Early in the mornings you can find Jesse Owens and a few of his former teammates putting in the work.
"It's just a little breakfast club we've got going on," Owens said. "We've got a good crew of guys we're working with and decided to sharpen iron with iron."
Owens, who has spent some time training younger kids with his dad, has taken a liking to that aspect of basketball after wrapping up his playing career at Rocky Mountain College. But he's not ready to make that a full-time commitment just yet.
"Me and Greg (Wilson) are trying to get overseas and play, and Ata (Gultekin) is trying to get himself a spot on the varsity at Rocky," Owens said. "We all kind of have that chip on our shoulder. It's good to have a group of guys like that so we're never lacking and you know one guy can lift up another guy if he's slow or drowsy."
Along the way, Owens and his crew linked up with Darius Brown II. Brown II won a Big Sky Conference title with Montana State and played in the NCAA Tournament with both the Bobcats and Utah State.
Brown II is now on the Cleveland Cavaliers G-League team, the Cleveland Charge, giving Owens a perfect model to follow for cracking the professional game.
"Just work ethic. It's the same stuff. It doesn't really change once you go pro or D-I. It doesn't change. It's the same work. It's just doing it at a high level, high intensity. Just trying to communicate that to them," Brown II said.
"He does a great job of showing us how to be here in the mornings ready to go, getting to sleep at night," Owens said. "We've had multiple conversations about different types of lifts to do in season, out of season, how to fuel your body before workouts and after. Just those little things that can give me an advantage or an edge on somebody down the line."
Even if Owens decides to hang the sneakers up, he'll have a bright future in this avenue of basketball, as well.
