, wakes up at 4.45am. At a time when other 24-year-olds are sleeping in – or still out on the town – Preston is stretching. Then he has some breakfast – nothing decadent – a meal to carry him through his upcoming morning workout. It doesn’t end there, though. Preston has a full day ahead, then it’s early to bed all over again. Such is the life of a young player trying to make an impact in the NBA.
On a game day, the 6ft 3in point guard arrives at the practice facility for the morning shoot-around. Since he’s a younger player rather than a veteran, Preston’s shoot-around time is early in the day. He gets a workout in and shots up. Then he goes home in the afternoon to eat, take a nap and make it back to the arena for tip-off. Preston gets there around 4pm, when young players can warm up on court. After the game, whether he gets playing time or not, he’ll lift weights.
“I could feel myself getting better,” Preston remembers. He began to fill out and he added a few inches in height. “I kept my head down and stayed the course. I wasn’t listening to everybody telling me to stop.” He soon posted a three-minute highlight reel to social media. Incredibly, it helped earn him scholarship offers from two Division I schools. He picked Ohio University. Out of nowhere, he had made it to the next level. In 2021, he and Ohio upset the. It was the culmination of more hours of work than Preston could recount.