Meet San Antonio Spurs forward Boris Diaw: The Borista
San Antonio Spurs forward Boris Diaw was recently tagged as "tea time" by new teammate LaMarcus Aldridge for the way he takes his time on the court and moves at his own leisurely pace.
It's a great nickname for a player who really deserves one.
But upon learning of it, Diaw didn't necessarily approve of the moniker, telling the San Antonio Express-News that he's "more of a coffee guy."
As if to prove this, Diaw had an espresso machine plugged into his locker after Wednesday night's win against the Utah Jazz:
Who is this person? Why, only the biggest legend the NBA has ever seen. Diaw's on-court characteristics and individual playing style are beyond unique: He's a very large man with a guard's ball skills who can get to his spot against any defender in the league. You could count a list of better passing forwards on one hand (a fact that Diaw reinforced with this spectacular assist during last night's game):
The 33-year-old is quietly having somewhat of a renaissance this season. His assist rate hasn't been this good since 2012 (coincidentally the year he was traded to the Spurs), and his PER hasn't been this high since 2006. He's one of four Spurs to appear in every game this season, and is posting the best field goal percentage of his career.
Espresso is clearly the secret ingredient here, dating back to this fantastic anecdote from an ESPN feature a couple years back:
"Boris walks into the gym one day wearing flip-flops and holding his customary cappuccino, which was a staple for him every morning," Griffin recalled. "It was during pre-draft workouts, so he sees the Vertec [machine] and asks what it is. "We tell him it measures your vertical leap by determining how many of the bars you can touch. He asks what's the highest anyone has ever gone, and we tell him Amare' [Stoudemire] cleared the entire rack. "Boris puts down the cappuccino, takes off his flip-flops and clears the entire rack on the first try. Then he calmly puts his flip-flops back on, picks up his cappuccino and walks away, saying, 'That was not difficult.'"
Drink espresso a couple hours before midnight and you too can ball like an omnipotent angel. All hail "The Borista."
