Mark Rawden at the Boston Examiner caught up with Kevin Garnett’s personal trainer, Joe Abunassar, for a quick Q&A on a variety of topics. Abunassar got his start as a manager under Bobby Knight at Indiana, coached four years at the University of Wyoming, founded the Basketball Academy at IMG Academies, and started Impact Basketball, where he trains Garnett, Paul Pierce, Chauncey Billups, Al Harrington, Tayshaun Prince, Rudy Gay, J.R. Smith, O.J. Mayo, and Chris Paul, among others. Here are a few highlights:
Would you be able to explain what the plans are for Pierce, Garnett, and Big Baby?
For Paul…Paul pretty much works with us when he’s in town. Guys with that kind of experience, Paul is just trying to get himself in the best shape that he can for a long season, which does require not getting into too good a shape right now because you don’t want to peak too early. Paul and Kevin are in a way different place. I have Chauncey Billups, I have Tayshaun Prince. These guys know what their strengths and their weaknesses are, and they know how to get themselves ready. For Kevin, he’s just trying to get himself ready. For Paul and Kevin, we’re not reinventing anything. Just keeping their bodies healthy is a major deal, making sure they’re strong in the right places so they are ready for the season and playoffs.
For Big Baby, he’s just finding his game, so he’s trying to stay fit, stay lean, and he gets to play against guys like Rudy Gay and Al Harrington, and pick up parts of their game. He’s going one day at a time, and he’s returning here and he’ll get a lot more work in before he goes back to Boston.
Who would you say you’ve really enjoyed having in the program? I know that you’ve had Chauncey around for a while.
Well I think there is no one I enjoy being around more than Billups and Garnett. Another guy who has been an unbelievable friend and one of my first real clients was Tyronn Lue, who I know you guys are looking at too. He, Chauncey and Kevin are close friends and they are close friends of mine. Al Harrington from the Knicks is a long-time client and a great friend. I don’t enjoy every guy, but when you have a core group of players from when I was training them on my own, like Billups, Garnett, Harrington and Lue, those are the guys who started me out in the business. We have Rudy Gay, who is 22 years old, guys like Chauncey and Kevin they look at him like they’re passing the torch. Now I have O.J. Mayo with me and he’s learned more from Chauncey than he learns from me every day. So it’s very cool to see the older guys, they don’t want me to call them older guys, but they’re getting older, really affecting younger players.
Yesterday, our game had O.J. Mayo, Chauncey Billups, Chris Paul, Sebastian Telfair, and Tyronn Lue. We had five point guards playing the five-on-five, with four teams, so one guy had to move to two-guard. It’s amazing for O.J. Mayo to play against Chris Paul, Billups, and Telfair, who’s fast. Rudy Gay gets to play against Tayshaun Prince and Kevin Garnett. Even on another level, you have a guy like Austin Daye, who was drafted in the first round this year by Detroit, he’s working out with Rudy Gay every day. It’s an awesome experience for these guys to be able to work out with each other.
(Via CelticsBlog)
