Jul 22, 2020
Ibaka tailoring his routine around bubble restrictions
Raptors’ big man has been forced to adapt and alter his famously rigid and meticulous ways in Orlando, Josh Lewenberg writes.
TORONTO – Serge Ibaka is rarely in a rush.
Before the Raptors’ big man became known for his cooking shows or fashion choices, he was famous – or infamous, depending on who you ask – around the NBA for his rigid and meticulous routines.
Ibaka would often go upstairs after home games – to the team’s old practice gym on the third level of Scotiabank Arena – to lift weights. By the time he showered and got dressed – an intricate process in and of itself – he was almost always the last player in the building.
On the road, there would be two busses that took players from the arena to the airport or back to the hotel after games, with one departing earlier and the other waiting around for the stragglers. The running joke among the team is that, in Ibaka’s 11-year career, he’s has never made the first bus.
After practices, Ibaka would routinely be the last Raptor on the court, staying late to work on his game and fire up extra jumpers.
Sometimes, it would be a minor inconvenience for those around him. Imagine being a writer on deadline who needs a post-game quote from Ibaka, or a fellow player sitting on the bus for an hour, or one of the many staff members waiting to close down the locker room before they can go home.
Still, it’s hard to fault the man. His unrelenting work ethic and commitment to getting better are largely responsible for the player he’s turned himself into. At 30 years of age, Ibaka was enjoying his best season as a pro before the league’s hiatus. That doesn’t happen by accident. He’s put in the time and done the work.
However, as Ibaka gets set to resume the campaign with his team in Orlando, the rules and regulations inside the NBA’s Disney bubble are forcing him to adapt and alter his routine.
The Raptors arrived on campus two weeks ago and have been holding daily practices in preparation for the restart. As practice courts are shared between the 22 teams in the bubble, each club is assigned a three-hour window for the day. Once your time is up a cleaning crew sanitizes everything and then the next team comes in. There’s no wiggle room. There’s no hanging around or staying late.
Head coach Nick Nurse has done his best to try and keep things as familiar as possible. He’ll end the formal session early to give players their usual opportunity for individual work, but they only have a finite amount of time with which to operate.
“As soon as practice is over every day, Serge comes right to me and gets the watch out and asks how much time we have exactly,” Nurse said via videoconference following Wednesday morning’s workout. “Today I said, ‘You've got 32 minutes, Serge.’ He says '[the guest speaker] at the start of practice ate into my time.’”
Teams are allowed to reserve some court time for players to come back in and get shots up in the evenings – and the Raptors have been taking advantage – but, due to the strict health and safety protocols in place, it’s a challenge for somebody like Ibaka to get his regular work in.
“Honestly, the first couple of days were really frustrating personally because I like to take my time,” Ibaka said. “I like to come early, warm up my body and take care of my body, get my work done and stay after and take care of my body. Now we don’t really have that. So, I have to do the best I can to adjust, do my thing, and then try to adapt with the situation. I am getting used to it.”
Game days will also be different. After playing three televised scrimmages – beginning with Friday’s against Houston – Toronto will reopen the season against the Lakers on Aug. 1.
Following each contest, players are expected to get changed, conduct their post-game media availability and then be ready to leave roughly 30 minutes after the final buzzer. They’ll have to shower back at their hotel.
It has been and will continue to be an adjustment for everybody involved, but Ibaka understands that these are small sacrifices to make, given what’s going on in the world – and even in the state – outside of the NBA bubble.
“One thing I learned [during the pandemic] is in a difficult moment that’s where you have to figure out how to bring the best out of you,” he said. “I can [only] try to do what I can control. You can’t really control everything that’s going on, but what I can control I’m going to try to do the best I can to give 100 per cent.”
It’s been more than four months since Ibaka and the Raptors played their last game, dating back to that impressive win in Utah on March 9. Ibaka turned in one of his best outings of the season that night, scoring 27 points, grabbing 13 rebounds and outdueling Jazz centre Rudy Gobert, who would go on to test positive for COVID-19 a couple days later.
“I think Serge has raised his level of play and level of confidence on the offensive end [this season],” said Nurse. “I think particularly because of the work he's done on his shooting. He really has gone to work. And that has stayed the same. Maybe there was a break there [when he was quarantining early in the pandemic] but he's been in the gym now for several months, at least two months, if not more, so the shooting aspect for him, I think he just feels more confident.”
After two weeks of scrimmaging against each other in practice, the Raptors will finally get to square off against another opponent on Friday.
Ibaka has been craving it – the competition, the bright lights and that passion with which he’s always played the game. So, regardless of how late he can stick around once those lights go out, he’s looking forward to getting back to work.
“This is what I love to do,” he said. “I love this game. When I step on the court I’m going to compete. That’s one of the reasons I work hard every day. That’s one of the reasons [I worked hard] during quarantine. I was trying to do the best I could to stay in shape and work hard.”