New Orleans– This week on Pizza and the Playbook, Marcell Scott, owner of Back 2 Basics Basketball Academy and Anthony Davis’ trainer, sits-down with Karen Loftus to talk about AD’s viral drive-by dunk challenge video, his out-of the-box training methods, and why he opened his training facility.
KL: “Is he trying to get you to do it?”
MS: “Oh no. No.”
KL: “You still got those ups?”
MS: “I don’t have no more hops. I left my hops like 20 years ago. So I just like to stick to the training part.”
KL: “Having Anthony Davis as one of the guys you train, do you think that helps? Like when people look to train with you they say, ‘Well he trains one of the top basketball players in the world, he’s got to know what he’s doing.'”
MS: “Yeah, I think it’s a blessing. I’ve been training pros for the last 6 to 10 years now and just having him on my resume is big-time for me.”
KL: “You opened-up your basketball facility Back 2 Basics. What made you want to do that?”
MS: “I was trying to figure out something that was an easy transition for me in terms of what I wanted to do next in my life. I just thought that dealing with the kids and fundamentals and fundamental knowledge– I just always thought that was important.”
KL: “You have some crazy drills that you do? What’s the craziest drill that you’re putting these kids through?”
MS: “We have a levee behind the gym. It’s pretty high. I make them bear crawl up the levee and slow jog down. It’s just something that you have to do and I think that everything that has resistance behind it, I just think that it helps out on the court.”
KL: “So word on the street is, some of the guys you train you might wake them up kind of early.”
MS: “Yeah, I woke up a player at 3 in the morning. I knocked on his door and said, ‘We got to go get that iron. We’ve got to go lift that weight.’ He was like, ‘Nah, not right now.” And I said, ‘Look, you want this? You want to be good or you want to be great?'”
KL: “Alright, final question for you– I know we have this salad here. We’re a healthy eater. But if you’re peer-pressured into eating pizza– like a situation like this– What’s your favorite type of pizza?”
MS: “I think my favorite pizza would be the cheese pizza right here.”
KL: “Alright. Well I’m going to get down to business with this. We can let you eat your pizza and be healthy with it.”
MS: “OK, thank you.”