Nigel Hayes-Davis Talks Practicing With Team USA, Stephen Curry and Lebron Routines, Steph Secrets

I would get to practices and stuff, I try to get there early and do my work because obviously most of the work is going to be done with the guys and I'm there if I need it. And then after practice it was just watching everyone, just like okay practice is over what are you doing? Okay what are you doing? And I sat down with Steph for like hour and a half, two hours after the game and he was you know kind and generous enough to like sit there with me and I asked every question that I had that I could think of and he wrote down everything for me. So like I have this in my notepad, it's one of my now most prized possessions of the secrets of the workouts we've done with Klay. I ask him and the answer you get is like it's not the answer you think you get when you talk to Klay. Like as I've like increased my ability to shoot it's like cool you won't just be able to stand still and shoot the ball because people know you can shoot a bit more. So you ask Klay like I'm like hey like when you're coming off like what do you like what do you think about? Like you think about like my feet or my shoulders or like if a guy's this and you like and you know what Klay's answer was I don't know bro I don't think like if I can catch the ball and shoot it I shoot it. So nice to meet you Nigel. I'm Tuce from Turkey and let's start. Pleasure. Okay well Nigel looking back at a season where you set a EuroLeague record and made it to the final four and followed by an exciting summer with the select team. How are you enjoying the ride so far with everything you have accomplished so far? I just wrote a line on my Instagram post last night about that these last two months and if you're talking about the season and okay these last like six months have definitely been a tremendous tremendous set of months for me. Basketball life has been fantastic a lot of the things almost everything I wanted to do in basketball I did and then there's some things that I didn't even have on my radar that I was able to do. Able to travel which is one of my newfound these last three years newfound love joy and passion and being able to travel. So I was able to to do that get to South America so and as I as I wrote once in a lifetime experience that I was able to do these last two months with the select team and the goal is to try to do it once again. So I'll do my best to prepare myself for this season and then we can we can see what happens in in life. Only thing you can control is what you can control which is my preparation and everything after that is you know out of my hand so I don't worry about it too much. Yeah let's talk a bit more about your experience with the select team. How has your overall experience been like? It was the greatest experience of my life. I was telling my friends in my group chat that I needed them to be there with me because I don't know in your profession or in your life or in your hobbies like what would be your mountaintop or what would be peak joy peak happiness peak companionship peak you know co-workers peak moment of something that you could do but that experience that I had was as I aptly named my my documentary for the mountaintop of basketball being around the best players in the world being around you know one who's regarded as one or two best players of all time you have another two that are regarded as the top of all time respectively in the respective categories it's it was incredible tremendous experience just being around the guys learning from the guys watching how the the whole machine that is USA basketball and how it operates how it moves how it goes from country to country city to from arena to practice to gym to to eating watching the guys do their routines their recovery routines their their pre-have their rehab post-have just watching uh everything and being that close to to greatness and when you're that close you can you can feel you can see it in the room by the way people act not so much as the people who are around all the time because they kind of you know get desensitized to it if you will but being in those rooms and then when you go to a different country and you see the way like like wow so this is how it is to like be close to these guys and this is what it looks like from another another angle um not to be extremely long-winded but uh my short answer that I just gave you is that it was an incredible indescribable uh experience and I'm just very very happy that I was able to to be selected to be picked and to be able to to go through that and have that that once-in-a-lifetime as I said experience you know I gotta I want to ask something more so on the court what was it like obviously being on the outside and you know playing uh overseas and watching the NBA um or these NBA these current NBA players been watching them the last few years you know we kind of have our our own uh perception of the speed the length the size of the strength and all that what was it like seeing these guys or being on the court with them in regards to their athleticism the length and things of that nature and also playing within the European rules um you know within the practices and the scrimmages what was what was that like and and how did what kind of adjustment was that for you if any being it up close is you're you're seeing you know like a a small per percentile of of people so this this team that I was able to watch which you know I don't care to debate it but some people say they're the best teams put together and to to to watch it these guys are better than 99.99999 percent of the world of basketball players and to