What Did You Want to Just Go as Pb J Again
The league-wide'southward secret recipe to success is out: The NBA and the PB&J go together like, well ... Sharon White/Getty Images hide caption
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Sharon White/Getty Images
The league-wide's secret recipe to success is out: The NBA and the Atomic number 82&J go together like, well ...
Sharon White/Getty Images
It's hardly unusual for athletes, both amateur and professional person, to take pregame rituals. But the NBA's peculiar commitment to one grade-schoolhouse snack goes deep: ESPN Magazine calls the PB&J sandwich the league's "clandestine addiction."
"In every NBA locker room, you lot'll see a variety of dissimilar foods on the table, simply PB&J — if in that location'south a locker room that doesn't have it, I haven't seen it," ESPN reporter Baxter Holmes tells Scott Simon.
In this week'southward ESPN Mag, Holmes dug into how a beginning-grader's lunch concluded up as a locker room staple for professional person basketballers.
The origin of the sandwich's league-wide residence traces back to a 2007-2008 season Boston Celtics anecdote.
Quondam star Kevin Garnett, who'south hailed for revolutionizing the league'south pregame diet, fatefully "decreed one day when he was hungry — later on a fellow teammate also said he was hungry — and wanted a PB&J — that, 'Permit's go on that,' " Holmes says.
And, because Garnett played well that game: "Nosotros're going to need PB&J in here every game now."
"Information technology spread from in that location," Holmes says. "And that's not to say that peanut butter jellies oasis't been consumed by athletes for a long fourth dimension, only I'm certainly talking nearly on a mass-produced scale."
Just in the NBA, where a histrion's body isn't just a temple, but a corporation, it's non the healthiest snack. So why PB&J?
In curt, it'southward a quick, easy-to-brand comfort food that lifts players' mentality. And, as decorated as the athletes are, with "41 road games a yr — they could take poor travel, they could not exist feeling well, traffic," Holmes says, they require something familiar and easily digestible.
Cro-Magnon might not have taken his first footstep in search of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but, Holmes says, "all these components that he was looking for are contained within, it's one of those magical foods in that way and because of information technology, the mental health benefits are what a lot of experts effectually the NBA say is actually 1 of its biggest benefit, just in simply, the opioids are released. Information technology'south calming players down, making them happy. ... At that place are some healthy fats and proteins and that gives them a little scrap of free energy. But the mental side of things, I hateful, it truly is a comfort food."
And these athletes aren't scarfing downwards your average Atomic number 82&J. Within the league, a number of players are known for their preferences.
"Russell Westbrook likes to butter the inside of the breadstuff so put peanut butter on it after it'southward toasted," Holmes relays. Carmelo Anthony likes his on a cinnamon raisin bagel. Latvian-born Knicks actor Kristaps Porzingis hadn't heard of a Lead&J until he was drafted. "I fell in dearest," he told The Wall Street Journal. "I grew upwardly on Lead&J's every bit a kid — it fueled me," Kevin Durant told Nike, amid a sneaker collaboration inspired by the star role player's penchant. "Actually, Lead&J is however my go-to snack."
The NBA'due south culinary obsession has fifty-fifty permeated fashion: Nike created the KD six PB&J Colorways (left), inspired by Aureate Land Warriors' Kevin Durant'south favorite snack, before releasing the KD 7 Atomic number 82&J's (right), designed for youth athletes. Nike Inc. hide caption
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Nike Inc.
The NBA'due south culinary obsession has even permeated fashion: Nike created the KD 6 PB&J Colorways (left), inspired by Golden Land Warriors' Kevin Durant'south favorite snack, earlier releasing the KD 7 PB&J's (correct), designed for youth athletes.
Nike Inc.
Interview Highlights
On whether different teams take dissimilar Atomic number 82&J traditions
Certainly. Then much depends on location, preferences of certain players. The Lakers take theirs catered by Whole Foods, the San Antonio Spurs have theirs catered by HEB Central Market which they have a partnership with in San Antonio. Y'all become up to Portland: Half of their peanut butter and jelly sandwich lodge is toasted because the star player Damian Lillard likes them that way. Yous get up to Milwaukee and they're kind of one of the more interesting operations in the NBA. They practise a PB&J buffet before the games, but the diverseness of nut butters and Nutella, all kinds of jams and jellies, different kinds of breadstuff — they practice peanut butter and jelly shakes, peanut butter and jelly oatmeal, waffles.
On whether the PB&J is a nutritional selection
Nutritionists I've talked to said information technology's not the healthiest snack, but it is healthier than, say, greasy junk food that they might make it loonshit concessions — fried food, hamburgers, whatever the example may exist — particularly if in that location's just a picayune bit of hunger before a game. And then you lot dive a little bit into the scientific discipline of it, and peanut butter and jelly is comprised of various components that humans savour, dating dorsum to basically the Neanderthals when they were craving certain things for survival. Different kinds of fats and proteins and starches and what not, and this marriage of all these essential components are combined into PB&J. So when you ingest one, when yous bite into one, these varied opioids are released. You're happy, nearly people kind of recognize that.
On the Gold State Warriors' Lead&J ban that kick-started the " Swell PB&J State of war of 2015 "
They hired a sports scientist from Commonwealth of australia who wasn't familiar with the peanut butter and jelly fad in the NBA. And he wanted to do away with a lot of unhealthy foods like candies and sodas, cookies, but he included peanut butter and jelly in that umbrella. And when the team got on the team airplane for their outset flight of the year, they saw it was gone and that was the offset shot fired in what became a peanut butter and jelly war between him and the players. Somewhen they got them back and he is no longer employed by the team.
On the Cleveland Cavaliers' practice of keeping the good stuff to themselves
If yous go effectually the NBA, y'all're going to find all these piffling quirks all over the identify when it comes to the peanut butter and jelly. But so they have a partnership with a swain Ohio-based outfit in Smucker's and they provide about a dozen of the company's prepackaged "Uncrustables" Lead&J'southward to opposing teams every dark, even though there are a few teams that have told me they endeavor to keep their players away from those considering they're not very salubrious.
Meanwhile, the Cavs make their own artisanal Atomic number 82&J'southward prior to tipoff with homemade grape and raspberry jelly, almond butter and banana, and peanut butter and banana sandwiches. So they requite the opposing teams one matter and they make themselves something completely dissimilar.
Well there's a whole new insight into how they were able to defeat Gilded State in the terminal few seconds, of course which opens — what kind of Lead&J does LeBron have?
I'm not peculiarly sure on his exact likes, but, I say this with feeling pretty confident, whatever information technology is that they're making, I'm certain he likes. I mean y'all have to remember around the NBA — and I mentioned it earlier with the Portland Trailblazers — if a histrion who's a star on that team has a particular preference, whether it'southward crust or no chaff, a certain kind of bread, a certain kind of jelly, nut butter, any the case may exist — I guarantee you that that team is going to accommodate information technology, and that that'south probably going to be the central reason why they make whatever it is they make.
NPR'southward Emma Bowman contributed to this story. More chiefly, she takes her PB&J with raspberry jam, in betwixt creamy peanut butter on both bread slices a la Lakers' Brandon Ingram.
Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/03/25/521256918/the-pregame-pb-j-how-the-comfort-food-became-the-nbas-recipe-for-success
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