How to Read a Room Service Menu Like an NBA Veteran

Mike Conley, Utah Jazz: As I scan through the all-day dining portion, I see spinach-artichoke dip. I love that. I'd probably do that just to have as a snack. I need to have that.

Carmelo Anthony, Portland Trail Blazers: I would probably start with—not probably start with, I do start with; this menu looks very familiar. It's like the same menu at every hotel. I would usually do a Caesar salad starter. I'm not a big carb guy at all. I try to eat clean and things like that. They be on me about eating carbs, but I'm a seafood guy—a fish guy, a salmon guy. So a lot of times, my dinner is seared salmon with a Caesar salad and a side. Or sometimes I'll do a burger. I'll do pasta every once in a while, maybe for a lunch or something like that if you can get in early enough.

Jalen Brunson, Dallas Mavericks: I would probably do either the salad or bruschetta, one of the two. I'm pretty diverse when it comes to what I want on my salad—it just depends what I'm in the mood for. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a Caesar, sometimes I'm in the mood for something with a vinaigrette. It just depends how I'm feeling.

Robin Lopez, Washington Wizards: I generally will not order a salad. I guess I haven't tried an extremely pro-salad diet, but just glancing at it from the outside, it doesn't seem like it would do a lot for me. It almost seems like egregiously healthy, arrogantly healthy. I'm ordering a salad, look at me, look how healthy I'm being.

Robin Lopez, Washington Wizards: I shouldn't, but whenever they offer fresh fruit vs. french fries, I always go for the french fries.

Carmelo Anthony, Portland Trail Blazers: If you're known for that burger, then I need the lettuce, tomato, cheese, ketchup, mustard—I need the works on it. That's just how I like my burgers. And if it's not good, I need that, too, because that takes away from it. That adds on to it, it adds a different taste to it. When it comes to burgers, it's hard to mess a burger up. But you know what's a bad burger and what's a good burger.

Mike Conley, Utah Jazz: Out of this section, I'm maybe a falafel. Falafel isn't my first choice, but it is something I'll substitute. I don't eat burgers or any red meat—unless it's like a bean burger or something like that. If falafel was the only option, I'm probably picking that as far as the diet goes.

Mike Conley, Utah Jazz: I haven't eaten red meat in probably almost two years. Some people believe in eating it, some people don't. Cutting it out did a lot for me, just as far as my digestive system and stuff like that. I found everything was just working correctly for me. Then coupled with that, the sugar portion of it. Not all sugar's bad, but I ate a lot of artificial stuff growing up—candies and things like that that aren't good for you and what that does to your body. As you get older, and I'm getting up there as far as athletes are concerned, you start to get aches and pains. It's like: Why is my knee sore today? Or why is my ankle sore? Why does my back hurt? The more I started to eat healthy and eat right, less sugar, drinking more water, staying hydrated, stuff like that—all those aches and pains started to go away. I'm gonna try to stay away as long as I can and splurge every now and then.

Jalen Brunson, Dallas Mavericks: First, give me a setting. Where is this menu? Where are we? It's kind of different to eat fish in certain places. So it just depends. Like, I'm a big sushi guy. Depending on where I am, I probably wouldn't get sushi. I try not to have it before games or things like that, but I'm definitely a big sushi guy. Just depending on where I am—like, I probably wouldn't have sushi in Utah or Memphis or Oklahoma City.

Carmelo Anthony, Portland Trail Blazers: I don't really worry about ordering seafood from room service, 'cause I stick to the script. I don't try to do too much. I stick with my salmon and sometimes a vegetable, sometimes a white rice. I grew up in Baltimore, so we eat seafood out there. Always was a big seafood guy. If there's no salmon, then I'll go to a burger after that—or I'm on a delivery app at that point.

Robin Lopez, Washington Wizards: A lot of my decisions, it's not based so much on health. But if I'm in a hotel, I always feel like, OK, I'm there for a game, I'm there for business, but I feel like I'm kind of on a mini vacation, too. So if I'm gonna get seafood, I feel like I'm treating myself on my little mini vacation.

Sue Saunders-Bouvier, Washington Wizards nutritionist: We have some pescatarians on the team, and they really get tired of only eating salmon, where that's their only option. So we've had room service add shrimp or add halibut or some kind of extra type of fish to the menu so a guy doesn't have to eat salmon twice a day or however many times a day he would have to based off a normal room service menu during these times.

Robin Lopez, Washington Wizards: I'm a big pasta guy. It's simple for me. Any pasta with red sauce is easy for me. I used to love Alfredo sauce back in high school with the Marie Callender's fettuccini Alfredo, but now I've just had too much of that. So I've always gotta go with the red sauce. Most room service pasta is pretty similar. Occasionally you'll go down to, I don't know, San Antonio, and you'll get something maybe a little south-of-the-border inspired.

One thing that's hard for me, even as an athlete, is any kind of brown rice or whole grain pasta I just can't do. I think it's more of a texture thing. If I have to, I'll do it, but—it's funny to say that I try to avoid the healthy option, but I try to avoid it. I try to judiciously avoid it.

Mike Conley, Utah Jazz: I wouldn't be able to eat the pasta with bolognese; I'd have to substitute for the ground beef, maybe add chicken or something like that. Whenever I do order pasta, I look at the menu and I'll just say what I'm looking for as opposed to ordering what they have, and hope that they can do that. Because orders can get mixed up and you end up with something you might not want on your meal. So I'll just say "I want a pasta with red sauce and grilled chicken," and hope that works. I don't wanna mess that up.

Mike Conley, Utah Jazz: I don't wanna eat as I'm getting into bed, which can easily happen when you're on the road and flying around and stuff like that. Your schedule gets kinda mixed up. So trying to make sure I eat on the plane, or if I have an hour-and-a-half flight or something like that I eat there and kinda work my way into the sleep cycle to get ready for the next day.