be there and see like the height the size the speed uh like LeBron's speed and size to watch Joel Joel is massive Joel shouldn't exist as a basketball player like he's seven two he's you know two hundred eight maybe three hundred pounds he can shoot he has footwork the skill like he's like a creative player you know to see Kevin Durant be that tall that fluid with the ball and to watch him shoot like he shouldn't exist unicorn as uh as uh Ant Edwards likes to call him you know that's his favorite player to watch Steph shoot up close like I spent the majority of my time with like around stuff like rebounding helping stuff being after practice uh just trying to be as close to learn from him as much as possible so being up uh I see like for them the adjustment was dealing with a smaller court you know which is something that I spent the last years playing with so for me it's like yeah that's not gonna work I can see that's not gonna work I understand you're really good but it's really hard to do that because there's no room on the court um and you can see that yourself when you watch these games you know you're not seeing guys uh average 35 you're not seeing guys take 35 shots you know you're not seeing 160 to 150 which is damn near what you see every NBA game uh it's very very difficult to score each possession matters and of course they're the best players in the world so once uh you know going through the training camp once the rhythm was there the the chemistry got there you know obviously they were they're going to figure it out but at the beginning you could see it uh it having to be taught like okay this is a space and we got to deal with uh this is the the kind of restrictions that we're going to have and these are the things we need to figure out and figure out quickly so that we can win a gold medal but as I said best players in the world some of the best players of all time so it's a very very quick learning curve for them and also you know going back to uh Steph Curry and obviously we saw uh we saw the performances that he had but when you were working with him and obviously uh from uh from the little that I know about you you're also very regimented did you take anything um from those from those moments that you had with Steph and uh that you're going to try and like implement into or maybe even not just Steph but any of the other players anything you're going to take into your own regiment um heading into the rest of your career or even this season so overall from players just just watching you know there's a lot of times like so for me the schedule was I would get to practices and stuff I try to get there early and do my work because obviously most of the work is going to be done and and then after practice it was just watching everyone just like okay practice is over what are you doing okay what are you doing why are you doing that what are you doing what did you do before practice okay what did you do over there why are you doing that just watching every single person everyone has their own thing everyone knows what works for them and then uh zeroing in on Steph who I said I wanted to to be around the most because in my uh like from my opinion and you know the way like my brain works uh Steph has Steph has and does things that I feel are more tangible for me to to pick up because you know LeBron's 6'9 one of one player of all time it's really hard to replicate that uh KD is seven feet seven foot one I can't I'll never be seven foot one you know uh some of the other guys like for example Anthony Edwards I asked him one time I said would you would you do to like jump so high get so athletic and he was like I don't know it's just you know my dad I was just I just born like this so congratulations you won the lottery you won the genetic lottery you just that's your answer is you just got it uh so a lot of those things that you know you can't replicate because those are gifts that those players can give but what you can replicate is work and and you know I like the way again personal everyone has their own thing but I just enjoy the way Steph plays Steph works and uh I just literally like as we were messaging I had just came from my workout and what I finished my workout with was one of the conditioning uh drills that Steph gave me uh to do and let me tell you first of all it's not easy at all it's not easy at all I had one of my uh one of my childhood long lifelong friends do it with me there's like five parts of it he did the first two and then disappeared I didn't see him until after I finished so uh this is very it's very hard but uh just learning from Steph about just rhythm what you do before lifting um guys rehab the things they do to take care of their body from icing rest stretching uh body mobility work uh trying to get you know whatever maybe something that they feel try to take care of those things as soon as possible sleep schedules um and again as I I shared I think somewhere on my Instagram but I was fortunate to the last day of the my time with the team in London I sat down with Steph for like hour and a half two hours after the game versus uh maybe Germany and he was you know kind and generous enough to like sit there with me and I asked every question that I had that I could think of and he wrote down everything for me so like I have this in my in my notepad it's one of my now most prized possessions of the secrets of the the mountaintop and like I said it was extremely fortunate to to get some of this information because it's uh some good stuff in there from from Mr. Steph Curry I'll tell you that much it's good stuff how about the mental preparation process Nigel did you realize something