Despite possessing no coaching or playing experience, Idan Ravin is one of the NBA’s most sought-after personal trainers. In Chris Ballard’s new book, “The Art of the Beautiful Game,” which I received in the mail yesterday and haven’t been able to put down since, Ravin shares a lot of interesting stories, including this little anecdote about LeBron James:
In the summer of 2008, on the recommendation of Hornets point guard Chris Paul, James worked out for the first time with Idan Ravin, whose NBA clients have included Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Gilbert Arenas and Elton Brand. When James and Ravin met at a gym in New Orleans to work out with Paul and a few other players, the trainer (whose name is pronounced ee-DON rah-VEEN) knew he had to make an immediate impression on James. Ravin, a 38-year-old former lawyer, boasts none of the credentials that carry weight in the NBA world. He didn’t play the game (at least not past high school), never coached (unless you count junior high kids), hasn’t worked for an NBA team and isn’t even certified as a trainer. Nor does he look the part. The son of an Israeli mother and a Russian father, Ravin is neither tall nor particularly athletic-looking, and in conversation he comes off more as a sociologist than as a basketball expert. Thus his first goal with any new player is to humble him, and do so quickly.
James’s weakness, Ravin believed, was his dribbling, so he immediately ran the Cavaliers’ star forward through a series of intricate ball-handling exercises. Whenever James looked down to locate the ball, Ravin gently tapped him under the chin, a reminder to keep his head up. Granted, this exercise could go horribly awry — you want to tell LeBron James he can’t dribble? But as long as Ravin’s critique is correct (and in this case it was), his method establishes him as an authority figure.
“The only way to tame a 10,000-pound tiger is to immediately show a level of control,” says Ravin, drawing an analogy from the novel Life of Pi. “When LeBron’s head goes down and I tap his chin up — nobody does that to him. He’s not used to it.”
Next, Ravin ran James through grueling conditioning drills, all related to game situations, because he’d noticed that James was a bit out of shape (at least by Ravin’s high standards). By the end of the hourlong workout, the Cavaliers’ star was lying on the floor, gassed. Only then did Ravin address him. “You are far and away the most talented player in the league, way more talented than Kobe,” the trainer said. “But you don’t even have a go-to move in isolation, you can’t handle the ball that well, and you can’t shoot, really. Think about that.”
James sat silent, biting his fingernails and looking “sort of pissed,” as Ravin remembers it.
