Fans of the NBA only see what they can get their hands on in terms of their favorite teams and players, but they don’t get to see or know the behind the scenes or preparation aspects their favorite players go through to prepare for a game. What’s a typical game day like? What’s your favorite player listening to before a game? These questions need to be answered!
Philadelphia 76ers guard Josh Richardson sat down with Sixers Wire to give us an inside look at what he goes through on a game day.
“If it’s a home game, I’ll wake up at about 10:00 and then I’ll go downstairs, eat breakfast, then I’ll come to the practice facility at about 10:30/11,” he said. “Then I’ll shoot with (assistant coach) Chris Babcock for about 20-30 minutes. Then I’ll go home and sleep until about 3:00. Then I’ll get up and come to the arena for shootaround.”
His pregame work has allowed him to average 15.0 points and 3.5 assists while shooting 35.8% from deep so far in his first season with the Sixers. He has taken on a big role in Philadelphia as the main initiator of the pick-and-roll game with Ben Simmons and it’s been essential for their offense.
Now, what about music? What music is Richardson listening to before a game to get the juices going?
“I don’t really get super hyped for games,” he explained. “I listen to really relaxed music before games. Not like classic slow jams, but I listen to alternative music before games like Indie music. If I listen to rap, I listen to Larry June, that’s the only rapper I’ll listen to before games.”
It’s not like the shooting guard is listening to your classic slow songs that were played at your high school prom, but it is interesting that he isn’t listening to the popular stuff. Most players listen to artists like Drake or Travis Scott and others along those lines, but Richardson has a different taste of music.
“Crumb, I listen to them a lot before games,” he added. “It’s a little Indie band like it’s not super well known. I listen to Mac DeMarco before games sometimes. I listen to rock like classic rock sometimes.”
These are not household musical names, but this type of music has inspired the lanky veteran out of Tennessee to want to play some musical instruments.
“I actually have a guitar. I don’t know how to play it yet,” he laughed. “I’ve started learning, but I’m not good yet. I just need somebody to teach me. I can read piano music so I feel like learning guitar can’t be too bad.”
While Richardson has a lot of different ways of going of going about his day, he is playing now for a much different city in Philadelphia compared to Miami. For one, there aren’t any unique wildlife in the city such as iguanas for example, and it is obviously much colder than it is in Miami.
There is one thing that the City of Brotherly Love has and that it’s great taste in food.
“Philly’s been good man,” he explained. “It’s very different than Miami, but it’s also dope in a lot of ways. The food scene here is really awesome. I’m into that, so if anybody has any food suggestions for me, I’m into that.”
If there’s one thing that the people of Philadelphia are very opinionated on, other than their sports teams, it’s their cheesesteaks. Everybody has a favorite and Richardson has tried most of them and it appears he has his own go-to cheesesteak spot.
“I’ve been to Pat’s, Tony Luke’s, Sonny’s, Dalessandro’s,” he then paused and his eyes lit up and he continued. “I’ve been to Ishkabibble’s. I like the chopped steak, I don’t like it sliced.”
So, we learned a little bit about the life of an NBA player. It’s not always just basketball, sometimes, it’s good to sit back and relax a bit. It may be good to rock out to some Indie music and enjoy a chopped up cheesesteak as well. It’s all about preference. [lawrence-related id=22978,22971,22964]