The Globe and Mail - 06.11.2019

WEDNESDAY,NOVEMBER6,2019 | THEGLOBEANDMAILO REPORTONBUSINESS | B19

N

ew York Knicks coach Da-
vid Fizdale has a lot of
faith in guard RJ Barrett.
The amount of floor time the
prized rookie has logged so far in
his first NBA season is proof of
that.
Barrett, a 19-year-old from Mis-
sissauga, is averaging 37.1 min-
utes a game, fourth among all
players heading into Tuesday’s
contests. On Sunday, he played a
gruelling 40 minutes 44 seconds
in the Knicks’ 113-92 loss to the
host Sacramento Kings. A good
chunk of those minutes came in
the fourth quarter, with the game
out of reach for the Knicks.
At a postgame news confer-
ence, a reporter had the temerity
to ask Fizdale why Barrett was
toiling on the floor during the dy-
ing minutes of a game when the
result was assured. The Knicks
coach did not appreciate the line
of questioning.
“He’s got the day off tomor-
row,” Fizdale snapped.
“We’ve got to get off this load
management crap,” he contin-
ued after a long pause. “Latrell
Sprewell averaged 42 minutes for
a season. This kid is 19 years old.
Drop it already.”
The load management con-
cept Fizdale mentioned refers to
the recent trend of giving players
time off – usually entire games –
to manage their workload
through a tough 82-game season
so they are prepared for the con-
densed grind of the postseason.
However, whether giving Bar-
rett a deserved rest for the fourth
quarter of Sunday’s game would
have qualified as load manage-
ment is debatable. Allowing star
players a breather late in games
that have already been decided
has been standard procedure for
some time.
While there are certainly times
when coaches need to lean on
their best players a little more
than normal, it’s arguable that an
early-season blowout between
two struggling teams doesn’t
quite rate. Especially seeing as
the Knicks were coming off a
hard-fought 104-102 loss in Bos-
ton on Friday, a game in which
Barrett played more than 39 min-
utes.
Barrett had 22 points, four re-
bounds, three assists, a steal and
a block in the loss to the Kings,

another good line for the star

rookie. But his fourth-quarter

numbers suggest he might have

been better suited with some

rest. He hit just one of four shots

and had a turnover after coming

in with 9:06 remaining in the

quarter.

Still, for a Knicks team (1-6)

desperate for any reason to be ex-

cited, the third-overall pick in

this year’s draft has so far deliver-

ed. Barrett is averaging 18.3

points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.3 as-

sists a game while playing big

minutes, and his three-point

mark of 35.7 per cent – slightly

above the league average – is a

pleasant surprise.

“I think he’s been fantastic for

a rookie. Having a lot of respon-

sibility put on him, I think he’s

taken it in stride and doing a

great job with it,” Fizdale said.

Barrett doesn’t seem to have a

problem with his heavy work-

load, shrugging when reporters

asked him about it following

Sunday’s game.

“I’m 19,” he said with a laugh.

“I’m good.”

DREAM COME TRUE

Canadian cousins Shai Gilgeous-

Alexander and Nickeil Alexan-

der-Walker met in an NBA regu-

lar-season game for the first time

Saturday, and Gilgeous-Alexan-

der proudly tweeted a picture of

their jersey swap after the game.

“We used to pray for times like

this,” Gilgeous-Alexander posted,

“and of course [Alexander-Walk-

er] had to show off his tats. Love

you kid.”

Gilgeous-Alexander, born in

Toronto and raised in Hamilton,

came out on top on the score-

sheet. He scored 23 points and

added eight rebounds as his Ok-

lahoma City Thunder beat Alex-

ander-Walker’s New Orleans Pel-

icans 115-104. But as the older

cousin noted, Alexander-Walker

had the better ink game. The roo-

kie from Toronto showed off an

impressive chest-covering tattoo

centred by a large crucifix.

