NO COMPARISON
ON most nights, long after formal practice has ended, you’ll find Kemba Walker back in the Hornets’ facility. He’ll return when it’s dark outside to get additional shots up, and refuses to let members of the team staff rebound for him.
Go help someone else, he’ll say. I got a routine.
It’s the same one that Hall of Famer Steve Nash used to follow. Kemba ripped it off YouTube a year ago. He starts close to the basket and works his way back, finishing beyond the arc. He’s extra focused so he won’t have to chase misses all over the gym.
“I make 20 from corner to corner. I go to both wings, then I go to both elbows,” he explains. “Depending on what I want to work on, I make a couple moves to floaters, do one-on-one moves and try to end it off with threes—off-the-dribble or rolling the ball out to myself, trying to imitate spot ups as well.”
He’s pointing out the locations on the floor as he speaks, tracing the movements that have become seared in his brain. That this gym is the site of our cover shoot is especially fitting, given how much of his personal time Walker spends here. It’s a Monday morning in early December and Charlotte is recovering from a rare winter storm. By
