WEIRDEST Pre-Game Rituals In NBA History

one player eats plastic before games while another has to use the girls bathroom these are the weirdest pre-game rituals in nba history and there's no better player to start with than kawhi leonard i mean his pre-game routine is illegal see when kawhi was on the raptors he had a pretty normal routine kawhi would get dressed stretch listen to music and just hype himself up for the night but in 2019 when he signed with the clippers things took a really really weird turn before every single game kawhi kicks every girl out of the women's bathroom so he can have it all to himself but it gets even weirder kawhi is so private about whatever he's doing in there that he gathers up the entire team's training staff to guard the door all so he's undisturbed in the women's bathroom just think about that no girl could use the bathroom unless kawhi gives him the okay man i knew he was weird but i didn't know he rolled like this and yeah his teammates and coaches they all thought this was weird as hell but the clippers already signed kawhi for 103 million dollars so is anyone gonna tell him to stop no and apparently this is still his pre-game ritual to this day now okay kawhi is sitting in the female bathroom that's really weird but at least his pre-game ritual wasn't deadly like quran butler's ever since butler was a teenager he's been addicted to soda and he absolutely needed it to play basketball before every single game butler would drink an entire 2-liter bottle of mountain dew i'm talking about the bottles that look like this the goddamn party size bottles oh wait actually i left out one detail he drank two two of those two liter bottles of mountain dew before every single game this dude was drinking 15 times the amount of sugar that the american heart association deemed safe on a daily basis and he was doing that in just a few minutes that is so much sugar it could kill him but it wasn't until butler joined the wizards that he got the wake-up call he needed i mean the man was losing friends family and sleep because of this monster taking over his life he couldn't get out of bed work out most importantly play basketball things were getting crazy the man admitted he has six refrigerators at home all of them filled with only soda if he continued with this horrible habit it could have led to the end of his career or even worse his life so the wizards had to put a stop to it officially banning butler from drinking mountain dew in 2007. yeah that actually happened and after this he opened up on how serious the problem really was saying i was going through withdraws honestly those first two weeks without the dew with the roughest two weeks of my life i'm talking headaches sweats and everything alright look i like a dew or two you know i get it but this dude was literally a crackhead for soda i can't relate to that man i'm sorry so great butler solved his mountain dew issues and lived happily ever after right nope this dude had to pick up an even crazier pre-game ritual to replace it like just listen to this before every game i started at the nearest burger king mcdonald's grab straws grab a handful of straws and come to the game start you and start working out just something that i do just calm my nerves before going into the game and i'd rather chew on straws than gum there now is a specific straw you like right you will only choose mcdonald's straws why is that the taste the texture everything it just works out perfect for hold up imagine you just walk into the locker room and your teammate is literally eating straws in front of you what apparently butler would do this ritual every day to calm himself down and on average he chewed 12 straws per day before games during games and after so i guess his teammates got pretty used to it you know it's the everyday routine everyday thing so you don't worry about him like choking on a straw or something if you ain't choked by that he ain't gonna choke i guess okay did you want to try one i got a bunch of them if you want to try to chew one or something no i'm cool you're okay i just you guns but in 2010 the league came knocking they can't have an nba player with massive influence running around with plastic in his mouth you know kids are going to do whatever their role model does and the nba is not trying to cause a whole generation of kids to choke on straws so the league ordered butler to stop and explain that it was a serious safety and health concern but hey at least the weird stuff that he was doing was banned i can't say the same for rajon rondo his crazy pre-game ritual started during his time on the celtics it was there that he met his mentor kevin garnett kevin took his own rituals very very seriously like just take a look at this this man is talking to himself and banging his head into the hoop somehow rondo saw this and thought he was a good role model i don't know anyways garnett told rondo that pre-game rituals can make or break a player and when garnett proved it by winning a championship rondo had no choice but to believe him so rondo started to brainstorm some pre-game routines go for a jog nah do some push-ups nah listen to music nah rondo landed on one pre-game ritual that everyone should be doing he dropped a like and subscribed to the channel yeah that's right we got the power to make you win oh but we can't help you until you subscribe so what are you doing but uh not only did rondo subscribe to rebound he also admitted to taking five individual showers before every single game and this routine is on a very strict schedule each shower is separated by 30 minutes and his final shower has to come 45 minutes before tip-off or else he won't even show up i know this sounds weird but there's actually a pretty logical reason for this rondo carefully plans out his entire game plan and takes his notes on a