PHOENIX – Buddy Hield was all alone on his end of the PHX Arena court after most of his Warriors teammates had already left for the team bus to the hotel from shootaround.
As more and more of his peers filtered out, the 6-foot-4 sniper continued to take shots from beyond the 3-point line, gritting his teeth in frustration after rare misfires.
That work ethic has been apparent since his days as a high schooler at Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas, when Hield was often seen – as well as one could be seen on grainy security footage – honing his craft at all hours of the night.
“We had cameras in the gym, and they were like, this guy’s in here till like two or three in the morning,” Sunrise coach Kyle Lindsted told this news organization on Monday. “So you say, ‘OK dude, you can’t be in here that late.’ So then he pops up at like four in the morning. It’s like, all right dude, listen, you have to go to school. This is not how a regular person operates.”
That singular determination to keep his skills in peak shape during a late-season shootaround provided a glimpse into the work ethic that has helped Hield contribute to the Warriors’ second-half surge and remain on pace to be the only Warrior to play in all 82 regular-season games.
He would be the first since teammate Kevon Looney did so in both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.
“I know my team needs me every night,” Hield told the Bay Area News Group on Tuesday.
Should Hield play in each of the last three games, he will join a special company of iron men.
Golden State Warriors’ Buddy Hield is on pace to play all 82 games this season. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)After playing in 84 games last season – his time split between Indiana and Philadelphia – the 32-year-old will participate in 166 regular-season games over the past two seasons should he remain healthy.
That would tie him for the fourth-most all-time over a two-year stretch, a mark he shares with 1980s standouts Mike Mitchell and Dave Robisch, and early-2000s frontcourt stars Theo Ratliff and Shareef-Abdur-Rahim, among others.
Hield would stay just four games short of Walt Bellamy, who thanks to a midseason trade in 1968-69 played 88 games during that season, played a preposterous 170 games from 1867 to 1969.
Hield has played in 168 consecutive games, the fifth-highest current streak in the NBA.
“I’m just blessed, man, just being able to take care of my body, being durable, and the more mental part of it. You know, you can play hurt, just not injured,” said Hield, who remarked that he also makes a special effort to maintain a consistent post-workout recovery routine.
He has taken pre-game work seriously as well, with Lindsted remarking that a younger Hield would make a habit of having his shoes and uniform ready long before he arrived at the arena.
He also saw what could have been naptime as an opportunity to learn more about the game. During the team’s lengthy bus rides to games.
Instead of sleeping, he would pepper Lindsted with hoops trivia.
“I know the more you answer questions and ask questions, the more knowledge you receive,” Hield said, those sessions seen as a way to help him develop his basketball IQ.
That work ethic and a sweet shooting touch – which has Hield on the verge of becoming just the fifth player to have seven NBA seasons of at least 200 3-point makes – propelled him to collegiate stardom at Oklahoma and an ongoing NBA career.
Buddy Hield playing with the Bahamian national team (Photo courtesy of John Marc Nutt/10thYearSeniors.com)As his NBA career stretches to a decade, he has remained heavily involved in grassroots basketball in his native Bahamas.
An official ambassador for the country, Hield and fellow compatriot Deandre Ayton have helped give a nation once known for Mychal Thompson and Rick Fox a new generation of NBA players to look up to.
John Marc Nutt is the assistant secretary general for the Bahamas Basketball Federation, and said that the gregarious Hield “never turns down” an opportunity to mentor younger Bahamian players.
And when Hield trains or plays with the national team, he allows any teammate or young player to work out with the personal trainers who have helped keep him healthy.
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Hield anticipates that the next generation of the country’s basketball players, which includes likely lottery pick V. J. Edgecombe, will continue to build the country’s strength as a basketball nation.
The Bahamas is currently ranked 52nd by FIBA, sandwiched ahead of South Korea and below Uruguay.
“Hopefully the guys who are under me, who are brought up, can bring up the guys that are under them too,” Hield said.
Edgecombe and the rest of the Bahaman youngsters can glean plenty of tips from Hield, but how to eat nutritiously is not one of them.
Monster energy drinks and Sour Patch Kids candies are staples of Hield’s diet.
“They say you should eat all of the right things, but if I told you I eat all the right things, I’ve lied to you,” Hield deadpanned. “I eat all of the wrong things.”
Eating “all of the wrong things” has turned out all right for Hield, who is on the precipice of making the playoffs for only the second time in his career.
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