Does lunch tend to be on the heavier side to make up for the light breakfast?
Yeah, I usually have a really big lunch. I’ll keep it light in the morning, fruit or nothing at all. And then I’ll have ginger tea, fruit, and trail mix in between. At about 1 or 2 in the afternoon I’ll just have one big meal. It’ll be a big protein: chicken or something. And the meal itself is just big, too. It’s just a lot of food to where it’s like, this is my one big meal for the day. Some days I’m just going to eat a lot of sushi, you what I’m saying? I started out only eating fried sushi but now I’ll eat pretty much whatever’s there. Or just have some fish or a big mix of things, fruits, vegetables, carbs, whatever. The rest of the day I’ll just be snacking on nuts, have an electrolyte drink or a smoothie or something.
On game days how do your afternoons and evenings tend to play out in terms of training and food?
We shoot around in the morning. I’ll get into the gym and get on the PT table and do an activation where they just activate my ankles. I do these different motions against resistance, open up my hips and my adductors and stuff just to get my legs warm and ready to move—that way I’m not going out on the court feeling stiff.
Once the team gets together, we do our prep: just walking through how we’re going to cover the other team’s offense and what we want to look for in our offense. We’ll get some shots up, move around, get in a little bit of light sweat. And then I go to the back, I get in the cold tub for 15 minutes and then shower. And then we usually have chefs in our practice facility kitchen. I’ll go back there and I’ll have me a stir fry. I’ll get it to go and eat it at home and then I take a nap.
After my nap, I wake up and take a Sprinter to the game. Again, it’s like another activation, but it’s more exertion on the court. 15 minute workout. Weight room for 10 minutes, just a quick lift to get going.
I actually get to chill a little from there and might watch a few of the games on the East Coast that started already in the back. Eventually it’s game time for us so we go out and do our thing.
What’s it like after the final buzzer? Are you doing much recovery work, getting some food back in your system, or hitting the cold tub again?
After the game I shower and do media and then I head home with my family. Once I get home, that’s when I’ll either stop and pick something up or have something pre-made ready for me when I get home.
I’ve got a playlist of just instrumentals that I’ll play on the speaker of my room and I’ll just stretch out a little bit on the floor and wind down. The thing is, once I get home from game I can stay up till 6:00 AM because I’m just so just wired up. That’s not good. I’ll wake up and be just so tired the next day when I got to go to practice. I play this music and stretch and do some breathing and relaxing and I get in bed and lay down and just be ready to go to sleep.
A big part of your appeal to NBA fans is your loyalty to the city of Portland, which you’ve very much made your adopted home. The food scene there has really blown up over the last several years and I know you’ve mentioned in interviews recently that one of the benefits of your surgery and rehab process was getting the chance to just spend time at home with the family and enjoy Portland for an extended period of time. Is there a particular restaurant that sticks out as one of your favorites in the city?
I would say Casa Italia. I gotta give them some love. I always get the rigatoni and prosciutto. Their prosciutto man, with the cheese? Oh my God.
Tres Dean
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