NBA stars are rising

“He had the winning aura even though he lost,” said Graham Betchart, a mental strength coach who has worked with Gordon for seven years since he was 13.

Betchart, who has a master’s degree in sports psychology, has worked with many talented high school basketball players over the last decade for free.

Betchart met Gordon when he was 11, and they started working together when he was a precocious 13-year-old, already on the varsity basketball team.

Betchart is now paid a monthly fee by about 10 NBA players, including Gordon and LaVine.

1 NBA draft picks, and he has partnered with former Twitter TWTR, +0.00% executive Jason Stirman on an app of his mental strength teachings called Lucid: Mental training for athletes.

While discussing the dunk contest, Gordon said it was a culmination of his work with Betchart.

Fortuitously, at about the same time, Stirman and his business partner, Soren Gordhamer, wanted to create an app that used meditation to help people perform better in various endeavors including work and athletics.

Betchart also says he leads Gordon through longer meditations when they work together in person.

And he hopes it can help show more athletes how vitally important mental strength is to success and lead to more acceptance of mental strength training, including a sports psychologist on every professional sports team.

Gordon, Betchart and Mumford have equity stakes in the company, and Betchart is a full-time employee.