In this YouTube vlog, professional basketball player Elijah Bryant documents his arrival in Barcelona for a EuroLeague game against FC Barcelona. He describes the long travel, fatigue, and his plans to visit a temple for personal rituals. Bryant samples a variety of local foods, from empanadas to healthy acai bowls, commenting on taste and nutrition. He details the team's practice schedule, noting that they train in the same facility as the soccer youth teams and reflecting on the youth basketball talent in Barcelona, comparing European and American player development pathways and arguing that European fundamentals are stronger. Bryant emphasizes the importance of mobility work, morning stretching, and recovery tools like his new Whoop band, explaining how they track sleep, HRV, and performance. He shares mental health coping strategies, including journaling, prayer, and hobbies such as cooking, filmmaking, and fishing, warning against neglecting decompression. He outlines his game‑day routine, including a pre‑game journal, focus on limiting turnovers, and tactical notes about Barcelona’s league‑leading steals. Interspersed is a broadcast commentary segment that provides a play‑by‑play of the EuroLeague matchup, highlighting Bryant’s contributions (three‑point shots, drives, assists) and other key players. The vlog concludes with observations on road‑trip logistics, comparing EuroLeague travel to NBA experiences.
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Yeah. Yeah. All right, so we finally made it to Barcelona. Kind of a long travel day, tired travel day, because after games, you know, you don't really sleep too well. So got up, got some good sleep, some decent sleep, and made it to Barcelona. Not gonna eat. I was planning on going to the temple, but I guess the temple isn't built yet. It's plan. So a temple is just a place where I go and do special things for my religion. Um, so it would have been nice to go there because I don't get to go, obviously, in Turkey because there's not a temple there. But now I'm gonna go eat, and then we have practice later tonight at 8. But I got some stuff shipped here because, you know, in Turkey you can't get stuff shipped there. But I got some stuff shipped here, and there's some food that I want to try because my wife is Argentine, but she is vegetarian. So I have empanadas all the time, but I've never had a real empanada. So I don't know if this is a good brand or not. Yeah, I'm not going to try that. Let's see. So usually my favorite one that my mother-in-law makes is the corn one, the corn pie one. And I didn't see corn on there, but I wanted to try one with meat. Pause. Fire. I think that was a soft meat one. Paws. There's a chicken one. I'm gonna take a one-biter. Here's the spinach one, I think. Mother-in-law makes a fire spinach one. I don't really eat cheese and bread, but This is a bacon and cheese one. Last time I was here, I ordered it after a game and it never showed. Bacon cheese one's good. This is a soft meat one again. All right, let's go to the real meal downstairs. I was about to do this exercise. What are you doing? I'm, um, cooking. Jen, the reals. Oh my gosh, yum! Real empanadas. Let's see, Dad. Are they good? Here. Better than my mom's? Not a spinach one. I just got a bunch of different ones. Save one for me, okay? Okay. Save the real one for me. Okay, I love you. Hey, this is Louie. Louie, kisses. Where's Roxy? Hi, Rocco. My nap was absolutely crazy. And it wasn't that I slept that long. It was more so that I don't take naps that late. Hey, I got another one, but we got film now. Sorry. So we just got back from practice, had dinner. That's one thing on the road. I feel like we eat so much. We arrive, we eat lunch or snack. Before we go to practice, we have snack, come back, eat dinner. It's almost 11 o'clock at night. It is not good to be eating at this time, to say the least. But we practice— I've never been there before— we practice where the soccer team practices and all the youth teams practice. So as you saw, you saw the young kids practicing, and I guess, um, the senior, the real deal soccer team practices there as well. And you saw a bunch of young kids there, and it got me thinking There's some young kids on Barcelona's basketball team. You have Juan Núñez, who I think is 20 years old, was drafted. You have Dame Sar, who I think is 18 years old and could be drafted this— I think he actually just left. He went to an Italian team. I know he's Italian, but he went to actually my old teammate Tibo Pleißis' team to increase his draft stock. And I've always made the argument that coming from Europe is easier to make it to the NBA than starting in America. What do I mean when I say that? I mean that if these players went to college, their draft stock wouldn't be as high. They might not get drafted. But when