Danny Green Talks Being Innovative at Home with Workouts and Warm-up Games Before Playoffs

Former Tar Heel and current Laker, Danny Green, discusses what keeps him in shape and whether the NBA should immediately jump into Playoff season upon its return.

Coping with COVI-19 has been tough for the millions involved; sports stars are no different. With two unnamed players testing positive for COVID-19, the Lakers forced the team to self-isolate for the next 14 days. The virus reared its ugly head amongst the NBA teams and brought reality to many of us. 

Exercising and sports go hand in hand; they're almost synonymous. The dedication and discipline it takes to build your body for prolonged periods of actions take years to maintain, and COVID-19 is forcing some of sports biggest stars to adapt and find different ways to keep their body in line. 

Monday, former Tar Heel and current laker, Danny Green, sat down with the LA Lakers, Mike Trudell, and dived into what he's doing to keep himself entertained while being quarantined. Green hit on what he's watching and questions about his teammate's swag, but what stood out is how he's transitioning from working out in top-notch facilities to being innovating at home.

I know that you guys were able to go into the UCLA Health Training Center for individual workouts on the court and in the weight room, but that has changed this week across the NBA. What have you been able to do physically to stay in the best shape you can given the circumstances?
Green: We were allowed to work out in the gym (on a 1-on-1 basis with a coach), but that changed with the gym now being shut down. So right now, I have to figure something out in the house. Calisthenics is probably the best bet that we have. And, I live by the beach, so maybe running on the beach. Running around outside by the house.

Right, that’s quite a bit different from being able to work out at the facility when you’re trying to keep some level of your game shape.
Green: Yeah, and they were taking all the precautions when we were going in. If anybody was sick in any way, they’d send you home. But if not, then you were able to go work out as an individual. You’d set up your time with the coaches, or for a lift with the strength and conditioning coaches. So we were doing that. (Tuesday), before the news came out about the Nets, I was just in for a pretty good workout.

For a veteran like you, coming off another Finals run playing well into June and then playing in 61 of 63 games this season, or LeBron James, with all the mileage in his 17 years, what’s the balance of having some time off for your body to recover, and the risk of losing rhythm and everything like that?
Green: We have a lot of vets on our team, so a week or two can be great, just like All-Star break. A nice reset to get your legs back under you, get fresh. But once that extends to three weeks, four weeks or more, that’s where things get tricky. You start losing your rhythm. You can’t simulate playing basketball no matter how much working out you do. There’s no equal amount of training or conditioning individually you can do to simulate a 5-on-5 basketball game. It’s such a different type of staying in shape. So we don’t want to be rusty or out of shape. I’m sure we trust our guys to stay in shape, but things can get a little dicey when it comes to too much rest.

Just a hypothetical here, but what if the standings are frozen and things go right to playoffs. How would that work from a physical standpoint, depending on how much time passes? Figure you’d need some kind of warm-up games?
Green: For sure. I don’t think that’d be fair to just have teams dive right into the playoffs. I think we’d need at least five games of the regular season to just get us our flow back. Get our legs back under us, get some kind of rhythm, get our chemistry, get our team back. I don’t know if it’s preseason-type games or scrimmages, but at least five or six games under our belt to get back into team form.