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Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra had the very special opportunity to share a court with the late Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant — as a coach planning against the dangerously competitive and talented future Hall of Fame shooting guard.
On Monday, Spoelstra shared a memory of Bryant, who passed away Sunday in a tragic helicopter crash alongside his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven other people.
Via ESPN's Tim Bontemps, Spoelstra told reporters the time when former Heat head coach-turned-team president Pat Riley remarked how right ex-Lakers general manager Jerry West was about Bryant.
Spoelstra said his favorite memory of Kobe was during Bryant’s second season, when he was in Pat Riley’s office after the Lakers and Heat played here in Miami. He said that Riley said after that game, “Wow. Jerry (West) was right. That kid is going to be special.”
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) January 27, 2020
West, a champion guard with the Lakers who retired and became a coach and later executive in the NBA, pushed for L.A. to trade for Bryant on draft night in 1996. The GM at the time, West traded veteran center Vlade Divac to the Charlotte Hornets for the draft rights to the then-teenaged Bryant, the 13th overall pick of the legendary draft class.
Riley, at the time, was head coach of the Heat and now sits in charge of the South Beach organization. All those years later, Riley could not believe how right West's instinct was to acquire Bryant.
For what it's worth, Kobe Bryant blossomed into an All-Star, five-time champion, MVP, and icon for the game of basketball. Erik Spoelstra, meanwhile, had the privilege to study under Riley before coming into his own as Miami's head coach, winning two championships with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