different in terms of mental preparation maybe different approaches compared to Europe because I know you're you're completely focused on you know mindfulness and we know that you have been working on that so anything you notice uh notice that the other players do that those yeah yeah yeah uh so yeah again that's another thing I got from stuff there's this something that he uses this app and you know obviously I downloaded the app there's something he uses to to get himself going to zero in obviously you see the uh everyone's seeing the commercials with LeBron in the uh the app he uses like the little the meditation app that he uses and then watch him do that you know in person was crazy like I didn't want to feel weird but I'm just watching him he did his warm-up he does his stretches and then he does his like you know like 20-25 minute he just lays down there you know which does this little meditation thing and goes so like what he's what he does on the commercials is is real his work ethic and obviously speaks for itself he's gone on a year it was at 22 now so something like that so it's it's incredible and everyone has their own thing you know you have the guy some guys listen to music and lock in some guys do the like their their meditation uh some guys watch watch film you know some guys distract themselves and you know maybe there's candy crush or something like that everyone has their own little little thing that they that they do there's no right or wrong answer but it's uh the the beauty of it is seeing that like okay there's more than one way to to be great and these are what these guys do so for me it's like okay what do I do is there something maybe I could try that would improve or am I doing something that someone already does and there's a way I could do it better I was gonna ask so with uh obviously you've had you've had NBA experience and you know now you're on the the other side of your career you know as a as a as a vet now what uh did you leave that USA Select experience um with uh or what what did you think what do think about your game now in regards to how it fits amongst like NBA players now um having left the select the select team and um and just you know the just the overall experience and and how you feel you you measure up because obviously you've you've created a lot of you've created a feat of overseas that nobody else has done um and you kind of stand alone in that so uh I'm interested to see you know where where your mindset is in regards to to your talent and where you think it stands right now so I think that me last year being first team all Euroleague in the forward position which uh according to the award would make me the best forward in Europe I think that automatically puts me mid-level in the NBA um just the the ability to be able to just like I start middle of the NBA um just to be able to to do what I do and obviously you you spoke on it your job as a scout and other other people you work with like I the points I averaged the the record I had the way I played like I did all of that with uh without dominating the ball which you know being in in the NBA if you're one of those guys you're you're already that guy and you've been that guy everyone else is just fitting a role around that guy so for me um to to be like you know the lead top dog on the team in Euroleague and I don't dominate the ball me being on an NBA court with someone who would dominate the ball like it's it wouldn't change anything for me it's like I I just played a whole season without the ball I can cut without the ball I can I can move I can shoot I can shoot off the dribble I can shoot off the move I can create for others I can create for myself if need be so I think that my game would translate extremely well as you saw again the the analogy I always give and this isn't me speaking from a place of arrogance or confidence because you need that but this is just objectively you watch the guys who come from Europe to the NBA and when they ask them the question like how do you compare the scoring the physicality the difficulty from Europe to the NBA everyone always says it's easier and it's not easier because like guys are worse or because guys don't care it's just the rules like the the main rule changes being three three seconds in the key on defense and the three-point line being a little deeper which opens up the court those two rules change the entire dynamic of the game so if I'm able to get drives to the rim and there's always a guy who can stand in the lane like imagine what I could do if there was a guy who couldn't stand in the lane the whole time you know or if the three-point lines is wider and now I get a close out once I beat my guy I'm going to the rim in Europe once you beat your guy there's two more guys in front of you so you know now you have to create more so if I can succeed be efficient set and break records in that system I feel the the other system would would benefit me uh greatly but again my my motto mindset last year would be where my feet are and um obviously from like you said this creative perspective I have some more work to do I just gotta continue to work and get a little bit better 50 wasn't enough apparently you know you know as crazy as like from watching uh watching the olympics I was shocked how much team USA was not able to take advantage of closeouts I mean I was shocked but I wasn't really shocked because but it's it's it's just one of those things like obviously the the court is crowded and you know the d3 that that that adds a whole nother element but the funny thing is is like I think from the NBA side evaluating players let's say in Europe is like oh can he