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Being an elite athlete requires extreme talent, a lot of hard work, and quite a bit of luck. This tends to make those that make it to the top a little quirky in their ways. Finding ways to stay consistent is something most human beings struggle with, but for athletes, it's not an option. And that leads them to some truly wild habits.
Some players listen to certain music during their workouts to get themselves going. A lot of the NBA's culture is informed and influenced by rap and hip-hop, which is predominantly what plays in most locker rooms. Then there's Jimmy Butler and his love for country music. And in a recent Bloomberg piece, trainer Jacob Neely revealed that one of the athletes he worked with was obsessed with a Rihanna song for a whole year.
"One of Neely's clients listened to Rihanna's Work on repeat for a full year of training. Played 17 times an hour each week for 12 months, that's over 70,000 times the titular lyric was uttered."
Now, it's true that Rihanna does have some excellent music, but listening to just one song 17 times in an hour for a whole year might just be unfathomable to even her biggest fan. It could certainly be worse though, it could have been a song the player didn't even like, something that happened to another trainer, Damon Goddard's client.
"Another of Goddard's players once listened to Post Malone before he put up a career-high in points scored. 'Now he has to listen to Post Malone every time before he goes out on the court, and the worst part is, he hates Post Malone.'"
There will be certain things that will always be difficult for people to understand, but that's what sets the best athletes apart from the rest. The ability to do whatever it takes to get the job done, however crazy it might sound, is necessary to be a top player. And it could be worse than that, at least these players probably wash their socks, unlike some others.