ORLANDO, Fla. -- Basketball already is a job for Kevin Love. His schedule before this week proves it.
He's awake and eating breakfast by 6:30 a.m. He has made the trip from his Westwood apartment to the Home Depot Center in Carson by 8:15 a.m. There he joins UCLA teammate Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Arizona's Chase Budinger in a weight room where the three players spend 90 minutes doing workouts tailored for their particular needs by Joe Abunassar, founder and owner of Impact Basketball.
The day doesn't end until 3 or 4 p.m.
Mbah a Moute hopes he can show off an improved jump shot along with his already-approved defense when the NBA pre-draft camp pickup games begin here today. Love is rated highly enough that he gets to bypass the games and be one of 20 NBA hopefuls to go through extensive physical measurements and tests Friday.
Since signing on with Impact Basketball last month, Love's days have been 9 to 5 except that the alarm clock goes off more like at 6.
After the weight session, Love has a midmorning snack, delivered by a healthy-eating company called Sunfare that he pays to keep him eating right. Then there's a movement session and a couple of hours of one-on-one basketball. Lunch (delivered), then an hour or so on a treadmill in a room where the altitude is simulated at up to 9,000 feet. A bike ride. A shower. A trip back to Westwood. Dinner and a snack. Delivered. Bed. Alarm clock.
"How do I look?" Love asked last week. He looked about 15 pounds lighter and his jump shot was consistent, even at the NBA three-point line. He made 10 in a row at one point.
To be pushed and prodded into a sweaty, nauseous mess, to have nutritious meals and snacks individually prepared and delivered, to have his game criticized with brutal honesty -- lose weight, refine post game, show a mid-range game, prove you can defend taller, quicker players -- Love will spend somewhere around $6,000 before the June 26 draft.
Since he hired Los Angeles-based agent Jeff Schwartz and will most certainly be an NBA lottery draft pick June 26, the money will come back to Love.
Mbah a Moute hasn't signed with an agent and doesn't know yet whether he'll be a first-round pick with guaranteed money, a second-round pick with no guarantees or a UCLA senior who will take what he has learned -- improve his jump shot, get a more secure dribble -- back to school. Either way, he will have spent between $4,000 and $6,000 too, depending on how long he keeps his name in the draft and works with Impact Basketball.