THOMPSON GUN

The Cleveland Cavaliers have

been leaning on Tristan Thomp-

son to provide more offence

early this season, and so far the

big man from Brampton, Ont.,

has obliged. While it’s only a six-

game sample size, the centre-for-

ward has been averaging 16.5

points while firing 13.7 field-goal

attempts a game so far in this

campaign. That’s well up from

his career averages of 9.2 points

and 7.1 attempts. He’s also get-

ting it done on the glass, averag-

ing four offensive rebounds a

game.

MAN IN THE MIDDLE

Dallas Mavericks starting centre

Dwight Powell is starting to

round into form after missing the

first three games of the season

with a left hamstring strain. The

Mavs eased him back into the li-

neup in his return Tuesday in a

win over Denver, as he finished

with four points in 13:34 of ac-

tion. He improved his output to

14 points in a 119-110 overtime

loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on

Friday, though he missed a free-

throw that could have put the

Mavs up by four with time run-

ning out in regulation.

Powell should be a key con-

tributor to the Luka Doncic– and

Kristaps Porzingis-led Mavericks

this season. Mavericks coach Rick

Carlisle is a fan of the Toronto-

born Stanford grad, who signed a

three-year, US$33-million con-

tract with the team in July.

CHECKING IN

New York’s Ignas Brazdeikis

made his NBA debut in Sunday’s

loss to the Kings. The Lithuanian-

born forward from Oakville, Ont.,

had four points and an assist in

4:11 of playing time. ... Centre

Khem Birch is in line for signif-

icant playing time with the Or-

lando Magic, who are easing sec-

ond-year player Mo Bamba back

into action as he recovers from a

stress fracture in his left leg. The

Montrealer played 22 minutes in

the Magic’s game Friday against

Milwaukee, and he is expected to

split back-to-back games with

Bamba for the foreseeable future.

... Minnesota forward Andrew

Wiggins tried to fill the void cre-

ated by star Karl-Anthony

Towns’s two-game suspension

with mixed results. The Vaughan,

Ont., player had 21 points, five re-

bounds and six assists in a 131-109

road win over Washington. He

followed with a 25-point and two-

block performance in a 134-106

loss to visiting Milwaukee.

KEEP AN EYE ON

Barrett and the Knicks play host

to Thompson and the Cavaliers

on Sunday. Thompson, a fourth-

overall pick in 2011, was named to

the NBA all-rookie second team

in his first season. Barrett, a fel-

low star from the Region of Peel,

looks like a good bet to earn a

spot on an all-rookie squad in his

inaugural campaign.

THE CANADIAN PRESS

RookieBarrettlogsheavytimeforNewYork

KnickscoachFizdale

dismissesquestions

aboutconceptofload

management,praises

19-year-oldCanadian

TheKnicks’RJBarrettplaysagainsttheSacramentoKingsonSundayinNewYork.Heplayedagruelling40minutes44seconds.KATHYWILLENS/AP

CURTISWITHERS

C

anadian goalkeeper Erin
McLeod is no stranger to
beating herself up over mis-
takes made on the field.
But over the years, the 36-year-
old soccer star from St. Albert, Al-
ta., has learned to better handle
setbacks. She has drawn from
coaches, sports psychologists,
her own experiences and more
than a few self-help books.
The result is the Mindful Pro-
ject, a mindfulness program de-
veloped in tandem with Bethel
University professor Rachel Lind-
vall. The goal is to help focus
more on positive thoughts while
moving past negative ones.
“I’ve been playing soccer for-
ever, literally,” McLeod said with
a laugh. “And it’s just tools that
I’ve learned along the way.
“I look back at my own career
and I’ve been so hard on myself
for so long. And I thought, ‘Well
what if I never had to, like, un-
learn?’ Because I’m finally enjoy-
ing the game a little bit more. I’m
still hard on myself but I’m
laughing and enjoying it more
and embracing mistakes and see-
ing them as growing opportuni-
ties.
“And I thought, ‘What if I nev-
er had to reverse that process.
What if I could just learn about
myself, learn how my mind
works?’ Mindfulness is essential-
ly not judging the thoughts that
come in and out of our minds,
just accepting them.”
They started it with an eye to
children aged 6 to 12, “so that
they can get the most out of their
mind and not have to move back-
ward once they reach adult-
hood,” McLeod explained.
It has since expanded to pro-
grams for sports clubs and adults,
with the course having under-
gone refinements from test runs.

