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Kyle Kuzma had a roller coaster of a first career stint with the Los Angeles Lakers. That's why he was able to share so many great anecdotes in his goodbye piece on The Players Tribune entitled To My Lakers Family.
His most detailed Lakers stories were undoubtedly the ones with Kobe Bryant. Seemingly any young player that wore the purple and gold had amazing brush ups with the Mamba, and Kyle Kuzma was no exception. He particularly recalled his very first workout with the Lakers icon – one he'll never forget.
Via The Players' Tribune
“..I wake up super, super early,” says Kuz in anticipation of his workout with the Lakers legend. “Like 5:45 and leave my house at like 6:30. Nobody’s on the road, so I’m low-key speeding getting to Newport because I just can’t wait. And I just got this vision of Kobe in my head, him just being in the gym early, already there and waiting for me and sweating or some shit. I get there at about 7:15. Forty-five minutes early. Of course, this fucking guy doesn’t show up til 8:05 — and we got an eight o’clock workout! And it was totally fine, but just hilarious to me because I’m obviously like sweating bullets that Kobe was gonna get there before me.
We get into the workout, and it’s literally the hardest workout I’ve ever had in my life.
“And like I said, it’s August,” continued the former Lakers forward. “That’s close enough to the season, where I’m typically thinking I’m in pretty good shape. I’m running, I’m doing hills, I’m doing a bunch of conditioning things. But Kobe’s telling me, “Alright, we’re going to do this move, do that move. We got 25 reps of each movement.” Usually you’re in a gym and it’s like make 10, make 12, whatever. We’re doing 25 of each thing, man. I get done with this workout, I’m completely, completely dead tired. And I thought it was the worst workout of my life because I’m missing shots and stuff. But you know, we finish strong, shake hands and leave.
I run into Lakers GM Rob Pelinka the next day, and he says, “Aw man, Kobe said that y’all had a great workout. He said that you were in really good shape.” And I was like, No fucking way he said that.
So funny, man.
One little compliment from Kobe, that’s really all it takes. I’ll be telling my grandkids about the time Kobe said I was in shape. You keep stuff like that with you.
Kyle Kuzma has had a lot of ups and downs in a Lakers uniform. But this story behind the scenes is definitely one that stays with you for your entire life. As he ventures into a new part of his career with the Washington Wizards, these memories with Kobe will definitely still be there to fuel him.
