Q&A with the Hoops Whisperer: On Drummond, Gordon, and unlocking potential

When Andre Drummond's Pistons host Aaron Gordon's Magic on Sunday afternoon, it will be a matchup of two of the league's most improved players through the first third of the season.

Gordon, the No. 4 overall pick in 2014, had flashed glimpses of an all-around game over his first three seasons in Orlando, but lacked the consistency, positional fit, and shooting touch to be taken seriously as an emerging star. That's all changed, as the 22-year-old is blowing away his career highs across the board while shooting 49-40-76 and looking more comfortable in the power forward role the Magic should've slotted him in a long time ago.

Drummond, meanwhile, has shown significant growth on both ends and looks much more comfortable with the ball in his hands, as Detroit's franchise big man has handed out more assists through 28 games this season than he had in any full season in his career. He also leads the league in rebounding, and, most notably, is shooting 61 percent from the free-throw line after shooting 38 percent over his first five seasons - a historic mark for all the wrong reasons.

The common thread between Drummond and Gordon is a man named Idan Ravin, a lawyer-turned-basketball trainer whose Rolodex of NBA clients is so impressive, and whose work so effective, it earned him the nickname "the Hoops Whisperer," which is also the title of a book he published a couple years ago.

Ahead of Sunday's Drummond-Gordon clash, theScore caught up with Ravin to discuss his work as a trainer to the stars.

How it all came together

Ravin: It's not like I quit law and then all of the sudden the next day I'm sitting in a room with Carmelo Anthony. It's something that took a very, very long time to get there. I didn't play organized basketball beyond high school, but I always loved the game and knew a lot about it. When I became a lawyer, I wasn't very happy, so I started volunteering with kids - a 12-year-old boys basketball team. Essentially, I just gave them stuff that I had taught myself when I was a kid. It was very unsophisticated back then, but, in time, it grew and became more sophisticated, and I taught myself more, and I learned more, and I tried more and became more experienced. It took a long time to become kind of an expert.

And then really young kids led me to older kids, and bigger kids, and faster kids, and stronger kids. And, over time, I developed a methodology, a philosophy, an intuition. I put things together that I think worked. In time, I grew a business out of something. It was a long process and a lot of struggle and a lot of effort.

How he attracts NBA talent

Ravin: I'm not aggressive and I don't promote that way. I feel like I'd rather things kind of grow organically. Sometimes it's word of mouth, but at the same time, who wants to share their secret sauce? I'm not mad at the players that they don't like to make referrals, because then they know that's one more competitor they have and less time they have with Idan. It's over time, where someone sees you with an athlete, and then they say, 'Man, that athlete got a lot better.' Fortunately, I can be very selective in who I want to work with. There are certain things that I look for. I'm not interested in having 175 people or 120 guys in the gym.

The things he looks for in prospective clients

Ravin: Just the level of thoughtfulness, and care, and love, and diligence. Someone that doesn't have to post a thousand photos of themselves that day talking about how they're grinding. I just think there's something very artificial about that. A level of modesty, and humility, and care - someone decent. But at the same time, talented and athletic.

I kind of like the challenge of when other people have counted them out. You know, like with Andre (Drummond), 'Oh yeah, we give up on him, he's an underachiever. He can't shoot, he can't do blah blah blah.' I love that stuff, because I'm gonna figure it out, we're gonna make this happen, and he's going to live a beautiful life, doing what he loves to do. I'm going to create a solution that no one else has been able to figure out, and I take that as a personal challenge.

The satisfaction of seeing it all come together for Drummond

Ravin: I think people will look at him a certain way, but if you ever spend time with him, he's incredibly bright, creative, thoughtful, and gentle. There's a lot of incredibles behind Andre Drummond. And he's so much better than you even see right now. He's so gifted. Those are things I look for rather than, 'Oh yeah, he's 6-11, 285 pounds.'

I remember working with him to get ready for the draft, and he showed me stuff - and again, I've worked with Blake Griffin, Dwight Howard, Joakim Noah, Tyson Chandler, lots of big men - and there was stuff Drummond did just naturally better than all of them. Teams would ask me about him, and I would say, 'He's so special. He can be revolutionary.' And the conversation to them was, 'Well, he can't shoot free throws.' And I'm thinking, 'Oh my God.'

That's like you telling me you don't like the color of the Ferrari. That's so insignificant to me. Yeah, of course, he's 19, there's lots of things he can't do yet. But I found him to be really special, so to see him do really well this year kind of reinforces what I said to him six years ago, which was, 'Hey man, you're going to be really, really, really special.'

