How NBA legend Tracy Mcgrady stays fit with 43.

Nowadays, Tracy Mcgrady enjoys his basketball from the sidelines. The NBA legend, which is now over 40 years old, leaves the highlight roll jams of a new generation of highly flying one-on-one players who participate in his groundbreaking basketball startup The Ones basketball league.

Apart from occasional informal shootings with his sons and their Aau teams, T-MAC says that he rarely takes a basketball into his hand. But if you look at your still slim 6’8-inch frame, the seven-time NBA-All-Star still radiates the mood of being when there was a one-to-one match be unstoppable everywhere on the square. And to a certain extent, Mcgrady agrees with this assessment.

"Obviously I'm not as fast and quick as I was," says Mcgrady. "I can no longer blow past you or raise myself over you, but I can still create space and give up my shot, and you can't do anything about it."

He does not brag, although more than a decade has passed since the end of his injury-plagued NBA career. Mcgrady says that he was as fit today as when he achieved consecutive NBA titles in 2003 and 2004.

He attributes his physical resolution to a unique training routine: Burpees, that generally dreaded condition exercise At which you crouch, crouch, hit your legs back to a plank and then jump into a standing position again. He always does that. But the results speak for themselves because it stays close to his NBA weight.

"After I had retired, I just tried different workouts to see what makes me actually go to the gym and train," he says. "Now I have found something that I really love. In the beginning it was a challenge, but I love it because it keeps me slim. And I love how my body feels."

Mcgrady does not work on a comeback, instead he is quite enthusiastic in his role as the creator of the OBL, which concludes a successful opening season on Friday and Saturday, July 15th and 16th, with the main prize of the league of $ 250,000 at the OBL Finals in Henderson, NV. Mcgrady's vision of an elitist one-on-one league was quickly strengthened by a television contract with showtime networks.

"There are plenty of unused talents out here," says Mcgrady. "And as a basketball fan and non-basketball fan, I could find this talent to place a platform on a platform on a platform where we actually talk when we look at it."

What it needs to rule the obligation court

In his opinion, the scouting report would look like Tracy McGrady: "Everyone can lock me up today," says Mcgrady, "for the best T-MAC, the report would probably say that it is best to go right. As right-handers, most of us are happy to drive on the left, because we are much stronger and more convenient. We feel more comfortable for dribbling. Complete with the left hand ... I got so strong when I went to the left that I was not so good with my right. [Laughs]

In the obligation you win a game with seven points and there is a reason for this, says Mcgrady: entertaining value "If you play up to 11 or 15, this is not a product that you want to see, especially not in one.

What does it take to win the main price? According to Tracy Mcgrady, the ninth overall selection of the Toronto Raptors in the 1997 NBA draft, the athlete must be "a little different". You are on your own, no teammates that support you, so you have to be rounder than you think. You need a list of skills, from gunfight, ball handling and footwork to game defense.

The prototypical player, he says, would be similar to the NBA Allstar Kyrie Irving. "Everyone knows that," he says. "If you look at the NBA, you know that Kyrie is a problem-in one-on-one, his skills are unmatched."

Out of love for Burpees

Nowadays, Tracy Mcgrady says that he is wearing around 238 pounds these days, more than eight pounds in the NBA more than in his active days. He doesn't do it Hold on a strict diet, with occasional burger or pizza days in a row. In his house in Houston, Mcgrady has a fully equipped gym that goes hand in hand with a full size basketball field. He uses neither of them and instead allows his children's Aau teams to use the space.

He only attributes his physical transformation after basketball. This is all he does, and although he admits that the unique training program may not be for everyone, 15 to 20 minutes a day is everything he needs for him hold the weight. The best thing is that his minimal training program not only contributed to his solid form, but also contributed to eliminating some of the injuries that plagued him throughout his career.

"I found that it actually contributed to strengthening my back," says Mcgrady. "You know, I had my whole career long pain and was operated on immediately after my retirement. I still had some persistent pain, but I have always noticed that my back is stronger. I don't have this pain with certain movements. My legs have become stronger.

He has tried various splits, four sentences a minute are a routine each, in which he says that he can create between 15 and 18 repetitions per minute. Another time he performs the burpee leader style, starting with 10 burpees, then nine, up to one and back to 10. Some of the Aau fathers begin to notice his burpee workouts, most of them even refused to take part in the workouts with an NBA legend.

"Some of them see me Burpees and say: I hate doing them, brother," he says. "Well, I hated her too. But I came to the point where I loved how they made me feel and how I looked in the mirror. I love what I see."

His advice. Try it out: "It is a mental thing. If you could overcome your hatred of you and just try it out and see what results you can achieve. From a mental point of view it can change your opinion and you will fall in love with you."

Another T-MAC tip: start slowly and build consistently. "Start with a set of five burpees and then probably make four or five sets or something, just to see how you feel. And then you just gradually increase it until you make 10 burpies. It is a progress to get to the point where you really love to do it."

Tracy Mcgrady and a league for the latest generation

Tracy Mcgrady gives the OBL opening season great success. His vision developed from the endless barbershop and barroom battles who is the best. Would it be Jordan? Kobe? KD? LeBron? Even Mcgrady's name appears in conversation more well than ever before. The idea was finally realized when the league started in February and now ended with the final this weekend.

Another inspiration for the league was the lack of interest that his sons found Layden and Laymen when they looked at NBA games for a full 48 minutes. As a father, Mcgrady understands this, even if his children like to yawn at some of his most memorable performances, such as Z in 33 seconds. And he agrees.

"I worked at ESPN for four and a half years, and part of the job was to go to the NBA finals," he says. "It was when Steph Curry and LeBron James and Klay Thompson approached it. My sons love basketball, but they never asked me if they could go to the final with me. They have not missed a game since the obligation."

Mcgrady says that the obligation model of the rapid and uninterrupted action drives the games forward quickly. And keep the excitement on a maximum.

"Nowadays it is only short content," says Mcgrady. "So I understand that you don't have the tolerance to sit down for two and a half hours. I understand. I understand that is just another day and another age, just like when I played in the NBA, it is not the same as now. Things have changed. It is about finding out what is working for younger children."

Mcgrady is now bragging about the brilliant future he expects from OBL in year 2 and beyond. In the near future he expects an expansion of the league, hopefully at an international level and beyond.

"We will write history - the obligation will be here for a long time," says Mcgrady. It will be a staple in sports. And for five years I am looking for obligation to run on a global level. Hopefully one day we can organize the Olympiad. "