As much as the Nets talk about their much-hyped performance team, they beefed up the unit Wednesday with three additions — including one who contributed to Jeremy Lin’s rehab this past season.
Zach Weatherford — who designed the workouts for the U.S. Navy SEALS, and has drawn praise from Nets team leader DeMarre Carroll — will still head the team as director of human performance. The Nets had just promoted Sebastien Poirier to head athletic trainer, and created a new director of sports science position for their former strength and conditioning coach Dan Meehan.
The Nets also created another new job, director of sports medicine. They hired Les Gelis for that post, which he will assume once he’s finished at this summer’s World Cup in Russia, where he’s the Australian national team’s head of physiotherapy.
Though Gelis might get the biggest title of Wednesday’s newcomers, Stefania Rizzo might have the most familiarity. She had been a rehabilitation specialist at Fortius Sport & Health. The Vancouver-based institution is where Lin had spent this season doing more than just rehabbing from his ruptured patella tendon on opening night.
Lin’s decision to rehab in Canada instead of around the Nets raised some eyebrows, but working with Fortius co-founder Rick Celebrini, the Nets point guard also retrained muscle memory and learned to run, jump and move more efficiently. Rizzo, who regularly shares Lin’s rehab updates on social media, will replace Aisley Toolan as director of performance rehabilitation.
Daniel Liburd, replacing Meehan as head strength and conditioning coach, has an NFL background. He was the Steelers’ assistant strength and conditioning coach after nine seasons in the same capacity with the Bills.