When I sat down with Marreese Speights a few months ago during the NBA "Lockout League" he told me he likes to bowl and play "college football" in his spare time. He hates the snow and thinks THE BOSS is an "eight" on a scale of 1-10 as a rapper. He also went into detail about his number one nap of all-time. However; it's not all naps and bowling for the sharp-shooting big man.
When asked about his health – which hasn't seemed to be the same since the knee injury during his sophomore campaign – he said "I'm feeling good, I'm feeling good." Some Sixers fans may remember what a healthy Marreese Speights means for the team. A healthy Speights can provide a huge spark off the bench, and most definitely drop AT LEAST 20 points and 10 rebounds if inserted into the starting lineup. With only the likes of Spencer Hawes and Nikola Vucevic standing in his way, it's not completely out of the question Speights could win the starting center job at some point this season. I asked him about that in September and this was his response:
I'm going to go into training camp and try and do the best I can do. If I start, I start, if I don't, I don't. I'm not going to be satisfied with sitting on the bench cause I know I'm gonna be out there playing my hardest.
When asked what he needs to do to win the starting job he followed up with this:
I'm just going to go into camp in real good shape.
Sixers training camp is scheduled to start a week from today, and it comes as no surprise that the newly-motivated has already gotten a head start on the grueling conditioning drills Coach Collins is famous for.
Hit the jump for a video of Speezy and "his boys going hard on this conditioning drill" via Twitter. It's intense. You've been warned.