notepad in the shower uh i don't really understand how that works what is he just taking notes on a soggy notepad whatever i'm not trying to see rondo in the shower to find out i guess if you're a germaphobe five showers before a game is understandable but peeling the skin off of your hands before every game like monte ellis there's no way there's a logical reason for that right well back in 2008 when monte was playing for the warriors he randomly started scoring 25 points per game and no one understood why but according to monte it came from his disturbing pre-game ritual see that same year monte suffered an injury that changed his career forever a torn ligament in his finger and during his recovery he started experimenting with all kinds of treatments rest ice baths cryotherapy but none of it was working until one day he started dipping his hands into some sticky white goo monte has a hot hand even before he takes the court thanks to an unusual pre-game ritual that's all his own it's another secret y'all can't use this if you try it ain't gonna work for you it's my magic only for me to do really warm my hands up a few years ago i had a toilet ligament in my left ring finger i mean ever since i just been doing it and this just became a habit uh i'm not sure what that stuff is but someone please remind me not to dab this man up all right but for real monte would dip his hands in wax and then peel the layers off which took all the dead skin from his hands apparently he liked that it smoothed out his skin so he continued to do this before every game for the rest of his career and it said that his hands are as smooth as a baby's bottom to this day but uh as weird as that is jason terry how's monte beat cause jason's routine involves sleeping with the opposing team and it all started when he was in college at arizona it was the night before terry's national championship game and he decided his skill alone wasn't going to be enough to win so that night he performed a ritual that no other player has ever done and the night before each game i sleep in the opposing team's game shorts hold up this man sleeping with the other team's shorts disrespectful he went on to do this before every single game he had in the nba but what's crazier is that when it came to game day terry needed very specific clothes on and food on his plate gotta have the high socks got it from my father you know seeing a picture of him in a yearbook gotta have a headband gotta eat some form of chicken before every game yeah this dude is on one terry even admitted his daughters think he's a weirdo for this but when you're speaking about legendary three-point shooters you can't bring up someone like terry and not mention stephen curry but how did someone like him become so great yup you guessed it some weird-ass pre-game rituals and if it weren't for what he does before games he wouldn't be where he is today steph's got one pre-game routine that's impossible for any other player in the nba his tunnel shot and if it weren't for a bet he made with the warriors gm before a game we never would have been seen and performed this on a nightly basis steph said i was shooting it and pat walked by and we put a kind of funny bet on it basically about who can buy the next meal so i get two or three shots at it if i didn't make it i lost if i made it i won and because steph made the shot that feeling made him do this before every single game it's tough because it's kind of like i give myself five shots i'm gonna be there all day if i'm missing but i don't know it's just a little challenge to get ready for the game has nothing to do with actually playing 48 minutes of basketball but it gives me a little competition with myself before we start and i kind of rely on that so obviously it's a show it's entertaining me and curtis have a good chemistry going even if i miss it it's a cool little minute and a half where i can just just have fun and try something crazy look at curry man so inspirational now interestingly enough another one of his rituals is something we also see lebron james do but curry didn't get the idea from lebron the ritual curry does was inspired by his mom writing my shoes started back in college and something my mom challenged me to do my first practice my freshman year so that's now 13-year tradition and just again reminds me who i'm playing for when i put my shoes on to appreciate the opportunity i get to play the game oh i get it now if i write on my shoes i can hit shots like curry now all of these rituals are they really necessary for someone like steph to play so great well he had this to say about it wrestles and teams are important just because there's so many games we play over a hundred throughout the year including the playoffs you need those things to kind of settle your nerves just get your mind right and just be able to relax and focus and enjoy what you get to do for a living those routines really just helped me settle in i mean appreciate the day the build-up to game time and no matter what game it is one 82 playoffs finals whatever it is it's just another basketball game that i got to be ready to play you know steph's rise to greatness has been an incredible story but unfortunately not every nba player has it so good there's one nba player that was on top of the world and he managed to lose it all eventually going homeless i'm talking about delante west from making millions to living on the streets you've never seen a story like this so trust me you need to click on this video right here because delante's life is truly a story worth hearing so what are you doing this video is over click it

Channel: REBOUND

Views: 1,039,857

Rating: 4.9264889 out of 5

Keywords: nba, rebound central, rebound, Pre-Game Rituals

Id: 6ZGmdNPWguo

Length: 12min 33sec (753 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 24 2021