What he was thinking when he watched Gordon drop 41 points (on 14-of-18 shooting) on Brooklyn a couple months ago

Ravin: He could've scored 60. What I saw from (Drummond and Gordon) this offseason - you've seen a sliver of what they can do during the season.

It takes a lot to believe in yourself to the point where you can score 40 points in an NBA game. I don't think people understand that just to believe in yourself enough to take those shots is an achievement. To say to yourself - and this was a lot of his (Aaron's) summer - 'Hey man, you're more than just an athlete.' It's like saying to a Victoria Secret supermodel, 'You're not just a pretty girl. There's a lot more to you than that.' That's part of what I'm proud of (with Gordon and Drummond): that they were able to see that themselves. They're more than just what the surface tells them.

Being able to see potential in skill sets other coaches, media, and execs have given up on, like Drummond's free-throw shooting

Ravin: It requires kind of X-ray vision sometimes, to understand a kid and what he's capable of, and what he's not really capable of, and what he's suited for, and what he really could become. Maybe that's part of my gift, that sometimes I have that X-ray vision.

On not limiting himself to just one aspect of basketball (i.e. shooting coach, conditioning coach, etc.)

Ravin: I don't have a title. I'm just Idan. I understand in the hospitals or the military, we do that, but in everything else, it's unnecessary. My role is very fluid and it includes many, many different functions. I hope that I'm able to touch on a lot of components of their life; that, thankfully, I have enough education to be able to speak to, a lot of experience to be able to speak to, and a lot of intuitions to be able to speak to, so I can fix a lot of things.

I'm very proud of the fact I've worked with multiple Hall of Famers that play point guard, play shooting guard, play small forward, play power forward, and play center. I like to have that variety, to know that I can help lots of different people in lots of different places.

How thin the margin is between superstars and others at the NBA level

Ravin: I think everyone is so gifted. All the stars often have to align. All the variables, all the opportunities, everything has to be just right. Are there small distinctions? Yeah, but in that world, those small distinctions are moon craters. You can look at a Tour de France bicycle and see a speck of dirt and say, 'Oh, that's just a speck of dirt.' But in that world, that speck of dirt is 0.0001 seconds, which could be the difference between a first- and second-place finish. To everyone else, it's a small distinction, but in that world, they're very, very big differences.

Why everyone refers to his methods as 'unconventional'

Ravin: One, I don't hold open workouts, and I'm not an Instagram trainer. I don't do that kind of stuff. I've never understood that level of self-promotion. It's very private. I don't come from the institution of sports, so I can't regurgitate a doctrine that I've never been privy to. What I had to do was look at certain situations and come up with my own novel approach and figure things out in my own way. The part that's non-traditional is the speaker is non-traditional - my background is non-traditional. It's unconventional. All that kind of stuff that I've thought, I put together and make my own soup out of it. I'm not reading a recipe. I'm making my own.

Are some teams uncomfortable with an outsider training their players?

Ravin: Of course, and I don't fault them. They feel that they pay their athletes a lot of money and they should be under their watch, but, fortunately, that's not my problem. That's theirs. My responsibility to the athlete is to deliver, and often times I want to think that these teams should be very lucky that I make those differences to help them in their seasons.

Have you had instances where you realize while training an NBA player the fit isn't right?

Ravin: I'm always grateful for the opportunity, always gracious, and always happy to see them succeed, but it's not always gravy. You only know that in time. You're kind of dating professionally. You want to get a good feel. And again, I know I'm unconventional, I know I'm very tough, and it's creative - it's very hard what we do. So you have to have an open mind and be ready for it, because it's not like what you've done. Not even close. So some people can be like, 'Oh my God, I don't know what I just did, what was that?' And then a couple months later I get a text message saying, 'Idan, I just scored 50. Thank you. Now I understand.' Sometimes it's not always a perfect fit, but I do believe that if they stick with it, if they're committed, and they have an open mind, generally it can become a good fit.

On the doubters, and an infamous tweet to Bradley Beal

Ravin: He's (Beal) become a very good player, but I think that is one of the fundamental things that is wrong with sports: the idea that you had to have played to have an opinion. I fundamentally believe that just because you played and your jersey hangs in the rafters, it doesn't give you a monopoly on wisdom. I've done this long enough with over 100 NBA players and 15 NBA All-Stars that I know what I'm doing, but it's the arrogance and the paranoia of the institution of sport. They think that because they wore a jersey, they should have the monopoly, as if you have to take out your basketball resume to show. That's not relevant.

Ironically, when all those former athletes retire into broadcasting positions, no one says, 'Do you have a masters in journalism from Columbia? Where's your broadcasting degree?' If you want to make the argument, make it all the time, not just when it's convenient for you.