Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant had fully embraced his place as a mentor for NBA stars after his retirement. Following a successful mini-camp for players before the 2019-20 season, he chose to do the same for WNBA players from Jan. 13-15 at the Mamba Sports Academy.
The ways Bryant saw it, if NBA players benefitted from picking his brain, then why not WNBA players?
“How can we do a men’s camp and not a women’s one?” Bryant told the Mamba Academy staff in the fall, shortly after the NBA camp.
This became an absolute no-brainer opportunity for some of the game's best:
The Lakers icon had nearly 20 players at his NBA mini-camp and was hoping to have 10 from the WNBA. Unfortunately, most WNBA players often spend their winters playing overseas, with Olympic qualifiers also going at the same time, it became tough to find workable dates.
Some had off-weeks in the middle of their overseas seasons and flew into Los Angeles to be able to attend Bryant’s camp.
“This is my (in-season) break,” Mystics forward Aerial Powers, who attended the camp, told Alex Schiffer of The Athletic. “I want to relax, but man, who else gets a chance to work with Kobe Bryant? So of course I’m going to go to the camp.”
Bryant wanted to treat WNBA with the same respect as NBA players, hiring female strength trainers, on-court trainers, videographers and photographers, while giving each player a backpack full of MSA gear.
Those who attended learned plenty from those three days:
“Finding the little details on how to be better on the court,” said Chelsea Gray. “The small details make the difference. How to be better in those moments. Anyone can make a fadeaway shot, but how do you get your shot off in the fourth quarter when they know you’re going to shoot it? Those little details are what made him great.”
“As professionals, we do the same thing over and over,” added Kayla McBride. “He wanted you to take it to another level.”
As fate would have it, the late Lakers great passed less than two weeks after the camp in a tragic helicopter accident, crashing into the hills of Calabasas in his way to the academy.
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