Boston Celtics budding superstar Jayson Tatum had the rare opportunity this summer to work out his game with five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant. Tatum recently had an appearance on Bill Simmons' podcast and talked about learning the ropes from the Los Angeles Lakers legend.

“I got a chance to just sit down and talk to him first. You know, I got to meet with him. And we talked about a lot of things, basketball-related, non-basketball-related. I tried to get into his mind and see how he went about things. Just trying to get better each year, what he wanted to improve year after year so he didn’t backtrack or be complacent. His will to just be the best and just striving to get better every year. That’s one thing I found interesting. When we were working out, his thing was just trying to break the game down and make it as simple as possible. He said the year he averaged 35, all he worked on in the summertime was pivot foot, trying to play off both pivots. He said, “That’s all I did for the entire summer. Obviously, I expanded off a move from each pivot and a counter move to that.” But he was like, “The entire summer that’s all I worked on.”

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The Celtics forward's rise to prominence heightened during the team's deep playoff run in which he posted averages of 18.5 points and 4.4 rebounds. Even without two of their best players in Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, they were just a win away from making it to the NBA's biggest stage in the Finals.

His playoffs performance also drew Kobe's attention as he analyzed Tatum's body of work on his own show, “Detail.” With Kobe personally mentoring the Celtics' prized rookie from last year, Tatum could reach even greater heights.