play off of closeouts can he can he do this that and the third and my thing is is like I literally just saw the elites not really creating advantages off of closeouts so you know what I'm saying so if you have a player that can do it let's say at the Euroleague level it's like a no-brainer that he's gonna be able to do it at the NBA level no-brainer it's like it's it's crazy to me though it's it's uh like you said you you know it but it's just those aren't those guys habits you know and you are your habits and those habits for those players they're the best players in the world like with just to use like the names like if katie gets the ball like can he close out absolutely he can do everything he wants on the basketball court but like he usually he can catch the ball he can look at you size you up if edwards catch can he close out absolutely he's extremely fast extremely athletic but does he do that all the time with minnesota no get the ball size you up do his move and then he'll shoot his shots a lot of all those guys really besides maybe like derek and uh and drew you know get the ball and if they want the ball stops they figure out what they want to do they get to a spot so the with them like figuring that out and one of the things in the throughout the course of the training for the preparation games and practices was like hey guys just try to keep the ball moving and this is one of the things that like uh like started in abu dhabi before the serbia game i was rebounding warming up and i told uh steph like that's a stuff just you know be stuff make everyone play around stuff everything's gonna work out great he starts that game and he ends up with like 20 something in the first half you know he comes over to me like way to put that battery in my back and i'm like yeah steph yeah you know and then i think once the guys figured out like the way steph plays is like the way we play in europe because that's kind of like the the best way to play and you know like once the guys were like all right cool we move the ball once we're probably gonna get a good shot we move the ball two or three times there's nobody on earth that can guard that team and if you watch some of the clips like i'm watching with my friends and there's there's clips where like bron drives kicks the ball book catches it he drives and then he kicks the ball and he kicks the ball to a wide open steph and then they close on on steph and you know who steps one more passes kevin durant again like what the defense is deciding do i do i close out to to steph or leave kd wide open you know so like once they once they figured that out and you could see in their little pockets like it was like once it got rolling and the ball got moving unguardable unbeatable and um you know they figured it out and got the gold so only thing now is word around the street is i may get one of those gold things so we'll see i don't know i don't know that's what i've been told that's what i've been told that's the rumor we'll see well let's talk a bit about your individual performance anthony if you don't have anything to add about that okay so looking back at the season nigel you were there for whatever the team needed right so it was like you were the versatile white card for the team so i was going to ask how do you manage all of those roles and um what is your approach to staying sharp in each area the role is thanks to just work time people have been around but the last year and a half has been charlie torres which you which you know for sure anthony uh charlie has helped me with uh with a mindset it's called hunter gatherer mindset and uh the workouts we've done with clay um i asked him and the answer you get is like it's not the answer you think you get when you talk to clay like like as i've like increased my ability to shoot it's like cool you won't just be able to stand still and shoot the ball because people know you can shoot so you got to be able to shoot off the move so boom last year or two years ago increased it last year went up a notch even more so you ask clay like i'm like hey like when you're coming off like what do you like what do you think about like you think about like my feet or my shoulders or like if a guy's this and you like and you know what clay's answer was i don't know bro i don't think like if i can catch the ball and shoot it i shoot it that's the answer that's the answer i know you were expecting something really deep and philosophical i know so was i and that's the answer i got and the truth is that is literally all you need to do and as as charlie always says is be a hunter gatherer and like i've gotten better at manipulating the game so like my idea is how can i get the ball and shoot the ball that's the only thing i think about everything else comes out like if i live if i was like i can't shoot the ball okay there's someone open i'll pass the ball but the first thought the second third and fourth thought is what can i do on this play to go get the ball and shoot the ball or to put myself in a position to shoot the ball and and like last year i really locked in on that and it worked pretty well huh it's funny yo uh when i was i used to work out with chuck back in the day him and shay um but i got put on to a book called uh the inner game of tennis i don't know but yeah i mean it's basically saying the same thing about just not thinking you know i mean and uh you know it's funny uh it's funny but watching i mean obviously you've been you've been in the gym with clay and steph um could you put one ahead of the other when it comes to shooting the ball what are your thoughts uh just shooting in the gym just pure shooting in the gym target