LETHAL FORM LETHAL FORM
Proper conditioning, smart nutrition plan help sharpen Lee for bubble
Paul Lee took the floor on Wednesday looking just as sharp as he was earlier this year: His stroke lethal, his step quick.
His frame, however, looked a bit different. Lee sported a leaner frame to go with arms that had more definition.
“It’s just like what coach Chito [Victolero] said, each of us kept ourselves busy,” he said in Filipino during Thursday morning’s availability, just hours after Magnolia’s gallant 103-100 win over NLEX.
Lee said that he got in shape out of respect for his fellow backcourt operators Mark Barroca, Jio Jalalon and Chris Banchero. He was, after all, keeping the spirit of competition alive within the team.
“All I had to do was look at Mark, Jio and Chris. They’re in superb condition,” Lee said. “So even among ourselves, there was also a sense of competition that’s why I think we’re ready for this [conference].”
To match his fellow Magnolia guards, Lee, who once weighed 215 pounds at the height of the various degrees of health lockdowns instituted to corral the coronavirus, said sticking with a routine and taking a “smart” approach to his nutrition led him to the results he wanted.
“I started subjecting myself to discipline—a diet,” Lee said.
“Although I must admit it’s hard to say no at that time when deliveries became all the rage, along with the fact that I have a wife who loves to eat,” he added.
His counter move? Doing away with his go-to café coffee drink, a virtual sugar bomb packed with unwanted calories.
“I think that was the biggest factor. The one I used to get had tons of sugar in it,” he said.
Now, Lee opts for coffee he brews himself, which at times improves with muscovado, a type of unrefined sugar popular among health buffs.
And while the champion playmaker and the many-time Gilas member takes pride in his leaner frame, Lee said he is also proud of the fact that he has stayed true to his mantra—especially when no one was looking.
“Always ready,” he said. “That has been my motto all my life.”
Already, that mantra has benefited his squad, which relied on a clutch four-point play from the “Lethal Weapon” to complete a rousing comeback victory against the Road Warriors.
“It was a play designed for Paul,” Magnolia coach Chito Victolero said. “Even if he isn’t making shots, [when it matters], he will take that shot.”
And Lee said he is preparing for any situation where he might be needed, a lesson he learned during months of inactivity.
“I just used all the time during the quarantine to get myself conditioned. I didn’t want to waste it. We don’t really know what’s going to happen in life after all,” he said.
“And [true enough], just like that, we got a memo from the PBA that we’re going to push through [with the restart].”
All I had to do was look at Mark, Jio and Chris. They’re in superb condition. So even among ourselves, there was also a sense of competition that’s why I think we’re ready for this PAUL LEE Magnolia Hotshots