LOS ANGELES — The NBA Summer League game was not yet over when Norman Powell walked over to a collection of Clippers executives last July. It was after 9 p.m., a time when many in the city are just beginning their nights. But the 6-foot-2 guard was saying goodbye, headed to the offseason home he keeps miles from the Strip. He had to be up early.
By 6 a.m., before the sun had risen and heat radiated across the desert, Powell was on a court inside a gym. Five days a week in the offseason he completed three daily workouts. The first concerned basketball. The second, before lunch, was reserved for lifting weights. The third usually alternated between hot pilates or boxing.
Powell has never lacked motivation. He studied his family’s copy of “Michael Jordan to the Max” and videos of Kobe Bryant as a child until he’d memorized his idols’ moves, then mimicked them on a court behind a liquor store near the family’s east San Diego home until they were his own. His right forearm bears the tattooed letters U-T-G, standing for Understand The Grind, the motto he has turned into a brand. On his right shoulder is inked “Philippians 4:13,” a bible verse that reminds him no obstacle is too big to handle.
