MIAMI — The untold story of many Miami Heat newcomers is one of the angst of initiation.
To that end, Norman Powell arrived prepared.
Even as he remains somewhat recovering.
For all the years of Pat Riley’s three-decades-plus franchise stewardship, a constant has been the team’s pre-camp conditioning test. Either meet the required metrics, or keep trying as teammates move on to training camp.
Up and back the length of the court. Ten times. A break. Then again and again, in an ongoing cycle of huff and puff.
That’s where, at 32, Powell put his experience into play after being acquired in July from the Los Angeles Clippers.
Among his first calls after being dealt to the Heat was to former Toronto Raptors championship teammate Kyle Lowry, who himself in 2021 was introduced to all the joys of the conditioning test when he joined the Heat.
“I did my vet stuff,” Powell said. “I learned from Kyle to keep track of your times. That’s how you know you can pace yourself. So every single time I got finished with one of the 10s, I looked and saw how much I had, so I knew how I needed to push myself.”
Piece of cake? Not quite.
“But when I got a good pace and ran with it, I was able to survive,” Powell added with a smile.
He also didn’t shy from the challenge.
There, again, he reflected back on another former Raptors teammate.
“I’ve seen the body transformation with James Johnson, when he went from Toronto to here and how much weight he lost,” Powell said. “As a slim guy, his game went to the next level playing with the Heat. So I like the accountability part of it.”
In a contract year, Powell said maximizing his conditioning — even if forced maximization — made sense.
“I take pride in my body,” he said, with the Heat on Wednesday night taking on the San Antonio Spurs at Kaseya Center in the third of their six exhibitions, “but this is another level that I’ve been trying to get to and reach. So I’m definitely more locked in and focused on my nutrition.”
Eleven seasons in, Powell had heard all the stories, and heard enough to appreciate that the emphasis does not end with the conditioning drill. A classic of those stories is Shane Battier dressing for the first time in the Heat locker room as a 10-year veteran, noting the otherwise chiseled physiques, and recognizing it was going to be either more time in the weight room or not playing skins in shirts-and-skins team pickup games.
“It’s great,” Powell said of both the lore and the law laid down all the way to routine checks of body fat. “Honestly, they’re trying to find any advantage and a lot of the advantage comes within the margins. And when you’re looking at a player’s body type and the science behind being at a certain weight, being at a certain body-fat percentage, it limits your injuries, allows you to recover quicker and it gives you more advantages.
“The lighter you are, the faster you are on the court, the more you’re able to react and stay at that high tempo, that high pace. And they have a heavy emphasis on that. I knew that coming in.”
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His work during the offseason with the Jamaican national team was a warm up for what has followed.
“Credit to playing for the national team and playing more up and down throughout the course of the summer this year, but also knowing I was being traded here and knowing that conditioning test was coming up,” Powell said. “So there was a lot more up and down, track meets in my workouts, making sure that my wind and my conditioning level was at a level to pass the test.”
Riley’s way long has been to push for more from his veterans, appreciating conditioning as a prime means to extend a career.
So, no, Powell appreciates he is not a finished product when it comes to Body-by-Heat.
“I’m working towards it. day by day,” he said. “As I’ve gotten older in this league and learned from the vets in front of me, you want to be ready and ready to go by opening night. That’s where the lights shine the brightest and you want to be ready.
“So it’s working your body into that midseason form as soon as the season starts. And I’m on my way there. I’m in the best shape that I’ve been in coming into camp in a very long time.”
