Metta World Peace says he stopped having sex on the road so he could play better

One of the many important changes in the new NBA collective bargaining agreement are efforts to further reduce the number of back-to-back games NBA players play. Those contests often feature sloppy play from tired players just looking to make it out of the game without an injury, and have become a talking point in recent weeks as more and more players sit out of the first or second night of the sequences in order to preserve their health.

Scott Cacciola of the New York Times wrote a story on back-to-backs, including details on players thoughts on those games, how to best prepare for them, and how NBA teams’ strategies for dealing with them have changed over the years.

Lakers forward Metta World Peace made an appearance in the story, and he detailed some of the adjustments he’s had to make, including practicing abstinence. Because this is Metta, no, I’m not joking, he really said that (brackets mine):

“They kill me,” he said [of back-to-backs].

When he was younger, he said, he did not take them seriously. After a late-night flight, he would often try to squeeze in a trip to a nightclub between games.

“And play like garbage,” World Peace said. “When I got older and actually wanted to win, I would drink a lot of water, eat a lot of veggies, go to bed once you got into the city — no sex, nothing like that. Because all that stuff adds up.”

Metta World Peace may be struggling to add very much to the Lakers on the court this year, but it’s indisputable that he’s continued to be as entertaining as ever off of it.

Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.