practice we're not talking about defense in front of you none of that we're talking about just in the gym shooting the in a workout i would i would i mean you can't go against the greatest shooter of all time i just feel like from talking to charlie look i'll throw someone else in here with me so if this goes viral like i at least have someone i'll take down with me but charlie always said like charlie always said like clay probably has the potential to be the one he just like gets bored with making so many that like like he'll miss because he gets bored you know like that's how good clay is at shooting like he'll just keep shooting and like after a certain amount of you like all right let me go play with my dog now you know it was just like all right you know or something like that so that's the nigel chuck answer i got you to try you got anything else yeah i do i do and let's talk a bit about the defensive side of the game um your defensive efforts were obviously strong uh when it comes to closing out on a shooter nigel what key cues do you look for and how do you balance um the aggressiveness when you see the player might thrive instead of shooting well the first thing is your team's system so like each team has their own system so last year with to finish the year with charles he's a proponent of sending people to their weak hand so you close out to send someone whichever hand they close out with and they drive predominantly with uh send them to the weak hand uh so that's just like you know the the team rule that's what he wants us to do um but when you're closing out to someone great for example like mike james who went mvp like i was he can dribble whichever way he wants he can shoot any shot he wants he's that good uh so with him it's like send him to where other people are you know obviously i don't want him to shoot so close out in a way to where when you're running you you should have okay if you think the game enough not everyone does but if you think the game you're like i know where i am on the court when i close out i know where his players are and should be and i know where my guys should be based on our rules and try to send him to as much help as you can so after you get the three which is you know one of the most efficient shots like a set spot three then after that it's just contest a shot and hope he misses you know just try to send them into traffic and then obviously as the talent level from mvp mike james as it goes down to other players throughout the league it's like cool if your job is only to shoot just run until i'm inside your jersey so that you don't shoot or you run to some guys and you know like okay the scouting report is this guy can shoot but he shot fakes every time so you have to know who you're closing out to you have to know every player's tendencies because you never know what could happen in a transition fast break offensive rebound you turn around and there's anthony okay boom he does this i turn around boom 2j this is what you do like you have to know these things immediately so then you adjust to whether it's a non-shooter a shooter who can only shoot a shooter who can't dribble which you just run off and then it's like cool you can't do anything else a shooter who shot fakes you close out short then you speed up to get to him or like i said mvp uh mike james who can do it all you just run and try to like you know uh like little kids who play soccer you know when it's like the soccer ball is there and it's like everybody's trying to kick the ball like that's how you got a guard mike everyone has to be near him at all times so he can't shoot you got anything else um do we have time and my job okay if we do i want to talk a bit about the mental side of the game because nigel i feel like you know as we see on your digital diary that's how you call your instagram captions right so literally it is people think i'm joking it's literally a diary it's real life it's crowd-sourced therapy it's cheap therapy but it really is so obvious so you mentioned practicing mindfulness and staying in present a lot even in intense moments right so uh is it something that you already had from the very early years of your career or was that something you have learned during the journey uh during the journey for sure i wish it was something i had early i was just telling a couple other people that uh i've always had a desire for like learning and reading so i've been able to read a lot and also i've been um i wouldn't say lucky because the this is something i learned from reading it's like i stopped saying i'm lucky i just said like the universe always sends me great people so in my life i always get sent people that come and teach me and help me whether it's uh some people i meet while i'm traveling uh teammates uh whether it's uh an ex here a girl that i met even at a coffee shop that was like oh hey like i saw this or i'm reading this or like hey what book are you reading you know or just someone at a bookshop just like hey if you like this book read that or someone will message me on instagram and say hey i saw you read this i think you would like a book like this and just all these people that come in in my life from different areas um just try to learn and build and build and build so i always tell one of the most recent ones and most impactful books i've read lately is the book of joy with the dalai lama and desmond tutu really tremendous book and one of the biggest things i find myself telling people all the time is uh his philosophy on worrying and like stealing stealing present day joy by worrying about the future is uh obviously everyone knows control what you can control so what he