SAN FRANCISCO — Early Sunday morning, Golden State Warriors’ Kevon Looney moved into a quiet fourth-floor lobby of the Chase Center, where floor-to-ceiling windows afforded an expansive view of San Francisco Bay. The sun was just beginning to burn in a hazy sky as Lonnie propped his iPad on a small metal pole, unfolded his black yoga mat and greeted one of the most important people of his career.
Audio from the iPad. It was the property of Jana Webb, the creator Yoga brand Known as Joga, which she originally envisioned as yoga for athletes. Webb, 47, appeared on a phone call from her home in Toronto wearing a backwards baseball cap. It’s on Lonnie’s phone as Jana Joga.
“How does the body feel?” she asked.
“Really good,” said Lonnie.
Musa Modi, one of Looney’s teammates, was also on the call, calling from his apartment near the arena. It was 8:30 a.m., nearly four hours before Game 4 of Golden State’s first-round playoff series against the Sacramento Kings. Webb spent the next 40 minutes guiding both players through a series of movements designed to loosen their joints, activate their muscles, and center their psyche.
“Reach, reach, reach,” said Looney, who is 6-foot-9, standing on his toes and extending his arms, a small puddle of sweat forming on the carpet below. “Get that fascial tension like you’re trying to hit the net. Wow. Now, wait.”
(Webb was referring to fascia, which is connective tissue throughout the body—not to Facealthough Lonnie seemed to be getting a little nervous there, too.)
Earlier in his career, Looney could not escape injury. But over the past two seasons, he has emerged as Golden State’s strongest player, appearing in every single game for his team. He practices yoga before every game, at home and on the road.
After Sunday’s session, Looney pitched against the Kings, finishing with 8 points, 14 rebounds and 6 assists to help the Warriors win their second straight home game and even the series at two games apiece. In Game 3 on Thursday, he finished with 4 points, 20 rebounds, and 9 assists while helping make up for Draymond Green’s absence due to suspension.
Game five is Wednesday in Sacramento.
“He was always locked into the game plan,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said of Looney. “He’s never wrong. He bounces like crazy. He makes the right decision. The game is so much simpler when Loon is available to players.”
Looney, who won three championships with the Warriors, said his work with Webb helped him deal with the physical and mental challenges of the NBA. These demands only increase in the post-season.
“It’s pretty brutal,” Lonnie said. “Every possession is intense. After the game, I’m just drained.”
At this late point in the season, when players are feeling tired and stressed, game day routines take on extra importance. Players are looking for whatever advantage they can get, especially this year, when injuries to stars like Paul George, Kawhi Leonard and Giannis Antetokounmo are a factor in many series. Some players prioritize naps. Others wear lucky sneakers. Lonnie performs in Joga.
“I love having 30 minutes to be in my body and really see how I feel,” he said.
Lonnie got a head start on yoga when she was a high school senior in Milwaukee. Lou Chapman, who was one of his first basketball coaches, introduced him to Bikram Yoga—also known as hot yoga—when a new studio opened. Lonnie remembered that he barely survived his first class.
“I did a lot of stretching on the mat,” he said. “I felt like a great sports player, but they ruined me.”
Looney’s competitive side has kept him coming back. Also, Chapman had discounted memberships, and wanted to make sure they benefited from the deal.
“I think we went 90 straight days,” said Chapman, 42.
During his only season at UCLA, Looney succumbed to a busy schedule and gave up yoga. After Golden State selected him as the 30th pick in the 2015 NBA draft, he missed most of his rookie year with groin injuries — he had two surgeries to repair left and right labral tears — and later dealt with chronic nerve pain. He broke his collarbone during the 2019 NBA Finals and then had core muscle surgery in 2020. He returned for the 2020-21 season but was disappointed with his play.
“I wasn’t moving like I used to,” he said. “I didn’t have the same impulsiveness or coordination.”
After the season ended, Looney called Dr. Rick Ciberini, director of sports medicine and athletic performance at Golden State, and asked specifically: Did he know any yoga instructors?
Actually, Dr. Celebreni had someone. He connected Looney with Webb, a Canadian who has worked with other athletes for years. Their first virtual session was torn apart.
“I can’t say I loved it,” Lonnie said, “mostly because I had it.”
Webb was harsh in the initial evaluation she sent to Kyle Barbour, the head performance coach at Golden State, citing several areas where Looney’s mobility was limited. But she saw potential, and Lonnie experienced a kind of post-session soreness—in his glutes and abs, specifically—that indicated he had room for improvement.
“We don’t do a lot of long static bookings,” Webb said. “It’s really about replicating the biomechanics of movement in sports.”
Looney worked out with Webb several times a week that summer and then paused their sessions for the start of the 2021-22 season. At the time, Looney thought joga might just be part of his off-season routine.
“But after six or seven games, I felt my body go back to the way it was before,” he said. My back was hurting, and various things weren’t moving either. So I backed off again: “Can we do this on match days?”
By the middle of last season, Looney had become such a believer that he organized a joga session for anyone in basketball operations—players, coaches, and staff—who wanted to learn more. As usual, Webb led the class at a distance. Even from thousands of miles away, she can feel varying levels of interest.
“Draymond cut his toenails during that,” she said, laughing. “I was like, ‘Is this really happening?'”
Moody’s takeaway was confusion. As a teenager in Little Rock, Ark. Get involved in yoga by taking a class at your local LA Fitness. But Webb may have been speaking a foreign language, too.
“She was talking really fast about all these muscles that we’re supposed to activate,” Moody said. “And I’m next to Lon, so I’m just trying to keep it up, and I don’t know what to do.”
But Modi was also intrigued. After spending the next two weeks throwing Lonnie questions about Joga and human anatomy, Moody called Webb. He said, “She gave me the rundown.”
Lonnie invited Moody to join him for his introductory joga session and then paid for all of his classes for the remainder of the season. They have been inseparable buddies from Joga ever since. If a team has a shooting round scheduled for 11 a.m., Looney and Moody will typically meet with their mats on the team’s training ground at 8:30 a.m. for 40 minutes of stretching, lunges, twisting, and breathing.
“I can really tell the difference when I do that no Modi said. “You feel a lot more fluid in your movements. When that ball comes off the edge, you kind of feel like a little Spider-Man.”
After over 200 remote sessions with Looney, Webb finally Both players met for the first time When the Warriors were in Toronto in December to play the Raptors. “That was very special,” said Webb.
On Sunday Webb kicked off their session by having them do a series of breathing exercises.
She said, “Release your jaw for a four.” “Soften the ribs for a count of three. Begin to press down on your lower abdomen for a count of two. Now draw your breath in completely and let it out there. Notice what you’re thinking.”
Before long, Webb had them work through dynamic moves, one after the other. I reminded Moody to keep his fingers spread apart when he’s in the plank position. She urged Lonnie to raise his “pelvic floor”. She indicated the hip joints and femurs, and the lateral and adductor metatarsals.
At the end of it, Lonnie lay on his back, closed his eyes and exhaled.