA will soon be called the NVA, the National Vegan Association, because "that's how many players are going vegan or vegetarian."

Andersen stands by the claims of the film and directs critics to his website, whatthehealth.com, which provides scientific sources for all 137 of his facts stated in the film.

Denver Nuggets forward Wilson Chandler, who hasn't eaten animals for two years as part of his vegan lifestyle, says he made the switch to help save his NBA career after a string of injuries. He owes that change to former NBA player and fellow Detroit native Chris Douglas-Roberts, who is also vegan.

Chandler has a regimented meal schedule and preps food constantly, eating personally prepared meals six hours, three hours and one hour before every game. He even eats organic Honey Stinger waffle cookies at halftime to keep his energy and calories up.

"For athletes, it's tough," Chandler tells B/R Mag. "It's not a plant-based world."

Chandler drinks tart cherry juice every night before bed thanks to a nutritional tip from Orreco, a sports performance company that also serves the Dallas Mavericks.

Spano, the Hawks' nutritionist, recommends tart cherry juice for her players complaining of inflammation and general wear-and-tear. But she says going vegan may also be indirectly helping players because of what they're not eating. Many of her athletes preached the gospel of paleo, Whole30 and other trending diets, but were really just cutting out junk food.

"Well, you stopped drinking beer and eating Cheetos," Spano says. "Let's be real here."

Spano did read about Irving and Lillard's veganism, but she doubts that larger NBA players will be able to get rid of animal products entirely throughout an 82-game season.

"I've never known or seen anyone who's 250 pounds or higher that's on a vegan diet and can withstand a season like this," Spano says. "It could be possible, but it would have to be very well-planned."

Louise Burke, the head of nutrition at the Australian Institute of Sport, believes a vegan diet can provide all the nutritional needs of the typical NBA player. But the hectic NBA schedule may be prohibitive to keeping it up.

"The average basketball player is going to find it hard to choose from a training table organized for their omnivore teammates," Burke says. "They will also find it difficult to eat on the road, find restaurants and takeaways at small-town locations in the wee hours of the morning when they have finished a game, and meet requirements for nutrients that are harder to find in a vegan diet."

Vegan or vegetarian pro athletes may struggle with compensating for the amino acids that are found in animal proteins, but not in plant-based proteins. One essential amino acid for activating muscle-building proteins—leucine—is rich in beef, eggs and poultry. For the vegan NBA athlete losing muscle, she has a tip:

"Even adding eggs and dairy to make it vegetarian would go considerably far to helping meet requirements for energy, high-quality protein, calcium, iron, vitamin B-12 and others," Burke says.

Wilson Chandler (left) and Garrett Temple (right) mention their recovery time has been quicker since giving up meat.
Wilson Chandler (left) and Garrett Temple (right) mention their recovery time has been quicker since giving up meat.(Getty Images)

Temple and Chandler both point to quicker recovery and more restful sleep as the biggest gains since they gave up animals for meals. Temple often gets ribbed by Kings teammates for his diet, but it helps that teammate Skal Labissiere is vegetarian.

"I love chicken wings, so I have those cravings every now and then," Temple says with a laugh. "It's a staple in the NBA locker room, at least once a week—somebody gets wings after a road game. They clown on me just for trying to be healthy."

Temple is posting career-high marks in scoring, three-point shooting and player efficiency rating this season. He's not planning to go back to eating animals any time soon.

"It's just my energy level," Temple says. "I feel great. I honestly don't do it for the animals. I do it for my body. I just feel good. I feel real good."

Standing in front of a Saran-wrap-covered wok full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in Atlanta's visitors locker room, Irving insists that the What the Health documentary wasn't what caused him to change his diet.

"Nah," Irving says. "I started becoming more in touch with myself. I did my own research."

Irving isn't the only Celtic who's committed to staying away from animal flesh. In the other corner of the locker room stands Jaylen Brown, who hasn't eaten red meat or pork for his entire life. In college at Berkeley, Brown went full-on vegetarian, but he's found it harder to stick to it "outside of Cali." The 21-year-old plans to go vegan by his 25th birthday.

"That's my goal," Brown says. "I just want to do it. I just think it's a healthier lifestyle. Maybe it can give me a competitive edge on the basketball floor. I think that's the next step."

As he's saying this, Al Horford shouts a protest in his ear.

"An-i-mal protein! An-i-mal protein!" Horford booms.

Brown turns to Horford, a native of the Dominican Republic.