you come from Europe, oh, he's a European, he's been playing against, you know, older guys, so he's probably, you know, ready to go. And sometimes that's the case. But I think some of these guys who get drafted— I'm not going to say any names— but wouldn't be drafted if they were playing against AJ Devinska or those type of, those type of guys. So, but I do think watching the kids play, I do think the basketball being taught is more fundamentally sound. Now, if I'm going to hate on Europe about their young prospects, I got to give them their flowers in terms of developing fundamentals compared to America, because I don't think we're good at that. We're more so, how I can come down, jack a 3, come down, play, iso. We don't teach fundamentals as well because I think we're in the era of highlight culture— dunking, 3-pointers, making someone fall. That is what gets noticed and gets you more followers. And that's the problem. That's why I think, um, to be honest, Europe is taking over in terms of the NBA. Wemby, Giannis, Jokic, Luka, Are you gonna call Shay? I'm gonna go Shay, but it's not your— I mean, there's obviously some players that would be in the NBA regardless of being European or being American, one of them being Jabari Parker when healthy. And speaking of which, I've actually known Jabari for some time, and he'd come to BYU and play pickup with us. Great guy, sucks for injuries, but I think it's a testament for him of perseverance, right? Being being able to fight through these injuries. But Barcelona has a good team, you know, Kevin Punter, Vesely, the Brinas. They have a good team. And last game we played them right there, you know, I just feel like that's the theme of the season, just right there, you know, we get there and we can't finish the job. So this is a unique, unique situation. We're actually here 2 days before they are actually playing Pana right now. So yeah, so we have today practice, tomorrow practice, and then Friday game. If you aren't doing some sort of like mobility when you wake up in the morning, especially for how many games we play, then you're doing yourself a disservice. And it doesn't have to be crazy. Like, honestly, you can find any video on YouTube to do every morning mobility. You don't have to subscribe to somebody, you don't have to pay for something. Just moving your body. I like this, I've heard it before, it's called motion is lotion. So like, just like moving a little bit. You can't expect to wake up and then go straight to running and then don't stretch. Like, you got to, like, you got to take care of your body. As you always know, I'm ordering stuff. I ordered something else, a new Whoop band. If you're not familiar with a Whoop, it's the thing I wear on my wrist during games pretty much all the time. It tracks everything. Heart rate, sleep, heart rate variability, calories, steps. I'm not going to say you need it, but if you're a professional athlete and you're trying to find ways to optimize your training, optimize your sleep, your life, it's definitely a tool you should look into. I'm not going to say you need it, but the band I got— if you don't know, my favorite color is army green. The band I got is just a new version of kind of the band I already had. I don't know if you can see, but so this one's like soft and this one is more like rubber. If you are bored tonight, you can stay. I'll tell them, but they're not here too. Yeah, so now we only have— who, uh, who reviews the ejections? Have you— you should tell them about the overtime game last year when you were in the office, right? Um, okay, so this part here is sticky. It's fine, it's fine. Yeah, yeah, appreciate you. See you tomorrow. Bye-bye. Say hi to your wife. Good. I'm about to chow down on some— this healthy spot out here, but before I do so, I'm gonna take my mass time since I'm eating kind of late to help me digest the food. I got a bunch of different things to try, like different types of rolls. What's the place called? Oh, let's put them in the bag. Keep the fries in the bag. All right, it's like a chicken bacon ranch, creamy Caesar, corn. Let me show you guys. We've been on the road for like 5 days, 6 days, eating the hotel food every single day, man. That is almost impossible, especially when you're in a place like Barcelona. Mm, chicken bacon ranch, fire. This is the mango Thai chicken one, I think. Super fresh greens wrapped in like rice paper, cucumber. This place is fire. Creamy Caesar with Thai coconut. This might be a staple I drink on in Barcelona. Healthy, doesn't feel too heavy. Is this a food review channel now? Like, fire. This is a corn one. Corn chicken, creamy Caesar sauce. These are so fire. All right, I just found out about this place. The dessert that I got— I don't eat dessert like that, but this one is a healthy spot. The ingredients are