Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Hibbert had an auspicious beginning

Jordan Conn writes that the 2013 version of Roy Hibbert is light years different from his prep and even early college days. Continued work that is going on to this day did the trick.

A snippet:
Cut to 2004, Hibbert's first year at Georgetown. In an early fall workout, Hibbert lay prostrate in the weight room, watched by strength coach Mike Hill. He'd hit the ground to bang out a few push-ups, but a problem soon became clear: Hibbert couldn't do one. So while women's soccer and lacrosse players looked on, Hill straddled the freshman big man, reached down, and grabbed him by the sides, pulling him up and pushing him down while Hibbert struggled to pitch in. "It was humiliating," Hibbert says. "All these girls are watching — they can do push-ups but I can't." Not only could Hibbert not do a push-up, he couldn't bend his knees enough to do a single squat, even without holding weights.

That's not all. "He couldn't run," says Boston Celtics forward Jeff Green, who was part of the same Georgetown recruiting class as Hibbert. "He was pigeon-toed, and he had these size 18 shoes, so he was just tripping over himself trying to get up and down the court." (Says Hill: "It was more of a waddle than a run.")

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