"No, gracias," Brown replies.

A competitive edge from plant-based diets? Kyrie's a believer. He notes that his 35-point effort in ATL came on the second night of a back-to-back, a circumstance that had habitually plagued him in his career. For instance, last season Irving shot just 32 percent from three-point range on zero days' rest compared to 42 percent in all other games.

Irving gathers his stuff and walks out of the locker room with some meatless tacos in a white takeout box. He remarks that his favorite vegan spot in Boston so far is the salad chain Sweetgreen, but he's on the lookout for more. No more team dinners taking down steak.

"Steak? Nah, I don't eat that," Irving says as a parting shot. "It doesn't come from anything natural, so why would I eat it?"

As he walks down the Philips Arena tunnel, some taco sauce from the takeout box in Kyrie's hand drips onto his pristine white sneakers. He smiles, grabs a paper napkin, wipes it off and tosses it in the trash. Clean.

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Tom Haberstroh has covered the NBA full time since 2010, joining B/R Mag after seven years with ESPN as an NBA Insider and analytics expert. Haberstroh is also a co-founder of Spotlight Media Ventures and regularly hosts The Basketball Friends podcast for the Leverage The Chat multimedia network. Follow him on Twitter: @tomhaberstroh.
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Re: NBA players going vegan because of 'What the Health' documentary

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E01: The NBA Athletes Going Vegan | Hang Up and Listen | Slate Magazine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuX6sz9yx4A

NBA vegans (21:02): Stefan and Josh talk to Tom Haberstroh of Bleacher Report Magazine about his recent feature on Boston Celtics star point guard Kyrie Irving eschewing meat, and whether slimmer NBA players are better NBA players.

*References*

• In Bleacher Report magazine, Haberstroh wrote about Kyrie Irving and the veganism wave in the NBA.
- http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2744130-the-secret-but-healthy-diet-powering-kyrie-and-the-nba
• The Harvard Sports Analysis Collective discovered that the NBA is getting skinnier.
- http://harvardsportsanalysis.org/2017/11/maybe-we-should-call-it-skinnyball-weight-vs-height-in-the-nba/
• The NBA’s vegan trend has spread thanks to the alarmist food documentary What the Health.
- https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/7/25/16018658/what-the-health-documentary-review-vegan-diet

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Transcript:

Tom Haberstroh of bleacher report will join us to examine the latest craze in the National Basketball Association everybody's going vegan. . .

The slowest NBA team in 2017 plays at a faster pace than the fastest team in the league did two decades ago perhaps as a consequence of the league's at recent Jones for speed players are getting skinnier now with the Harvard sports analysis collective finding that the average weight of an NBA player has gone down by 3 pounds in the last four years it's certainly easy to find examples of players talking about wanting to lose weight here's ESPN's Chauncey Billups asking the Celtics Kyrie Irving about his belt figure I know you saved that beard this summer man but I'm telling you looking at great shape right now have you lost weight man to get ready for the season what is season being more of a plant-based diet getting away from you know just the animals and all that man I had to get away from that so my energy is up my body feels amazing so you know just understanding what the diet is like for me and what's beneficial for me for having the highest energy out here being able to sustain it at a very high level as you heard there Kyrie is getting away from the animals he's gotten away from dairy - is Tom Haverstraw Road and a feature for Bleacher Report magazine Damian Lillard and Wilson Chandler and a bunch of other NBA players have embraced veganism as well and not just because drinking tart cherry juice before bed every night makes for a delicious night-time experience joining us now to discuss is Tom Haverstraw he's a writer at large for a bleacher report magazine and one of the proprietors of the basketball friends podcast welcome to the show Tom thanks for having me all good so I tried to make a connection between the league being faster players being skinnier and this seeming like micro trend of players going vegan do you feel like that is a fair connection to make that players like Kyrie Irving Damien lillard Wilson Chandler and others that we'll get into are embracing this diet because the league is faster and players are skinnier well I don't think it's necessarily a big enough sample to say like you know eight or ten or a dozen players have totally shifted the leagues pace but I will say that generally speaking it is so hard to get by in today's NBA where the pace is so fast and just the the actual play calling is so much more sophisticated defenses or just they have rotations on top of rotations that if you're not fit if you're not healthy if you're not taking you're taking care of your body at a hundred percent of the time you're going to washed out really fast and I think this is one of the signals of that so it's not just Kyrie Irving or Damian Lillard it's guys like Wilson Chandler and his kin Urban New York Knicks these guys have slimmed down in the offseason in hopes to get quicker and faster and alleviate you know joint pain Wilson Chandler for example said he feels so much better after two hip surgeries and trimming his diet to a vegan diet he thinks this is permanent NBA has always been fast and competitive where players that march out of shape and this look always also been an incredibly absurd grind I mean these are 6 foot 2 7 foot human beings who are jamming themselves into airplanes and flying all over the country constantly I mean we've talked about other aspects of physical conditioning that have evolved over the years and that can be sleep training other aspects of nutrition why is the Lea gotten faster and what other responses to it seem logical to you and I guess the follow-up to that is how much of this might be a placebo effect that players feel like this is a smart thing to do and maybe the results are yeah they're positive because we'd all benefit from eating better but whether we could attribute that much gain in performance to a switch in diet I wonder I guess whatever advantage you can get right I talked to the Atlanta Hawks nutritionist about this whole vegan thing and she's like you know obviously you feel better you cut out Cheetos and you know Fried Chicken you know like you obviously are going to feel better cutting out those those fried foods so it's not maybe the case that you're performing better because you're having those lettuce wrap vegan tacos it might be that you're just not saying for those instead of you know trash food.