says is if you can control the outcome then you shouldn't worry if you can't control the outcome then you shouldn't worry and it's that simple i love that yeah i really believe that kind of conversations are inspirational especially for young athletes so since we're talking about the mental side of the life of the game especially in europe fans tend to see athletes as superheroes so and also they impose heroic traits on athletes so and at the end of the day if they don't find what they were looking for at that superhero they react so is it something that you're dealing or do you deal with that if yes how do you deal with that it's something that all players deal with obviously the the higher the expectations are for you the better player you are the more scrutiny and critiques you'll come under but as i always say i play basketball for myself and for my family i want to be happy and proud of my performance and i want my my family and my guys in the group chat afterwards to let me know i had a good game and everything else after that is is irrelevant because um for example i still have screenshots saved of fans who when i signed the fender bocce said why are we signing nigel he sucked in barcelona we already have players like him those are the same fans who now comment please never leave we love you i won't show those screenshots but this is why i really don't care more or less what fans say because when i wasn't playing for fender it was the same people that were you know all the turkish cuss words so i don't have to say them to you so like you know what turkish fans say when you don't play for their team now that you play for their team they love you it's the same thing that happens after the games against the serbian teams i went to partizan last year and had 21 in the first half i'm walking to the tunnel again you know serbian so you know what these people are saying the same fans after the game are like oh bro you had a great game come to come to partizan next year like why would i take seriously what any fan says to me when as soon as you change teams they love you more or they hate you so it's it's never like it's the way guys change teams in europe's like fans should never impact anything you say because as many teams as you go on when you're on their team they'll die for you and kill for you as soon as you go to another team it's you suck you're the worst player ever like you can't take anyone serious that cheers like that but that's the beautiful thing though about europe is that that's how it works like that is the love it's like if you're in my jersey i'll die for you as soon as you don't have my jersey on you're the worst player ever and i hate you so on one hand it makes the the fandom and the atmosphere amazing and the other part it's like i don't care what you say in a in an instagram comment or a dm like stop got it so my last question is i love the phone is for a series so uh and you're also doing so content on swiss tv are we gonna see something new wait until you see wait until you see oh my i'm loading it up loading it up it's gonna be boom boom boom boom i got the documentary series coming from the usa experience it's called the mountaintop wow yes so you're gonna you're gonna get those episodes are going to be coming i also documented my trips and travels in south america those are going to be coming great on definitely go to south america rio best city i've ever been to in my life amazing 11 out of 10 highly recommend it and also in my phonies first i have like eight videos ready to go i just haven't like put them out because i've been a little busy you know with the whole like usa travel thing i was kind of like trying to be as in that moment as i could you know so but yes the uh the youtube channel will be will be up and activated very very shortly very very shortly so make sure all you guys uh subscribe and my my mother so i'm going off my mother's advice and some of my friends like they didn't want it to be called swiss so it's just nigel hayes davis nigel underscore hayes like my instagram to keep the continuity so when you go to youtube you will see all the videos and channels is going to be a lot of fantastic tremendous content i just talked to uh to uh chema monique about it too he's uh i asked him to like hey bro give me the secrets it's just consistency that's all it is and then again it's no surprise the most important thing in this entire world is consistency because if your heart doesn't consistently pump you die that's it consistency it's all you need to be consistent you can move mountains oh yeah man i appreciate you uh i appreciate you taking time yo we gonna get a 51 this year to be honest with you i will do my savage i will i will absolutely do my best now that it's kind of like that uh that four minute mile you know like once it's finally once someone finally ran under four minutes they were like oh wait a second so it is possible but uh hopefully it's only possible for me so i want it to be a nigel record for a very long time no i appreciate you taking time man uh you know drop these jewels and uh sit down for this interview obviously we're gonna get everything out but uh but man safe travels back to uh back to turkey enjoy the the rest of the time that you got you got at home with the fam and uh you know we're gonna be we're gonna be watching and pushing for you man i i i appreciate it i will do my absolute best thanks for uh taking the time and sitting down with me and thinking what i got to say is important the greatest human act is to inspire so i try to do it as often as i can thank you so much nigel it really was a great conversation thank you very much thank you