The NBA season is looming. With that in mind, SportTechie chatted with the Orlando Magic’s Aaron Gordon to talk about his recent investment in an app called Lucid, a mental training tool that helps build mental faculties such as drive, fortitude and confidence and counts Gordon, Skal Labissiere and Jaylen Brown among its advisors. Gordon discussed his past two dunk contests (and whether he’ll compete again), what he’s worked on most this offseason, the fact that he and the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge have never been seen together in the same room before, how technology has impacted his career, what technologies he utilizes on- and off-the-court, his 2K rating and a bevy of other topics.

So the last time we, as an outlet, talked to you, you weren’t an advisor at Lucid yet — what changed?

I just wanted to invest in a company — as simple as it sounds. Obviously, there’s one thing to invest money, there’s one thing to invest time. I just wanted to invest faith and invest just myself into the company. I thought money would be a good way to show that I’m really for this company and that I know it will be successful.

So you were one of the first NBA players to use the Lucid app to supplement in-person sessions with Graham (Betchart, Gordon’s mental skills coach and co-founder of Lucid), and now a few other NBA players are doing so as well. I’m kinda curious as to what you think spurred that change and how much you may have been an influence there.

I think people see my work ethic, they see my motor, and I try to lead by example. From a mindful playing field, I have a calm, poised attitude, and maybe people are seeing that in myself and seeing the improvement that I’ve made in my game and wondering what I’m doing and making what I’m doing available to the rest of the world.

Which game or event did Lucid and/or Graham’s teachings help you the most?

Definitely the first dunk contest. I was so nervous for the first one. Really wasn’t even all that nervous for the second one — I don’t know that might have honestly been detrimental that I wasn’t nervous for the second one.

Any tips and tricks that help you calm down before a big game or event?

For me, I just like to meditate, I like to breathe, I like to be in the present moment. And then, I take that joy and that anxiety and that nervousness and I turn it into joy. I just remind myself that I’m alive and I should be feeling that anxiety and nervousness and pressure because I am alive and I love this game. If I was doing a job where I wasn’t feeling those emotions going to work every day, then I would need to change my job.

How exactly did Graham train you for the first dunk contest?

A lot of visualization — going through the dunks before I’ve even done them. Start to finish, what the energy is going to feel like in the arena, the steps that i was going to take after the dunks and then cancelling out noise — what the judges are going to say, things like that.

It seemed like Lucid perhaps didn’t work out too kindly for you in this year’s dunk contest. (Gordon failed to progress past the first round, missing all four of his attempts on his second dunk.) Now, that’s not, by any means, a direct cause and effect relationship, but what does it say about how much Lucid helped you when the dunks don’t go down?

[Lucid] helps you deal with exactly when the dunks don’t go down. Things don’t always go according to plan or how you plan them. Without Lucid I think that dunk contest would have put me into a slump. I think that really would have crushed me. I was able to take that disappointment in my life and turn it into a positive thing. I flipped it into a joyful experience for me and something that I can use for the rest of my life as a lesson, as a teacher in my life. Lucid doesn’t make everything go 100 percent perfect, but it allows you to almost cope. It helps you persevere through the times when things don’t go according to plan, through the times that you once saw as a failure, can now be reframed as a life lesson.

If there was anything about that dunk contest you would have changed?

I would have listened to myself a little bit more from the beginning — listened to my body a little bit more. I wasn’t feeling all that great, I was hurting a little bit, I probably would’ve listened to my body a little more.

Will you be in this year’s dunk contest?

I think I might go back, but we’ll see how the first couple games of the season play out.

Thousands of miles won’t keep @a00g_ and @xtragordonary32 from a friendly dunk contest. Who ya got? Vote in the comments below. A post shared by The Players’ Tribune (@playerstribune) on Aug 25, 2017 at 10:54am PDT

Given your foot fracture in 2014 and the fact that you’ve played almost every game the past two seasons: How do you keep in form and how does technology play a role in that?

There’s different technology on how to train your body, there’s a lot of different technologies that are coming out like HyperIce is coming out with a bunch of new stuff, they’ve just given me something. There’s things that are constantly improving in the weight room to help your body and then there’s the Lucid app, so everywhere I go through an 82-game season, I have a sports psychologist, one of the top sports psychologists in the world actually. And, in that, it just keeps me focused, it keeps me locked in for a long and sometimes grueling season.

Do you have a piece of training technology you couldn’t live without and why?

Good, old fashioned weight room. Gotta have a weight room. There’s not really necessarily a piece of technology other than Lucid. Lucid is something that I use pretty regularly, so without that I guess I would have Graham, but without those two I would be a different person for sure.

Are there any specific technologies that only the Magic use?

We use a Catapult, which is a heart monitor-type thing — that’s pretty much the main thing that Orlando uses that I think is unique. It monitors the stress that you’re putting on your body and your heart rate so if you ever are working too hard, they know how to pull back on your practice load.

How has technology developed in the NBA since you’ve entered the league?

They have advanced statistics these days on how far and how fast people can run. With Lucid we’re starting to work on an actual, tangible way to measure presentness throughout a game. If something goes wrong, we measure how much time it takes for someone to become presently in. So, the technology is ever-changing, especially with the cameras, the Intel, the 360-cameras, there’s just a lot through technology. There’s the virtual reality as well — people can put the virtual reality on at home and be courtside at an Orlando Magic game. So, it’s ever-progressing. Nike’s putting chips in jerseys — if you buy a jersey you can log in so it’s even more personalized when you do buy a jersey — if you buy an Aaron Gordon jersey you can log in and tap your phone to the chip and you can get a personalized message of me talking to you. People are just getting more and more creative in that space, and there’s just so much.