Sue Saunders-Bouvier, Washington Wizards nutritionist: What sometimes looks like a healthy option—certain salads, when you actually add everything that's coming on the salad, when they've put the bacon, the blue cheese, and the ranch dressing, you'd have been better off getting the burger with a side salad.

Mike Conley, Utah Jazz: I think my late-night option is the smoked turkey club. That's pretty universal.

Sue Saunders-Bouvier, Washington Wizards nutritionist: Actually, when we arrive late in the cities, sometimes you don't get in until 1 or 2 a.m. and it might be quite a stretch of time between when they've had their postgame meal, flown, gone through the COVID protocols, gotten into their room, and they haven't had anything to eat. So we'll actually have a snack for them in the room when they arrive. And our go-to snack when they arrive is a turkey club sandwich. So that's my go-to for a late-night snack for these guys—with a piece of fruit thrown in.

Mike Conley, Utah Jazz: There's been times where I've had chicken wings throughout the year. Not this year. Well, maybe this year. Once or twice. Just as something to hold me over. Chicken tenders are something you can always lean on if you're starving. That's where I try to get a good meal in before I get to the hotel, if I can, and we're coming in late. So that way I don't have to pick between them.

Jalen Brunson, Dallas Mavericks: My rookie year, I fell into [the habit] where I would get chicken fingers late at night, chicken wings, stuff like that. I think with me changing my diet this past year, it kind of took me away from eating chicken. In the summertime, I went plant-based. Now I'm mostly pescatarian, which is just eating fish. I went through a phase of different diets, but now I kinda know my body. It's easy just so when I get to places, I kinda know what I'm gonna eat. Now I've gotta choose healthier options. I'm probably not in the mood for fish that late at night, so it kinda helps me.

Carmelo Anthony, Portland Trail Blazers: After a game, you're coming in, you might get in at 12, 1 o'clock, you're still hungry. You're not really getting the proper nutrition that you really need right away, so when you get to the hotel, you wanna order something. A lot of times, the late-night menu is the menu. Chicken fingers and fries and chicken wings and things like that. I try to get a meal in before I get to that. Or what I'll try to do is try to limit. I'll just get some fries, get a double order of fries, or a flatbread. You can't go wrong with a flatbread. That'll hold me over till the next day.

Robin Lopez, Washington Wizards: Depending on if I've had it before—which is kind of a chicken-and-egg conversation—I might go with the flatbread. I like my flatbreads to definitely trend more toward pizza. There's definitely a gradient. I like my flatbreads to resemble more typical pizza than perhaps your more gourmet options.

Robin Lopez, Washington Wizards: Usually, the big challenge for me is whether or not I'll eat that Snickers bar in the minibar. That's my challenge to see how mentally strong I am that night. Sometimes when I'm leaving the plane, I'll grab a PB and J or two. I'll be like, This is gonna be my meal. I'm gonna have a pasta and that's gonna be my meal. Then it'll be a challenge as the hours and the minutes tick away. I don't need that bar. Do I need that bar? It's an interesting little dilemma for me at times.

Mike Conley, Utah Jazz: During the season I try to stay away from sweets as much as I can. I'm a big sweets guy—an apple cobbler kind of guy. I like cinnamon apples, chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, SweeTARTS. You go down the line. Sugar is sugar for me. I'll eat anything that is probably bad for you. But I've done a better job as I've gotten older of being able to basically cut it off and do a good job of holding off on it. If I can stay away from it during the season—which I do a pretty good job of—I'll go and have a couple weeks in the summertime where I'll kinda go all out.

Sue Saunders-Bouvier, Washington Wizards nutritionist: We definitely do have sweets because (a) they need the calories—we have players who have a very hard time keeping their weight up during the season; and (b) there's something really intangible about how food affects your mood. When they've had something that's considered a treat and makes them happy and feels good and makes them feel rewarded and maybe reminds them of home—what role does that play then in reducing their stress levels, sleeping better, and feeling better about playing the next day? One of the things we do with our team now, because we have a much greater leash on the menu, is I can send in a recipe to the hotel for a brownie that's made with some shredded zucchini and dark chocolate. It's gluten free and it's got walnuts in it and it actually tastes really good. Guys die for those.

Mike Conley, Utah Jazz: In the last year or so, I've been really big on sparkling water, man. I like the carbonation. I never liked it before the last two years. Now, it's like everywhere I go for dinner, I drink it with everything. At home at my house, my wife buys some flavored sparkling water that has no sugar in it and stuff like that. So I'm kind of addicted to that. There's some really good ones—like Zevia, they have like cream soda, they have like root beer, they have everything that tastes like your everyday soda which you love.

Carmelo Anthony, Portland Trail Blazers: I drink hot tea all day. I'll do green tea. I'll do mint tea. I'll do chamomile tea. All herbal teas, I'll do—only herbal.

Robin Lopez, Washington Wizards: Honestly, the biggest switch-out I made for me, personally, is cutting down on sodas and even Gatorades. Gatorades I just try to keep around game time. I just try to drink water as much as possible. I think that's been the most beneficial thing for me.

Carmelo Anthony, Portland Trail Blazers: I look at the hotel menu to see what's on there before I go. If you know the basics, then you know when in doubt, I can have a glass of this and be cool. You know what I'm saying? I know the basics of what these hotels have, so it's easier to see what's on the menu and know I can have a glass of this, it's not gonna be too bad. But most likely I bring my own wine with me. I travel with my own wine. Especially now, because I can't go to restaurants who may have a good wine menu or something. So I bring my own.