As players go through their NBA career, they often make lifestyle changes in order to improve their body and become better players overall. One thing that many wind up changing is their diet as most don’t pay attention to that in high school and college. But Los Angeles Lakers rookie Jalen Hood-Schifino already took that step well before he was drafted.
Like many others, Hood-Schifino has long had the goal of making the NBA and wants to do everything he can in order to be the best player he can possibly be.
As such, Hood-Schifino sticks to a mostly plant-based diet as he revealed in an interview with Jovan Buha of The Athletic:
“Yeah, it’s plant-forward. I’ll still do like salmon and fish here and there. But, for the most part, I try to stay pretty strict with it.”
Nearly every offseason it seems as if some established NBA star has decided to change their diet and comes back the next season in much better shape. They realize that in order to take that next step, they need to change their body as well. But what makes it impressive for Hood-Schifino is that the Lakers rookie made this decision years ago:
“I would say, I cut out like meats in high school, my sophomore year. But I just got strict with it this past year in college.”
How seriously he takes his diet is something that stood out for the Lakers and surely shows them how committed he is to reaching his potential. Things like this stand out to teams as it shows character and work ethic, something that really can’t be taught.
And as for the benefits of the diet, Hood-Schifino says he felt an improvement in energy and recovery almost immediately:
“Yeah, that was the reason why I wanted to do it. I wanted to try it and see how it felt. Then, after just doing it for a couple of weeks, I started to see a big difference in the way I recover, my energy on the court. So I would definitely say it makes me feel really good.”
Not much is expected of Hood-Schifino as a rookie in terms of contributing to this Lakers team during his rookie season. With championship expectations and a deep roster, Hood-Schifino will likely spend most of this year learning and developing, barring any unforeseen circumstances. But his level of commitment is already showing and there will be no doubt he is doing everything he can to make the Lakers look good with this pick.
Jalen Hood-Schifino enjoying being able to focus on basketball
For Hood-Schifino, being able to focus on basketball is something he hadn’t necessarily been able to do going into the draft, but the Lakers rookie is happy to be able to do so now.
In a recent interview, Hood-Schifino noted all of the other things going on when leading up to the draft. But this time of the year is all about getting better every day and with training camp approaching and many players in the facilities working out, the Lakers rookie is enjoying every minute of it.
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