Kobe Bryant was an assassin to his opponents and a hard-nosed coach to his daughters’ teams. But the ones who got the worst of the Mamba Mentality was his own team. Not only were the Lakers players expected to match Kobe’s perfectionist standards, the coaches had to keep up to. Phil Handy, who got his start coaching a prime Bryant, was on Paul George’s podcast to talk about Kobe Bryant as the coach’s player. And it turns out the late Bean put Handy through the grind too.

Speaking about Bryant’s gruelling workouts, Handy said, “As a coach, you had to be in shape to work out with him.” Apparently, the coaching staff of the Lakers weren’t spared of the Mamba Mentality. There are many stories from players who would narrate Bryant’s 3 a.m. workouts and intense practices. Coaches like Phil Jackson can testify too.

But while working as the player development coach for the Lakers from 2011 to 2013, Phil Handy was working out with Bryant one-on-one. He came out roughed up in those practices. “Because he would beat you… like, he would beat you up, like it was full on. Like, ‘yeah, no m–o, don’t get tired, don’t get tired now.'” 

Handy was expected to simulate a real NBA game for Bryant in practice so he can “really work on his counters in an instinctual manner.” He now says, “It was a masterclass for me,” because in his time as a player, he never trained like that.

Kobe Bryant was years ahead of his coach

Phil Handy is eight years Kobe Bryant’s senior (coincidentally, Handy’s birthday is August 24, i.e. Mamba Day). He was attempting to join the league a year before Bryant. After going undrafted in the 1995 draft, he played with the Golden State Warriors and Portland Trailblazers in the preseason.

His career however was concentrated in the CBA and overseas. By the time he retired as a player, Bryant had been a 3x champion. Handy’s official arrival in the NBA was as the player development coach for the Lakers under Mike Brown and Bryant had won two more rings already. Back then, the chatter was that Bryant was looking to tie Michael Jordan for a sixth chip. And he wasn’t slowing down. For that reason, Handy had to keep up.

Handy later worked for many other teams since then and back with the Lakers. (It bothered Lakers Nation when JJ Redick didn’t keep him but that’s another story.) As someone who was new to player development, getting roughed up by Bryant taught him to be on the floor with players and help them.