P3's sports scientist Marcus Elliott explains Kyle Korver's annual Japanese endurance ritual.
In early September, with his 13th NBA season on the horizon, the Atlanta Hawks' Kyle Korver developed an obsession. It had nothing to do with the upcoming season, and yet everything to do with it.
He wanted to climb Mount Everest. Or close.
To clarify, Korver and three of his closest friends schemed to ascend the steel-lined emergency stairwell of the tallest building in Los Angeles -- the 73-story U.S. Bank Tower -- enough times to equal Everest's soul-crushing 29,000 feet.
"Climb the stairs, take the elevator down, climb the stairs, take the elevator down and climb the height of the Mount Everest in a day," Korver says at a recent shootaround.