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Here’s an unobvious fact for you: the regime of a top athlete is not just gyms and massages. Many guys use their leisure time doing things that would make the eyes of the normal fan pop.

A business that doesn’t tolerate days off

Believe me, sitting on a multimillion-dollar contract and doing nothing is more boring than watching the fourth quarter of Detroit in November. That’s why almost every second player in the league has their own business. Someone is modest, someone is quite serious. Kevin Durantfor example, is up to his ears in technology and media. His company, Thirty Five Ventures, has invested in dozens of startups. From food delivery apps to virtual reality platforms, the list is impressive.

What about those who want to chew? James Harden once spent a fortune on nightclubs. Now he spends time on his own restaurant chain. And not just a “star restaurant”, but really trendy places in Houston and Phoenix. He makes up his own cocktails, seriously. He enters the kitchen and tells the chef, “I want it to be spicy and sweet at the same time,” and the chef turns his head. Remarkably, a lot of athletes become tough businessmen. Simply because they are accustomed to taking risks and getting up at five in the morning.

High stakes: Michael Jordan vs. poker

And of course, speaking of business and excitement, we must not forget Michael Jordan. His passion for poker is already part of the legend. He doesn’t just play casinos for fun – he participates in poker tournaments worth millions of dollars. While most people struggle to find a hobby – like hunting for a $10 minimum deposit casino just to feel a little thrill without going broke – Jordan has never needed small stakes. It’s just that now there are no twenty thousand spectators, no final siren and no championship ring at stake. But the competition remains the same. And he adores it.

When fathers are more important than titles

The stars rarely advertise it, but the family eats 80% of their time. Steph Curry? Yes, he throws his balls. But his wife’s Instagram is full of videos of him taking his daughters on carousels. Or trying to braid their hair. This is not PR. He just doesn’t want to be the dad on the phone screen.

Charity – but without ties. Chris Paul doesn’t just transfer money. He sits down with guys from poor neighborhoods and explains that math is more important than three-piece sneakers. And Giannis Antetokounmpo built playgrounds in Greece and Senegal with his own hands. He brought paint and balls and stayed there with the locals until nightfall. He was selling on the street. He remembers how one playground turned his life upside down.

Video games, fashion, and weird hobbies

Okay, enough about the serious stuff. Let’s face it: many NBA players are nerds. In a good way. Ben Simmons plays on Twitch between 3 and 4 times a week. He battles Call of Duty with regular guys, curses when he is killed, and laughs when one of his teammates yells into the microphone: Simmons, drop the basketball, you are better at the game. Devon Booker loves to play, too, but he’s a fan of League of Legends. They say he even took his laptop with him to away games in Cleveland.

What about the style?

When Russell Westbrook was still a player of the Thunder, he transformed the entrance of the arena into his own podium. He was dressed in a manner that he was not awaiting the onset of parquet floors, but he was posing in Vogue. See-through pants, shoulder bags, glasses that aren’t even worn in movies about the future. And it’s working – his fashion columns are out on Vice. A large number of Zoomers are increasingly scrutinizing the sneakers of players and not the statistics. It is ironic that even LeBron, who can simply dress in sweatpants, uses a personal stylist.

A quiet routine that no one writes about

The most boring and the most important. Do you know how much Joel Embiid sleeps? It’s eleven o’clock. Every night. Plus two hours in the afternoon, if there is a window in the schedule. He works with a sleep therapist, can you imagine? This is not laziness. It’s a tough discipline. Players pay tens of thousands of dollars to nutritionists to tell them when to have a protein bar and when to have only a kale (it’s such a green thing, yes).

Cryotherapy, bandages, and massages with anti-gravity boots are not the future; this is their Tuesday. Some, like LeBronspend half a million dollars a year on recovery. He has a pressure chamber and two-foot freezers at home. Friends come to visit and think, “Dude, you have a secret lab here, not a refrigerator.” But this is what makes it possible to play at the top level at the age of 38, when the rest are already working as commentators.

Conclusion

Athletes are the same people. They just have more money and less free time than they seem to have. They also hang up the phone, quarrel with their spouses over unwashed dishes, and are afraid that their children will grow up and say, “Dad, you were always on trips.” The only difference is that their “doing nothing” is usually an investment, charity, or another hour in the pressure chamber.

And when the parquet cools down,n and the cameras turn off, each of them is just looking for the right balance. Between money and happiness. Between fame and ordinary human warmth. And sometimes this balance is more difficult to find than to throw a bow with a deviation one second before the siren. But they’re trying. And that, damn it, is worthy of respect.