The Los Angeles Lakers suffered an injury-riddled 2020-21 season that robbed them of a chance to properly defend their title.
In an effort to boost their training staff, the Lakers announced they hired Roger Sancho and Ed Streit as their new head athletic trainer and strength and conditioning coach, respectively. Sancho joins the organization after seven seasons with the Golden State Warriors, while Streit was promoted after serving as an assistant strength and conditioning coach since the 2019-20 season.
As far as how Sancho and Streit will work together to ensure players are healthy and up to par conditioning-wise, Rob Pelinka provided a detailed explanation to the team’s approach this year.
“We’re moving toward more of a customized model around players,” Pelinka explained. “I think we live in a world where the TV we watch is more customized, the food we eat when we go out to restaurants we have more of a say in how to create a bowl or to make a meal and I just think it’s really smart to customize our approach for what services we put around a player on the training side. So there’s going to be a big focus on that with our staff going into camp, but I think we’ve all seen over the last several years, the amount of time and money that athletes are investing into their sports performance and their bodies into their nutrition and into the way they take care of themselves. It’s translating into more athletic performances, records being broken and times of marathons, sprints. Just players, men and women, are just getting more athletic.
“So I think that translates into players playing longer in their career as well. The ultimate example of course right now in professional sports we all saw what the Super Bowl ended up last year with Tom Brady kind of leading his team at his age. It’s staggering, but that’s due to a commitment to taking care of his body and I think if you go through our roster and all of these players that’s something that is deeply ingrained in each of their work habits and I think you’ll see throughout this year just the way guys approach the weight room. The way guys approach recovery, nutrition. I think there’s going to be a high level of commitment to keeping guys on the floor and that service is something we have to meet the bar of excellence with all of our players from the first guy on the roster all the way down to the last man. We have to have a commitment to that and we do.”
Making sure the players are healthy and are able to compete at the highest levels for longer is going to be key if the Lakers hope to win another championship. With a full offseason of rest and a clear focus in these areas, one has to feel optimistic about their chances.
LeBron James slimmed up over summer
When it comes to taking care of one’s body, no one does it better than LeBron James, who spends millions annually on making sure he is right. However, it seems as though he kicked it up another notch this summer as Pelinka revealed he slimmed up over the offseason in order to stay healthy.
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