McLeod calls it a program “we

hope will empower young people

but also to give them the tools to

deal with anxiety and depression

and outside pressures ... [and]

help them find who they are and

have the strength to follow that.”

The Mindful Project is de-

signed for group use with a mix-

ture of different techniques, in-

cluding guided meditation,

breathing exercises, journalling,

and art- and music-based exercis-

es designed specifically for stu-

dents and athletes.

McLeod has teamed up with

Lindvall, an assistant women’s

soccer coach and assistant pro-

fessor of kinesiology at Bethel

University in Mishawaka, Ind.,

who is nearing the end of her

doctorate in mindfulness.

Lindvall and husband Jamie,

who is head coach of the Bethel

women’s team, often make soc-

cer trips to Europe. One such

journey to Germany led to dinner

with McLeod and the issue of

mindfulness came up.

“So we kind of just started

brainstorming,” McLeod said.

“And we started talking about

when do we actually start cata-

strophizing mistakes and when

do we start learning to be hard on

ourselves and when do we basi-

cally become – not to be dramatic

• like prisoners of our own mind
  in certain things in life?”
  It’s an area of particular inter-
  est for McLeod, and not only for
  herself.
  She is an ambassador for Can-
  ada Scores, a B.C. charity that

provides vulnerable children

with free after-school program-

ming combining soccer, poetry

and community projects.

“I think, as young people, we

focus so much on external things

that it takes us a lot longer to fo-

cus on what’s happening on the

inside,” McLeod said. “And the

anxiety and depression rates for

young people is just skyrocket-

ing.

“This program really is just

about finding who you are and

the beauty and uniqueness that

we all have and to embrace it.”

McLeod is a renaissance wom-

an – an artist, musician and en-

trepreneur away from the soccer

field as well as an LGBT represen-

tative on the Canadian Olympic

Committee’s Athletes’ Commis-

sion. She has won 118 caps for

Canada, with 45 clean sheets, and

played professionally in North

America, Germany and Sweden.

She has also joined Manches-

ter United’s Juan Mata, U.S. inter-

national Alex Morgan and other

soccer stars in digging into their

pockets to help others. They have

signed on with Common Goal,

pledging 1 per cent of their salary

to a central fund that is distrib-

uted to soccer-based charities

around the world.

Mindfulness is part of the Can-

adian national team setup. McLe-

od has also drawn from a slew of

mentors including Canadian

men’s coach John Herdman and

Ceri Evans, a sports psychologist

who has worked with the New

Zealand All Blacks as well as the

Canadian women’s soccer team.

In recent months, McLeod has

been dogged by a foot injury that

kept her out of this summer’s

World Cup.

The injury was initially

thought to be plantar fasciitis but

a specialist diagnosed tarsal tun-

nel syndrome – a painful condi-

tion that sees swelling in the foot

put pressure on the nerve.

McLeod, who played for Vaxjo

DFF in Sweden most recently, is

currently rehabbing her injury.

“I’m going to give it everything

I have for the next year and a half

and see where it takes me,” she

said of soccer.

The Mindful Project is keeping

her busy away from the gym.

“It’s just really cool to see a

five- or six-year-old [talk] about

the joy in their life or what’s hard

for them or that they’re learning

to focus on their breathing when

they start thinking negative

thoughts,” she said. “What we’ve

learned already is kids are a lot

smarter than we give them credit

for.”

THE CANADIAN PRESS

SoccerstarMcLeodtoutsbenefitsofmindfulnesswithnewprogram

ErinMcLeod,seeninVancouverin2015,hasteamedupwithBethelUniversityprofessorRachelLindvallto

launchtheMindfulProject,amindfulnessprogramthathelpsparticipantsfocusmoreonpositivethoughts

whilemovingpastnegativeones.DARRYLDYCK/THECANADIANPRESS

NEILDAVIDSON