LOS ANGELES — Baron Davis shifts from one yoga pose to another as Kent Katich, the Clippers’ "yoga coach," guides the veteran guard through a pregame routine in the Staples Center locker room.
Yes, the Clippers have a yoga coach. It’s the kind of thing that might raise eyebrows elsewhere, but hey, it’s Hollywood. Isn’t everyone into those kinds of things out here ? You know, drinking wheatgrass, driving Priuses, doing yoga.
Of course, this is still the NBA, in which Gatorade abounds, SUVs are the ride of choice and yoga has definitely never been a legitimate part of the equation — until now.
Katich isn’t the first person with NBA ties to promote the practice of yoga (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has been a fan since the mid-1970s), but Katich is certainly revolutionizing the way NBA players approach the Eastern tradition.
[+] EnlargeDirk Nowitzki Dirk Schlickman photo Dirk Nowitzki is one of many NBA players who trust Katich’s instruction to assist their playing careers.
He is the only yoga instructor working full-time with an NBA team, currently or — as far as he can tell — in the history of the league.
"I’ve been around a long time," Katich said, "and I’ve never seen it, never heard about it, and it’s the kind of thing that I would have heard of."
The impact of yoga on players is difficult to quantify. The positive results from downward-facing dogs, half-moons and warrior poses are not the kinds of things that show ...