As the 2024 NBA Finals come to a close, it’s hard not to think about Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
Bryant made seven Finals appearances during his playing days, winning five championships with the Lakers and etching his name in basketball history.
Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving was close with Bryant and has kept the Black Mamba on his mind and said that he misses him every single day.
Like Irving, Anthony Davis was able to strike up a relationship with Bryant during their time together on Team USA and the star big man recalled what it was like to be mentored by him on the Visit The Lobby podcast:
“But back to the Kobe thing, saw him get up getting up early every morning to work out. Shot with him, we lifted weights together so for me it was like, ‘Oh, this is how you train.’ He showed me how to be a professional which…I’m 19. We go to dinner, we in Spain, Barcelona, and they’re like, ‘Team dinner.’ So in college, if we say dinner, we come in sweats. I come to dinner in sweats and I walk in and [they’re dressed up] to the T. Andre Iguodala got a white scarf on but slacks and like everybody is dressed. And they pulled me to the side and say, ‘Hey young fella, don’t come…’ but then again, I ain’t go no money I can’t afford that. I mean I can, but it’s like I didn’t bring nothing. I don’t know. So now I always ask what kind of dinner is it. Is sweats cool or…but most of the time I’m gonna throw something on.
“But they just told me and showed me how to be professional, how to work, what it means to actually work hard and work ethic. Just watching that from afar and then just being around around him gaining that knowledge and mentorship there was nothing you couldn’t even put into words because no other rookie besides Christian Laettner has done it. Instead of going to Summer League, I get to soak up this knowledge. I was ahead of the curve.”
Bryant took Davis under his wing and the latter eventually flourished into one of the best players in the NBA today. Davis took whatever he learned from Bryant and applied it to his career and is now poised to lead the franchise into its next era.
