EVERY MORNING BEFORE Lonnie Walker IV Reportedly for one of the biggest pressure cookers in all of professional sports — a Los Angeles Lakers The team is determined to atone for last season’s disaster and save the sunset of LeBron James‘ career — he meditates with a mantra.
“Dominate the day.”
The 23-year-old’s home nestled in an elevated neighborhood in Beverly Hills has a sanctuary-like appeal. It is surrounded by lush, green gardens with breathtaking views from his backyard pool that spans almost all of LA.
But he starts his days looking inward.
He got out of bed and took shelter in a corner of his second-floor bedroom, where he spent 20 minutes resetting his operating system. Inhale through your nose for four seconds and exhale through your mouth for four seconds.
In and out.
Dominate the day.
In and out.
Dominate the day.
The message instills confidence and urgency, says Walker. “This is just the time to unplug and really talk to your subconscious,” said the shooting guard cautiously. “Just trying to get my body and mind reconnected.”
It is working. Walker is having the best numbers of his career in terms of goalscoring (16.9 points per game), goal percentage (47.1), free throw rate (83.7) and defensive stats (0. 9 steals; 0.5 saves per game).
Back in the corner of the bedroom, he sat with his back against the wall, his legs stretched out in front of him, with a window behind him that let light into the room. He took a white board from an armchair and placed it in front of him. The board is full of blue, red, and green ink scribbles that record his short-term and long-term goals. He’s had five years of his NBA career, the first four of which were spent under the tutelage of Gregg Popovich and San Antonio Spurs after being selected in 18th place in the first round of the 2018 NBA Draft.
He scans for a long-term goal. Most progressive player.
A short-term goal, he said, is something he wants to accomplish in a few months. Players Congress of the week. Promoter.
An even shorter-term goal? Wants a strong showing in his first game back in San Antonio (Friday, 8 p.m. ET) since signing a one-year, $6.5 million deal with LA during the season.
“There’s a book I’m reading,” Walker said. “It says every day you have a chance to be one percent better. So let’s be one percent better. So that means I’ve always had a passion for what I have. What man can I really achieve in this life?”
HE DOUBLE CLICK with his meditation on game days.
He practiced for many years before he was in high school working with Dr. Rick Neff, a sports psychologist who currently directs Villanova University’s sports programs. Walker was a basketball phenomenon in Reading, Pennsylvania — a small city an hour northwest of Philadelphia — and Dr. Neff helped attract his attention.
“He was one of the greatest people to come into my life,” Walker said. “When you really understand the power of your subconscious mind and understand its power and the possibilities you can do with it.”
Walker added another 15 minutes in the arena to regroup before starting to finish in whatever private space he could find. That was the time after his skills on the pitch came into play and before coach Darvin Ham addressed the team.
At Crypto.com Arena, his hideout is an extra dressing room at the end of a hallway from the Lakers’ opulent constructions. The gray-walled room was not decorated and the music from the public address system above the court was muffled. It was often used when NHL coaches were visiting, but was left empty on NBA nights, so Walker parked himself in one of the wooden boxes near the right of the entrance and closed his eyes.
“I really feel that’s one of the main reasons why I play so well,” he said. “It really changed my mental state and my level of maturity when I stepped on that court. After I finished and left and walked into the dressing room, I felt like a different person. it’s not Lonnie anymore, this is , ‘Time to play.’ I don’t have friends on this other team.”
It is a mental discipline made stronger by great physical ability.
“From day one, he’s been a great athlete. He’s got gifts that a lot of players don’t have in that respect,” Popovich said before Spurs face the Lakers on Sunday, their first game. in three matches where the teams will play against each other within seven days. “He’s always just depended on that athletic ability, which is ridiculous compared to the others. But now he understands the mental side of the game better year by year, and you can see that. in his play.”
His play is as consistent as his routine, scoring double-digits in 11 of the 14 games he’s started – including three of which have 25 or more points. In 208 games against Spurs, he hit the 25-point mark only five times.
“I think his confidence is very high. The kid is phenomenal,” Ham said. “I just have a huge amount of faith and faith in him.”
BELIEVE THAT, AND same brand of perimeter defense and three-level scoring on fouls, which means his name could be embroidered on the back of Laker’s jersey next season – and beyond.
LA has only about $92 million in contracts committed for next season, when a maximum salary is projected at $134 million, plenty of room to keep Walker if he continues to help the Lakers win – he averages 18.7 points on 52.5% shots (46.7% from 3) in LA’s recent three-game winning streak.
“I stayed here for a year,” Walker said. “I want to be here as long as possible. So what do I have to do to get there? Discipline, sticking and organizing day by day and being the best I can is what I’m going to get me there.”
Last season, Monk Malik played a similar role for the Lakers in a similar deal, but he left to sign a two-year, $19.4 million deal with King Sacramento with LA unable to provide more than mid-level exceptions, this ultimately fell to Walker.
“He filled the void of being another guy we could count on to score points in the basketball game,” Anthony Davis told ESPN. “Score as a team and keep trying to learn and read the game as the season goes on.”
Before the Lakers boarded a chartered van for a three-game trip before Thanksgiving with one in Phoenix and then a head-to-head game in San Antonio, Walker sat at home, preparing in his own unique way for the six-game journey. day . He grabbed his phone and walked over to the whiteboard in his bedroom. He snaps a picture of the goals he’s written down for himself, a reminder of where he is and where he wants to be.
As the team moved from their makeshift home in Arizona to their hotel in Texas, Walker found a pad of paper and pen on the desk in his room, opened the photo on his whiteboard in Beverly Hills, and recreated the name. book.
Long-term goals.
Short-term goal.
Then it returned to the wall, straightened its legs, closed its eyes.
“After I finished writing everything I had from that whiteboard on paper, I put it in my pocket,” says Walker. “It touches me, the words, everything is going through my body, and then I meditate.”
Another chance to be 1% better.
Inhale through your nose for four seconds. Exhale out of your mouth for four seconds. In and out. In and out. In and out.
Dominate the day.