elite, so you know I had to try it. All right, so the place I got called Nudes. So this Nudes signature acai has no sugar, no banana, sweetened with guarana. Never heard of that. High quality acai, fresh fruit, organic fruits, homemade granola, peanut butter, chia pudding, guilt-free and delicious, full of nutrients, fiber, antioxidant. So let's see what all the hype's about. Nude, that's good. That's really freaking good. Wow, wow. I'm sorry, Jen. I'm sorry, Jen. Wow, that is freaking good. Holy crap, she got the big one. Oh my gosh, South and Noods. Pause. That didn't sound right. The only father we think of is they. We think of how many blessings they— Round 1, fight! Excellent! It's coming right now, it's coming right now! Goofy! You did say you're a Road Warrior last time. He's selling kebabs. Finish him! Starting to seem like every time we talk, I'm eating something different. I'm about to watch them watch the first half of Barcelona. So after eating, walking can help with digestion and allowing not for a spike in your blood sugar. So I'm not going to walk outside. The weight room is actually on our floor. So just walking for like a few minutes help push the food down before I lay down for 2.5 hours before the game. And it It helps with blood sugar spikes. All right, let's say prayers, huh? Hold your arms. Hold your arms. Okay, you ready? Yes, we're ready. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for our many blessings. I love you, Porkchop. Is it nighttime, dear? Yeah, journal time. And I don't just do a game day journal, I journal as much as possible just to get my thoughts out on paper and remember stuff better that I want to remember. So Barcelona leads the league in steals, so to limit someone from doing that, can't turn the ball over. So got to keep that in mind. Play assertive, control emotions, box out.
It is the end of another double round week in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, and we've got a big game at Palau Blaugrana. FC Barcelona hosting Anadolu Efes Istanbul. Two well-matched teams over the recent years. We've had some big games between them. A 3-guard set from the beginning for Efes with Larkin joined by Thompson and Elijah Bryant, who can function as a wingman as well. And that's where he goes. Elijah Bryant from the foul line, very smooth. It's Efes off to a flyer. Now the alley-oop, Thompson to Poirier. Now another one! Two back-to-back alley-oops for Vincent Poirier, who can detonate those all day if you let him. Anderson again wanted to dunk. Again, he can't get there. Bryant got a hand in. Who's going to grab the ball? It's Bryant. Clever pass out to Larkin. Up here, and Smith finds Bryant, and that might get him going. Bryant going through. That's a good finish from him, evading Alex Abrines. Bryant has the 3. Brizuela will drive and spin and lose it to Bryant. Bryant with a classy finish, off balance somehow, forcing it in. Punter will shoot 3 triples— 3 free throws, I should say— after Warié fouls him and then gets called with a technical for his reaction. He's out.
I know these videos are supposed to be for you guys and to help you guys along the journey, but I was thinking, being away from home Not America home, but just home in general. Istanbul home. Got me thinking about, as a basketball player, finding other things that interest you. Not just like— some people like video games, some people like Legos, some stuff, because the game is going to stress you out sometimes. It's going to show you love sometimes, it's not going to show you love. So you got to find ways to cope. Healthy, healthy ways to cope. Because when it's not— when it's not showing you love, those are emotions for you to learn from and lead you in the direction to where you need to go. So for me, I like making like movies, like making movies. I like farming, I like cooking, I like healthy food. So those are things I'm trying to incorporate when I have free time. I like watching Netflix shows. There's a lot of things I like to do. But if you don't find time for that stuff, like a decompression, mentally you will go crazy. So make sure you find something that you can do outside of basketball that brings you joy. Maybe you like painting, maybe you like fishing. A lot of people like to fish. It's calming, relaxing. I can't imagine how the NBA guys feel. 10-day road trip. I don't even think I would have enough vitamins for freaking 10 days. Golly. Chili pad, clothes. I'm just bringing one outfit for a dinner or something. Imagine freaking 5— that's how they travel with 20 bags. But I guess in the NBA though, you're not carrying your bags. You bring it to the plane and gets delivered to your room. I remember the first time with the Bucks, like, get off the— get off the bus, like, I'm gonna grab my bag. Bag's in your room already. It's like, what? Crazy.