So junk food so there's a lot of placebo effect potential on this for sure and also just generally if you lose weight you might feel lighter but the case might be that you're not going to be able to sustain this for the 82-game slog and I think a lot of the trainers and nutritionists that I talked to had a lot of skepticism of whether they could hold this up over the entire seasons and I think one reason you're seeing it now is that what the health documentary from this summer Garrett temple who's the starting guard for the Sacramento Kings watched it this summer as well as many other NBA players and they got spooked it's a pro-vegan almost radical extremist vegan documentary a few guys have seen it but it's pretty strong and so I think a lot of the players who by the way are on airplanes and in hotels late not much to do they watch these Netflix documentaries and I think a lot of them got spooked and decided to look at their diet.

I'm really glad that you brought up this Netflix documentary what the health because that was the thing that was really most striking to me in the story this is a story about diet and about veganism but it's also a story about how trends spread in the NBA and elsewhere and I haven't seen this documentary but based on what I've read the scientific term for this movie is like garbage propaganda Vox had a good story on some of the claims in this movie like eating processed meats is as bad for you as smoking and eating an egg a day is as bad as smoking 5 cigarettes drinking milk causes cancer I mean this is all just wrong and dumb but it's presented in this like extremely persuasive way and players you know Garrett temple is known as one of the smartest and most thoughtful players and then be I have felt him for a really long time like crazily intelligent guy like isn't known for that in NBA circles the fact that he would be persuaded by this movie is like really interesting to me but I think that that means that like any smart person or like lots of smart people would be susceptible to stuff like this but I guess it's just particularly interesting to me that NBA players whose entire careers are based on their bodies and knowing what should be put into them and like understanding diet would like watch this and be like oh I've totally got to be vegan now and not check out the claims from the movie and I'm gonna jump in here and say that this is sort of reflective of the way sports operate generally sports are very trend based right so whether it's players seeing a documentary and deciding to join a cause or general managers focusing in on a particular kind of player whether it's lengths in the NBA right now or speed on the court you know point possessions are up per game as you'd point out in the story speed is a trend or in football whether it's a particular style of offense or defense that's predominate at a particular time these are sort of closed societies and they're very small and we underestimate how small and interconnected they are one last thing before time time Senate I should add that like going vegan is not a bad thing and it might be that these players are like doing a good thing for their health but just doing it based on bad information I mean it's it's so true the NBA is a copycat league you know the Golden State Warriors won a championship in 2015 and then suddenly everyone's taking transition threes you know and not everyone has Steph Curry on their team so even though this is a story about veganism you're right that the big picture here is players are using cryotherapy chambers you know freezing their bodies after games they're eating differently after games they're sleep like I think we kind of forget that these guys are basically living with each other these 15 guys are living with each other and sleeping with each other the idea is they relate to each other on a whole nother level I mean they're they're basically cooped up together for for six months seeing more of each other than their families and they and it just kind of is contagious this idea of like hey you're playing really well late in games what is it oh man I changed my diet I feel great you should try it out me it's not for everyone but you should try it and like jaylen Brown for the boston celtics he was vegetarian in college in california and his goal is to be vegan by 25 he's 23 years old right now and he looks at Kyrie Irving he's like man I want to look like that in late-game situations like I want to do that and so I think there's a lot of that going on which is if Kyrie Irving was stinking up the joint this season and the Celtics were in the tank I don't know if the vegan story is going to be that big but now that every everyone who seems to be going with this diet or getting away from meats a bunch of them are performing well so far I think there is just some sort of momentum and some you know eyebrow-raising around the league's like okay what is it about this that maybe is true maybe it's not about veganism but what if we can have some takeaways just about the overall diet of our NBA players it is certainly an underappreciated fact that sports leagues are like cults and I think that's what you're kind of alluding to these players are cooped