“When you’re out there, that’s when you play at your best,” he said.
That focus, Hartenstein said, helped him go from role player to starter for a 50-win Knicks team that earned the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs — and it made him will likely net a significant raise over free agency. market this summer. He averaged 7.8 points and 8.3 rebounds during the regular season and was the mainstay of the NBA’s ninth-ranked defense.
Hartenstein is among a growing number of NBA players who are embracing meditation, which was first popularized in the league by Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson. The “Zen Master” led the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers to 11 NBA championships between 1991 and 2010 while regularly leading team meditation and yoga sessions and emphasizing the importance of mindfulness.
These days, players who regularly practice meditation can be found in every corner of the league, from stars such as Lakers forward LeBron James and Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray to actors such as Phoenix Suns forward Royce O’Neale and the Sacramento Kings. guard Mason Jones.
In a sport that glorifies the workaholic, in which success is often measured in pools of sweat, a player taking a moment to step back and focus on his breathing might seem strange. But for some, bringing mindfulness to the field could be the difference between a good game and a bad one.
And as the NBA playoffs heat up, the spotlight on player performances will become even brighter, highlighting the importance of finding peace under pressure.
“I started to notice that a lot of things in sports are actually a lot more mental than physical,” Hartenstein said. “I noticed that meditation helped me to be more present in everyday life, but also more present during play.”
Hartenstein began meditating during the 2020-21 season while with the Nuggets after reading two books: “Mind Gym” by Gary Mack and “The Mindful Athlete” by George Mumford, the sports psychologist who worked with Jackson’s Bulls and Lakers teams. . These days, in addition to his pregame routine, Hartenstein practices meditation for about 15 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening using the Headspace app. Sometimes, if he notices his mind racing on the field, he takes a few meditative breaths during a break in the action, without closing his eyes.
“You probably won’t be able to see it unless you really pay attention to it,” said Hartenstein, who helped the Knicks take a 2-0 lead over the Philadelphia 76ers in their first-round playoff game. “I’m going to take a long breath in, then at the very end, you take another inhale, then you exhale. I will do this one to three times. It helps me refocus.
Jones, who split his time this season between the Kings’ main team and the Stockton Kings, the franchise’s G League affiliate, also turned to mindfulness to stay grounded on the court — and to find calm in the middle of the mix-ups between the two teams.
Before every game this season, whether with Sacramento or Stockton, Jones would find a quiet room, sit in a chair and, for 10 minutes, take deep breaths in and out. He also practiced mindfulness during games: In the third quarter of Stockton’s G League playoff game against the Santa Cruz Warriors this month, Jones felt his mind wandering. During a pause, he closed his eyes and took five deep breaths. Then, with 11 seconds left in the fourth quarter, he beat the shot clock buzzer with a three-pointer that gave the Kings the lead for good.
“Before you get angry, breathe. Before you make a decision, take a breath. Close your eyes and breathe,” Jones said of the mindset that helped him return to the NBA in February after a two-year stint overseas.
O’Neale, who played an average of 25.1 minutes for the Suns after a midseason trade with Brooklyn, also has a routine: He meditates the day before games, then in the locker room about a half hour before the first advice. He lies down on the locker room floor, listens to a playlist of “spa music” and spends five minutes breathing deeply. This helps it block out crowd noise once the game starts.
“It’s like they’re not even there,” O’Neale said.
The debate around mental health in the NBA has changed over the past decade, with several teams now employing mental performance coaches. Erwin Valencia, who served with the Knicks in that capacity, helped bridge the gap between Jackson’s era and the modern era.
In 2014, Jackson was hired as team president of the Knicks. The following year, Valencia, then the team’s director of training and conditioning, suggested to Jackson that the Knicks incorporate meditation, Valencia said. He had grown up idolizing Jackson and described their relationship as similar to “Luke Skywalker and Yoda.”
“We started with him doing these meditations whenever he was in New York,” Valencia said of Jackson. “It ruffled the players’ feathers a bit because he was doing it at odd times. … He would introduce himself and say, “This is the day we do meditations. And the players came out of training completely sweaty. They were like, “What are we doing? Some of the younger players were like, “What does this old guy want us to do?” »
Valencia came up with a plan to make meditation more accessible to gamers of this generation who were glued to their phones. He arranged for the team to have free access to Headspace, which launched in 2012 and had not yet gained popularity.
Jackson and the Knicks parted ways in June 2017, but Valencia continued to help players embrace mindfulness. The rest of the league also began to gain momentum: Valencia’s relationship with the founders of Headspace paved the way for the app to establish a relationship with the NBA, and in 2018 the league entered into a partnership with the app: All NBA players and employees were granted access to Headspace and the league produced guided training videos for the app.
In the years that followed, Valencia led the Knicks in breathing sessions before practices and games. Some players rolled their eyes, including veteran forward Julius Randle, Valencia said. Randle won the league’s Most Improved Player award in 2020-21, but after his play dipped the following season, he contacted Valencia about incorporating meditation into his daily routine.
At the start of the 2022-23 season, MSG Network showed footage of Valencia leading Randle in a pregame meditation from the Knicks bench in the minutes before a game at Madison Square Garden. Their routine, which started with Randle rubbing an essential oil blend on his wrist, continued throughout the season, and Randle excelled: he averaged 25.1 points and 10 rebounds and was named to the All-NBA Third Team.
Valencia also guided Hartenstein and former Knicks forward Obi Toppin in pregame meditations, he said. He left the Knicks after last season, but his influence remains: Besides Hartenstein, Randle continued his pregame meditations before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury in January.
“When you’re an athlete, you have to train to find calm in the midst of madness,” Valencia said. “If you’re so used to doing a meditative practice, or a mindfulness practice, all the time in the middle of silence, then as soon as you go out, you’re overwhelmed, and especially in the Garden.
“Having constant practice in a space of madness, while having practice in a space of peace, allows you to find that peace within the madness. »
Before Game 2 against the 76ers on Tuesday, Hartenstein sat quietly on the bench, eyes closed as his teammates shot jumpers. About three hours later, with New York trailing in the final minute, he raced past several defenders and grabbed the offensive rebound that led to Donte DiVincenzo’s go-ahead three-pointer with 13 seconds left. On the next possession, he blocked Philadelphia guard Tyrese Maxey’s layup attempt, sending the Garden into pandemonium and preserving what would become a 104-101 Knicks victory.
Hartenstein raised his fist and roared. His eyes were wide open.
