Buddy Hield, the relentless shooter

Looking at him, basketball and the job of a shooter in particular would seem almost easy. Buddy Hield is however not only a sniper, but the 3-point shot remains his weapon of choice.

Tuesday night against the Hawks, he again delivered the demonstration, finishing with six 3-point baskets made in seven attempts, and balls that each found the string without even touching the circle.

“He’s one of the best shooters in the league”summed up his teammate Tyrese Haliburton. “When he is done, he will go down as one of the shooters in the history of this game.”

The vital need to have the ball in hand

Behind what looks like a gift, however, hides an iron discipline, which the player inflicts on himself on a daily basis. With this addiction to the ball, this almost vital need to always have it in your hands.

“You would understand if you could see his daily routine”explained Rick Carlisle on his player. “He lives for the game. He lives for running around getting open shots and trying to put them in. During time outs, if you look at him, he always catches the ball. He is simply fully engaged in his art all the time. We were talking about it recently with Lloyd Pierce. After a timeout, he rushed onto the pitch to grab the ball, spin it around in his hands and take a few shots from close range. We looked at each other and said at the same time: ‘This guy is special’. That’s how we see it.”

Tyrese Haliburton has also witnessed this extreme work ethic on “off” days, when no player is supposed to go to the training room.

“He will be in the gym by himself. There will be rebounders available, but he will tell them to stay out. Sometimes he can stay in the gym all day on his own, shooting, running, rebounding, coming back, flipping it and shooting again. Sometimes he really is like a child. I only have to walk into the gym to see him shoot. His work ethic is crazy.”

Necessary for trust

Training and rehearsals keep him so busy that even his family sometimes has to call him to order, otherwise he’d probably be sleeping at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse waiting for the next game. An attitude that is also a way of being grateful for one’s career and current situation.

“When you love the game so much, all you think about is how you can improve every day, you just want to be successful every day and you feel like it,” he explained. “When you come from where I come from, getting there is very difficult. I really cherish being in the NBA, every day of my life, because you never know when that last day is coming. I want to enjoy it and I don’t want to be like, ‘Oh, I didn’t work as hard as I could’. I often get yelled at by my family for being at the gym. They tell me, ‘You need to rest. You need to spend more time with us’. But I love it so much. Sometimes I’m too selfish and stay in the gym.”

But this obsession with work also gives him the confidence to chain shots without asking too many questions. “It’s about staying humble, working and being at peace”he concluded.