Packed with creatine, electrolytes, and protein powders, there are all sorts of beverages on the market that claim to help athletes perform at their peak physical ability at all times. But for the Utah Jazz’s Boris Diaw, the OG energy drink—espresso—still gets the job done better than all the rest.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Diaw, who was recently traded from to the Jazz from the the San Antonio Spurs, has started a “coffee club” with his new teammates, brewing coffee for the rest of the players and frequenting a new cafe in every city the club travels to.
The French-born bigman is apparently so addicted to caffeine that he goes to a Utah coffee shop every day, keeps an espresso maker in the team’s locker room, and is working on getting a second machine for Vivint Smart Home Arena. As a Spur, his personal espresso machine was so legendary that fans would ask him to sign their own coffee-makers.
While his reputation has grown over the years, the 34-year-old Diaw’s addiction to caffeine was evident from his early days in the league. According to the Journal, he had a cappuccino in his hand as he arrived for his very first NBA workout, and started a similar coffee club with the Spurs despite fellow Frenchman Tony Parker’s near-blasphemous love of hot chocolate. When news broke earlier this year that Diaw—who often nicknames himself “Borista” on Instagram—would be joining the Jazz, his new teammates welcomed him with a flurry of coffee cup emojis.
Though Utah offers a new set of challenges for Diaw’s devotion to the coffee bean (caffeine technically isn’t taboo for Mormons, but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ has banned all “hot drinks”), the power forward seems undeterred. Soon he plans to try kopi luwak—a drink made from coffee beans that have been partially digested by cats and elephants. 2 Chainz tried the rare beverage during a recent episode of his web series, Most Expensivest Shit.
“I heard about that,” Diaw told the Journal, “and was like oh I gotta try it.”
Maybe some kopi luwak will be the secret potion needed to get the Jazz through the playoffs this year.
[via WSJ]