New Orleans Pelicans shooting guard Buddy Hield recently revealed that he has a strong bond with Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
Shortly after being picked up by the Pelicans in the first round of the 2016 NBA draft, Hield was lucky enough to enjoy an early morning workout with Bryant. The 5-time NBA champion put the Bahamas native through a two-hour session that was restricted to one half of the court, as per Hield’s article with The Players Tribune:
“I tried to observe everything about Kobe during the workout. I didn’t know if I’d have another chance like this again and I wanted to impress him,” Hield said. “The dude is very serious when he works out. He doesn’t joke around in between drills or talk about non-basketball stuff. It’s all basketball.”
More than anything else, Hield was impressed by The Black Mamba’s footwork and how he treated it like an art form. According to Hield, footwork was Bryant's secret:
“I know people like to say that basketball is all about footwork, but if our workout was anything like what he did during his career, Kobe took it to a whole other level,” Hield said.
“Actually, if that’s how he worked out during his career, Kobe treated footwork kind of like a religion. I watched a lot of Kobe when I was growing up and even when he was in his prime there were other guys in the league who were way more athletic. But I think footwork was his cheat code.”
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