Keeping in shape while they wait
Like many, Magic players are working from home.
Like so many affected by the coronavirus outbreak, Wes Iwundu is working from home. His work space just happens to be his garage, his driveway and occasionally a road trip — sometimes accompanied by his two dogs — to his neighborhood basketball court. The Orlando Magic forward doesn’t know when the NBA season will resume, but he’s making the best of the situation, following team-provided workouts and doing his part to stay in shape.
The NBA will resume play, but no one is sure when it will happen.
Iwundu joins NBA players across the country facing new challenges in the wake of the league shutting down amid the coronavirus pandemic.
For Iwundu, it’s about following a routine and looking at the big picture as he tries to maintain a fitness level that will allow as smooth of a transition as possible when basketball resumes.
To that end, Iwundu got a boost from his employer in the form of workout equipment, delivered by members of the team’s human performance staff.
“The Magic, they came through and a big U-Haul truck dropped off a lot of the equipment that we use at the gym, which was pretty good,” he said Monday during a phone interview with the Sentinel.
Magic strength and conditioning coach Nathan Spencer, team chef Zach Kerkow-Provo and physical therapist Sameer Mehta (while following social-distancing guidelines) made 12 deliveries of exercise bikes, barbell plates, dumbbells, kettlebells and elastic resistance bands to Magic players who needed them. Each player received some piece of equipment.
Iwundu said he’s up every morning around 7:30. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, he normally starts his day with a onemile run, followed by a weight-training session in the driveway of his Orlando-area home.
He gets his cardio work from bicycle rides on other days.
When it comes to skill work, Iwundu said that’s been the toughest part. He doesn’t have a basketball hoop at his house, so he uses a nearby public court when he can, but only when “it’s not busy.”
When he goes, Iwundu said he’ll shoot for 10 to 15 minutes, mostly in an attempt to maintain muscle memory.
Sometimes he’ll take his 1½-year-old miniature goldendoodles Blaze and Nova with him.
Magic forward Jonathan Isaac, who is also rehabbing an injured knee, said during an NBA TV interview last week that he shoots a ball into the air to simulate shooting at his downtown Orlando condo.
Iwundu, meanwhile, said the biggest part of his workouts has been on strength training and staying in shape. But even that hasn’t been the same as running up and down a gym floor.
“I’m not going to get as much serious work out there [on a public court] as I would in an actual gym,” Iwundu said. “But that’s pretty much what it’s been. Everything else has pretty much been the physical part.”
The voluntary workouts, which go out to all of the players, come via email from Spencer. Iwundu said his workouts haven’t changed much from what he was doing when the season was halted.
“You don’t have to do everything, but it gives you a guideline,” Iwundu said. “The only difference is I’m in my driveway and in my garage instead of in the gym. It’s pretty cool though. There’s still some pretty good work being done here.”
Iwundu said he’s in contact with someone on a daily basis and, specifically, the Magic training staff uses FaceTime or Zoom to stay in touch with players.
“I speak with somebody in the organization pretty much every day, whether it’s a coach, the medical staff, the front office,” Iwundu said. “Communication has been pretty good on both sides.”
The NBA shuttered team practice and training facilities on March 17. The league also has mandated players cannot use public health clubs and gyms.
The NBA, however, has allowed teams to provide workout equipment for their players, and the Magic are far from the only one to do so.
Kyle Hightower of the Associated Press reported the Boston Celtics received an exercise bike and a personal set of weights for voluntary home workouts.
“It helps us dial in to what we need to do should we be able to resume playing and what we need to focus on when we get back to practice,” Boston coach Brad Stevens said in a conference call last week with reporters. “It would be a unique situation to be off for as long as we’re gonna be off to have the re-acclimate and recondition. But you do already have a system in with those 15 guys.”
The Miami Heat provided exercise bikes for their players as well, according to Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press.
The Denver Nuggets, meanwhile, are taking their workouts a step further. Players can access their workouts via an app.
The Nuggets utilize Teambuildr to deliver workouts to players and track their progress, according to Reynolds. The site reports that in addition to Denver, five NBA teams are using its technology: Oklahoma City, Houston, Charlotte, Minnesota and Detroit.