Are you looking at tech investments besides Lucid?

Not right now, I think Lucid is my main focus. I had an opportunity to go to the Tech Summit, I chose to continue to work on my basketball game. I couldn’t do both. As opportunities continue to open up, I’ll keep my eyes and my ears open and my heart open and make sure that I continue to invest in technology and tech companies around the Bay Area especially ’cause that’s where I’ll be staying most of my offseason.

Have you or other members of the Magic used VR?

Definitely. There was a stint where I used virtual reality. I would film myself shooting jumpers and any time that I was away from the basketball gym, I would put the virtual reality goggles and: there I was. It would be me shooting jumpers at Amway [Center].

You were a 76 last year with a 99 dunk stat on 2K — any predictions on what you should be this year and why are they going to underrate you?

They’re going to underrate me because they’ve never seen a basketball player like me before. It’s confusing to rate something that you’ve never seen before.

Predictions for your rating?

No, I don’t really care, man. We’ll see.

There’s been a lot of noise on the internet about the fact that you and Aaron Judge haven’t been seen together in the same room before: Would you like to set the record straight once and for all, right now?

I’m still thinking about that, man, whether I’m me or I’m him, still thinking about how I’m going to deal with that situation when I do see him, or when I do get asked about that. ‘Cause one of us isn’t from here, but we both might be extra-terrestrials, who knows. We’re both such good athletes. Maybe we’re long lost relatives or something like that.

On Aaron Judge:

He’s been great, he’s been killing it — for sure my favorite baseball player. Not just ’cause he looks like me — he’s swinging for it. I seen a stat that said he has the most strikeouts ever as a rookie. [note: Judge set the record for most consecutive games with a strikeout in a season] Some people say ‘oh, he’s striking out,’ but you can’t hit that many home runs without trying to swing for the fences. It’s that thing that I love — he’s really, really going for it. He’s going to be a great player for years to come and it’s awesome and I’m super happy for him.

Are there allegories from that notion that can maybe be lent to your own career as well? Maybe you’re the type of guy who likes to swing for the fences, and sometimes you miss, but when it goes over the fence there’s kinda a payoff there that isn’t there if you’re just going for singles all day?

Yeah, exactly. High risk, high reward type thing. There’s been a lot of opportunities in my life that I go for — that I shoot to be the greatest of all-time in — and with that there are disappointments and steps that you need to take in order to get there that are very difficult. I am definitely that same way — I’m gonna shoot these overly audacious goals that other people don’t think that I can do and I’m gonna try to do them. If I do them, then everybody says ‘wow,’ and if I don’t then everybody says ‘I told you so.’ It doesn’t really matter what other people think, it’s just kinda satisfying myself in order to go for these audacious goals.

Using the drone last year was pretty tech-savvy — how much do your roots from Silicon Valley — mom having spent years at Intel — help in that?

I thought it was a really clever way to bring a little bit of the Bay Area, the Silicon Valley with me to New Orleans. You gotta be really really precise to do that dunk, it was pretty difficult. But it was just one of those welcome to 2017, welcome to revolution in the tech industry in sports kinda emerging.

Do NBA players have an advantage in entering the tech space, given the fact that so many of your guys’ team owners come from the technological and/or entrepreneurial industries?

I would think so. Because we have such a large platform and such a large following — we are very influential people — owners, tech companies, they want to help us help them. In turn, just kinda making it a mutually-beneficial thing. NBA players are smart, they are very aware, they’ve had a lot of different things thrown at them, so they can weed out what’s right and what’s wrong and what would be helpful and what can be forward and progressive. I think NBA players do have an advantage for those who want to enter the tech/entrepreneurial space — and the ones that want it usually do a great job.

What’s your favorite social media platform and why?

It’s definitely a toss-up between Instagram and Twitter. Instagram: I love seeing other peoples’ lives and what’s going on with people that are close to me — and those that used to be close to me. And with Twitter it’s just a bunch of funny jokes and almost just kinda just the blind leading the blind.

Do you have a favorite follow?

Gilbert Arenas is hilarious. He’s really funny on Instagram.

What’s your favorite Gilbert post?

One of my favorite ones is he went to a carnival and he won all different types of stuffed animals cause he was just shooting the basketball so well and they had to stop him, but he won a bunch of giant stuffed animals in the process. It was awesome.

Do you have a favorite post of yours?

Not necessarily. I’m about to post our Lucid video — our relaunch. I’m about to post that in the next few minutes and that will most definitely be one of my favorites.

What’s the top thing this offseason that you improved on the most?

I’m just shooting the ball very, very well these days. I’m looking to come out there and just become a jump shooter. So I’m just a very powerful, quick jump shooter.

Three-pointers? Mid-range elbows? What have you been working on the most?

Everywhere. All over the court — lethal from everywhere.

Playoffs this year?

Yes, definitely. I’m looking to lead and be led to the playoffs with my team. It’s going to take a collective team effort but yeah — we’ll be in the playoffs this year.

If these few recent trades and signings have been any indication, the NBA is a business, and loyalty is only valued to a certain extent — how do you keep out all of the noise the surrounds you throughout a season, whether it’d be criticism of your play, trade rumors and the like and how much does Lucid help?

I can’t control what the next person is going to say about me, it just doesn’t work like that. I can’t control if I’m going to be traded, or if somebody is going to be traded off my team, or whether we get a new coach or GM. I can’t control winning or losing. The only thing I can control is my mindset, and if I can control my mindset and I control being present and I control my joy, then everything has this flow to it. At the end of the day, you look up and you’ve enjoyed yourself, you’ve lived the life that you wanted to live.