up there are hostages there are hostages to the system and to their training schedules and Netflix and to Netflix so it does not it never surprises me when there's a trend like this in pro sports back to the the correlation causation issue here with Kyrie Irving I mean the numbers that you use in the story are pretty damn dramatic the speed part particularly you point out that kairi's average speed has increased by three tenths of a mile per hour twenty six feet of extra ground per minute on the floor and when you put it in those terms you sort of recognize like it's probably imperceptible to most of us when we watch an NBA game but the underlying statistics do show don't they Tom that yeah there's a lot more ground being covered and players are out there loyal but isn't that because he's trying on defense well might be bad but if it's also up across the league then then it does show that the game is faster and then well yeah I think I think there's no doubt that the game is faster and I think I mentioned that in the story that it's not just the sheer raw malice per our gain it's the acceleration year-over-year ranking among the rest of the league is second-highest so Kyrie Irving has been generally known as a dog defensively and I talked to his former GM David Griffin there for Cleveland who was part of the Cleveland staff when they drafted him and they want to title together in Cleveland and David Griffin was like whatever Kyrie Irving wants to do he will do and so he could absolutely be Gary Payton defensively if he wanted to he just has to put his mind to it he's that talented and he pointed to his Finals play against Steph Curry in 2016 just defensively if he really wants to grind it he can do it and this year he's among the league leaders and steals and deflections and the the Celtics defense is number one in the NBA part of that activity by Kyrie Irving is leading to real on court results so maybe that's just you know he's trying defensively but look guys we'd like to try and and go out and run five miles every other day but it's another thing to actually do it and I think part of the reason that Kyrie Irving is able to try defensively maybe because he's kind of over you know looked at his entire inputs you know what is he eating how is he sleeping because now he wants to maximize both ends of the floor for Brad Stevens let's end with kind of tacks on amazing or categorizing this trend because I do like to think of it as a trend or a social contagion and it's funny like one of the other ones that comes to mind is players eating at the Cheesecake Factory that's like a known thing that NBA players attest but another one that came up earlier this year I forget who did the story maybe it was Baxter Holmes on players eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that being another trend that was big in the NBA there's also the Versa climber this piece of exercise equipment that LeBron James like really touted and now every team and every player uses it are there other ones that I'm forgetting Tom yeah there's one last year I wrote about strobe light glasses have you heard about don't laugh there's like actual real player like Kawhi Leonard Steph Curry and even Michael Jordan there I wrote it last year for espn.com strobe like glasses worn by a bunch of star players they're like it's hard to explain without actually seeing it but it's glasses you put on your face that blind your vision like a strobe light and so when you do basketball drills with these glasses on and then you take them off after like 10 minutes the world seems to slow down and so for Steph Curry and Kawhi Leonard their ability their ability to play in the open court and just be dominant in the open court a lot of this their trainers used strobe light glasses to improve so it's it's crazy he was just showing us a video of Steph like with the glasses on dribbling a basketball and a tennis ball simultaneously like kind of looking like Ray Charles it's it's very compelling video so so that's another trend is just like they wear glasses they eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches there was the tenderization of the NBA story did last year which is you know guys were sleeping more on the road because these apps were allowing them to find companionship to put to put it lightly to find companionship on the road a lot more efficiently instead of going to the bars late at night and trying to find women that way they just have it pretty much boob Erised in their hotel and so a lot of this is just becoming you know these trends in society just technology and food nutrition sleep you know I love writing these stories because it isn't really about the NBA it's just about people in general in general learning to live in 2017 and we just see it you know being played out on the court with wins and losses with basketball players.

Tom Haberstroh is a writer at large for Bleacher Report magazine he also is a part of the basketball friends podcast Tom thank you so much for coming on the show

Thanks for having me guys.

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Unofficial librarian of vegan and socialist movement media.
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