Farid: In my youth, I was like a coat hanger

Forward "Denver" Kenneth Farid spoke about his nickname, the complexities of the health and the various difficulties encountered in life. - Kenneth, why you accepted an offer to play naked for a special issue of ESPN?- I'm kind of looks good from the outside, and I like my body. I think it was a good opportunity to feel free. I feel like shooting - quite an original way of expression.

This year, Jason Collins has publicly admitted: "I centerline NBA team.'m Black. And I'm gay." I am the first player, who became a member of "Athlete Ally", supporting athletes with different sexual orientations. - How did you get the nickname Menimal? - The guy working with my agent, said once: " Kenneth Farid not just a man - he is a beast animal. So we'll call it Menimal. At first I thought this sounds very strange, but ten minutes later decided that the nickname is not such a bad thing. Even frightening. - Parents in any way put pressure on you when you are not engaged in professional basketball? - The first person to score a slam-dunk by me, was my father. then I was in seventh grade. On that day, he said: "You want to play basketball?." I replied in the affirmative, after which he took from I have the ball and scored from the top, and then said: "If you want to devote his life to the sport, never let this happen again." In my youth, I always want to give up the ring, and not pick up, because everyone wants to score, score points, lead the team to victory, and the other elements of the game, like rebounds, remain in the shadows. then my parents said to me: "If you want to throw in the ring, you must first get the ball, making the selection. Even if you want to just play in the park with the kids, physically superior to you, learn to pick up the ball. "I was filled with the tips and began to follow them. From that moment I was in a rush to make a selection by one and hand out to the right and to the left block shots. - As a mom helped to overcome the difficulties in your way? - All my adult life, my mother is struggling with lupus. It resists disease and continues to live. Having the sight of an example of such courage, I do not focus attention on the various barriers, no matter what they are. I know I can handle them. - What do you love about your body? - My press. This is quite unusual, but as a child I was skinny, yet abdominal muscles were good even then. My favorite exercise: I'm standing, balancing and trying not to fall down on a big rubber ball, and the partner throws the ball to me, I have to catch it. ball flies first left, then right, then the center of the overhead. When this exercise is necessary to concentrate on two things at once, so that at the same time the brain works, and muscles. - What would you change in your body? - I would like to pump up the hips and legs to the game under the basket I could to push their opponents, and not just jump over them. It would be much better if I had enough power to release his way under the hoop. Want a little overgrown meat in these parts, that add new elements to their own game. - What a training exercise in preparation for the season is your favorite? - In the NBA, there is one interesting exercise: you put a small belt on the waist, ankles and wrists, then tied him to the elastic rope and throw the ball into the panel, and you have to jump out and make a selection. During these jump rope pull you down, and very easy to jump high enough to pick up the ball. When I was younger, I Let's get this very difficult exercise, and I do not understand why we do it. - What you most difficult to handle, keeping yourself in good physical shape? - Do not let the appearance of excess weight. I eat six or seven times a day. Can snack Now, then go to the gym, and after it I again want to eat. I have always had problems with being overweight. But it is given by nature, and I am not in any way do not consider this fact somehow a curse. course, would be faster to lose weight than to gain, but that's okay. I eat, you can say all the time. However, beef is used only once a month, and I do not use pork in general, so it's always a lot of Purchase an chicken and turkey.'s not that I always think I will eat and what not, just like eat well. - Have you ever hesitated to your body? - When I was younger, I was like a coat hanger. All that can be seen - this is my collarbone. pectoral muscles as such I was not, so I wanted to pump up a bit to look normal. I thought I was well built, but in fact was no thicker than a toothpick. Somewhere in the 10th grade, has already become more muscular and noticed it's not just me, but and my classmates. I "pumped" his body before the basketball season, which helped me to collect rebounds packs and weigh block shots. My height was 187 cm, the year I grew about 5 centimeters. As my mother, I rise at the same time with flowers. - Do you have any fears with which to contend? - I am sometimes concerned about the thought that I was too low. Currently, my height 203 cm, whereas the majority of players in my position, power forward by five centimeters, and even more, above. I played for quite a modest team, so people said that I could not compete with the "Florida", "Kentucky" or "Louisville." Maybe I really could not play with them as equals, but I waved off from these conversations, and continued to move forward. believe that I can play better than any opponent. - Whose examples stand in front of your eyes? - Look at Dennis Rodman: he was not the highest, but he was the best player in rebounds in the league, because do not give in to anyone. Charles Barkley also perfectly able to play in the selection. Could dankovat, throw the race, go to a stroke - was able to do everything. I look at them as role models: they were not the highest, but were legendary players, members of the Hall of Fame. should fearlessly and to feel comfortable with the physical data that you have, focusing on the achievement of goals. - What's in your body bothers you the most? - It is definitely asthma. When my allergies again makes itself felt I can go out for a while. Once, a few years ago, during the game I had an attack, but the inhaler on hand was not there. I could not speak normally, only snorted, I had to drive to the hospital. Now it is no longer such a big problem, but I still suffer from allergies asthma, especially when you come to play on the East Coast, the pollen of local plants are literally killing me. - The most difficult situation that you have faced in your life? - One day My mother's heart stopped due to illness, but doctors saved her. This was the worst thing that happened in my life. Besides, she needed a kidney transplant. transplantation She waited seven years and said that without this surgery she would have had to live in this world for so long. In the same year I was in the NBA and immediately decided to spend money on something to pay for my mother this operation. When the doctor called and said that she would soon take place, I felt a great relief. - What are you think of when you think there is no strength to continue training? - I think of my daughter and my mother. I can not imagine that she said: "Now I can not overcome himself, I give up." Also, I would not like to see my daughter, my father succumb to any difficulties and strives for his dream.