Okafor Slims Down

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">WILMINGTON - Life is not a straight-line function. It meanders off course, for better or worse, when you least expect it.

That's what Emeka Okafor learned from months of balancing on crutches last season.

He incorrectly assumed that whatever he did in the past was just the baseline for the future. Instead he discovered that a brilliant rookie can morph into a struggling, injured veteran.

When he was playing -- and that accounted for only 26 of 82 games last season -- he was muscle-bound and frustrated. Then he sprained his right ankle, re-sprained the ankle, and finally called an end to the most frustrating winter of his basketball career.

Lessons were learned.

"I just thought I could pick right up where I left off," Okafor said Tuesday after the Bobcats' first preseason practice.

"Now I've learned you've got to pick it up" and be better to keep pace.

Okafor has always been a thinker who's susceptible to over-thinking.

Looking to protect himself from the constant pounding he takes as an NBA post player, he bulked up before last season. But an extra 20 pounds of muscle hurt, rather than helped, his cause.

That was particularly evident in his shooting. He slipped from 44.7 percent from the field his first season to 41.5 percent the second.

"My touch was off because my arms were bigger," he said.

To correct that, he backed off some of his weight-lifting and went to more cardiovascular exercise. He dropped weight and hopefully restored quickness and touch.

"I tried to let go and chill about the little things," Okafor said. "You can nit-pick, become too deliberate, and just get in trouble."

That doesn't mean he's become lackadaisical; in fact, just the opposite. While Okafor was rehabilitating his ankle, his peers among Eastern Conference power forwards -- Orlando's Dwight Howard and Toronto's Chris Bosh -- were playing in the World Championships. Okafor has seemingly slipped behind those two and he won't simply accept that fate.

He says he has something to prove.</div>

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