Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Chris Paul took a few things from the mind of the late Kobe Bryant, among them perhaps some of the most vital to his game: how to dominate in the pick-and-roll and how to develop the proper footwork.

NBA.com's John Schuhmann remembers the two stars talking during an exhibition game prior to the 2008 Olympics. Paul was a reserve to Jason Kidd on that team, and Bryant was tasked with showing a young Paul how to make the most of his pick-and-roll snake action.

“Vaguely,” said Paul when prompted if he remembers that. “But around that time, the snake that everybody does, I started doing that with Tyson my second year in the league.

Note: The snake is where a pick-and-roll ball-handler changes direction after dribbling past the screen in order to keep his initial defender on his back.

“I just came up with it in practice, because back then, everybody used to go under on me, because I couldn't really shoot … I could shoot, but it's just anxiety when you're young. You can shoot, but you just don't make in in the game.

“So everybody used to go under [the screen] on me. So we had Tyson start setting it at an angle, and I realized that if I cut back, the defender was going to be behind me and it was going to force a 2-on-1. And that was when I was a lot more athletic, so I would either finish with a layup or throw the lob to Tyson. Now, at this point, I snake, I don't want to get to the rim.”

Paul has adapted his game as he has aged and lost some of the athleticism and foot speed that made him an elite player at the position. His terrific play at 34 years old has the Thunder at a surprising 33-22 on the season.

Picking up fundamentals, as small as his positioning and footwork, can make all the difference for a player:

“So that's what you were talking about with Kobe?”

“Yeah, I was definitely talking about that, getting the defender on my hip.”

“What were you learning from him in that same time frame?”

“One of the biggest things Kob made me pay attention to was footwork,” said Paul. “And it's crazy, because my percentages this year in the mid-post are awful. But I've always been able to play off left-foot or right-foot pivot.”

The Thunder point guard has mastered this since getting this advice from Bryant, and made it a patented trait of his own since. His mastery of the pick-and-roll game is one of the best-regarded in the league, much like Bryant's footwork and innate scoring ability were in his heyday.