Leading up to and through this weekend’s NBA All-Star game, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution will profile the Hawks’ participants. Today: Kyle Korver
A man can learn a lot spending nine hours on a paddleboard fighting the waves and currents of the Pacific Ocean - about life and basketball.
Kyle Korver did.
The Hawks guard has embraced grueling offseason workouts known as misogi. He spent the past two offseasons pushing his limits, first paddling on top of and then carrying a large rock underneath the waters off the coast of Santa Barbara.
“Basically, it’s once a year you do something to totally challenge yourself, something that is not in your comfort zone and has elements that you are not familiar with,” Korver said of the concept. “Something that where if conditions are perfect, you’ve got a 50 percent chance of making it. So, if you are a runner, it’s not to run a marathon. If you don’t run at all, then maybe it is. It’s not I’m going to climb the top of that mountain over there. It’s I’m going to climb that mountain and the farthest mountain I can see from the top, I’m going to try to go there. And you may not get it. But you are going to spend a whole lot a time in a zone you are not familiar with and you are going to learn a lot about yourself.”
The idea intrigued Korver who wanted more from life and basketball.
“When you are younger we learn that if we work hard we can be whatever we want to me,” he said. “We live in America. That is what we teach our kids. But as we get older, things don’t work out the way you want them to. You lose or you get burned or you have a bad experience. You probably get a little more careful. The extreme of that is you start basing decisions out of fear. If it’s not going to happen, I’m not even going to try. You world gets smaller. That’s not a full life.
“I could feel it in life. But I could also really feel it in basketball. I was dealing with some injuries. I wondered to I try to push through this and expand my game and try new things. Or do I try to stay specialized and just do what I’m comfortable with. It connected with me on a bunch of levels.”
Two summers ago, Korver was introduced to misogi by friend Marcus Elliot. They came up with the concept to paddleboard the approximately 25 miles from the Channel Islands to Santa Barbara. A group of them trained for a couple of weeks, for about an hour each outing. It was not enough.
They left early the morning of the big paddle hoping to catch calm water. No such luck. Korver said he fell off his board 45 seconds into the trip. It was difficult to even get back on the board. The group questioned their sanity. They questioned the safety of the venture. They rued the bloody toes and swollen knees from having to kneel on the board. Three hours in, they had made little progress.
“Eventually, you are like ‘You know what, we are going to do this. There is no turning back. We are doing this. How do I do it?’ All the excuses and all that junk that is in your head falls away and you lock in on how am I going to make it back to Santa Barbara. We looked at the mountains of Santa Barbara and we picked the highest point and we aimed for that.”
Korver worked on the mechanics of every single stroke. Once he perfected one detail, he moved on to a smaller one. He found himself lost in those details. He enjoyed the challenge of mastering each nuance. Santa Barbara got closer. Nine hours later the journey was complete.
This summer, the group returned to the water. Their challenge was to carry a near 70-pound rock five kilometers across to the bottom of the ocean off shore. They took turns moving the rock as far as possible in one breath. A good distance was 10 feet. Many hours later, another task was complete. Another boundary was pushed. Another lesson was learned.
The journeys helped Korver expand his basketball game. He was already one of the top shooters in the NBA. He currently leads the league in 3-point field goal percentage. He was named an All-Star replacement and at age 33 and will make his first appearance in the game Sunday. He will also compete in the 3-point contest Saturday. Korver is well on his way to joining the rare club of players who have made at least 50 percent of his field goal attempts, 50 percent of his 3-point attempts and 90 percent of his free-throw attempts.
“It carried over and I started thinking about basketball and shooting,” Korver said. “I love the mechanics and I’ve always tried to have good mechanics. How do I break this down smaller? How do I find the details of my shot? How do I find the details of that detail? I started looking at shooting differently and trying to make every movement efficient and cut out stuff that really wasn’t helping me. How do I make my shot the exact same every single time? I had people tell me my shot looked the same every time but I’m finding all these new things that aren’t. It was revolutionary to me.
“If (the paddleboard journey) wouldn’t have been so hard, I don’t think it would have clicked in my mind.”
Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer appreciates the offseason work by Korver – although he’s not likely to recommend others on his team carry rocks under water.
“He is pushing the envelope in all ways, shapes and forms,” Budenholzer said. “It’s great to be around a player and person like that.”
Korver said there will be another challenge, as of yet undecided, next summer. There is always another limit to be pushed.
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