How Warriors rookie tunes out his critics

Bryant, meditation help rookie with expectations, critics

Consumed with chasing greatness, James Wiseman leans on faith, meditation, music and the example set by Kobe Bryant to help him stay focused.

At least once a day, Warriors center James Wiseman sits in his room as he stares at a notebook with words and images that represent his goals: AllStar. Defensive Player of the Year. NBA champion. MVP. Hall of Famer.

For about 10 minutes, Wiseman imagines his fully realized self, a process of visualization he started a couple of months ago. He’d read that Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan considered it a driving force behind their greatness. Wiseman, who was struggling with the speed and physicality of NBA games, wanted to be an alltime great. He was 19. He had a plan.

“If you look at something every day, you can actually manifest it,” Wiseman said. “You just look at it every day, and that gives you motivation to keep moving toward that certain objective.” Wiseman, who turned 20 on Wednesday, often gets frustrated by how far he is from some of his goals. His obsession with film study hasn’t kept him from botching boxouts or defensive rotations 35 games into his rookie season. For all his immense physical tools, Wiseman has yet to prove he

Tam Duong Jr. / The Chronicle

Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle Warriors rookie James Wiseman plays some beats he created on his laptop in his Mission Bay apartment.