“He Fouls Everyone”: Los Angeles Lakers Assistant Coach Talks About Coaching Players’ Kids

The Los Angeles Lakers emerged from the Orlando Bubble as the 2020 NBA Champions. Their victory was a great statement about their strength of character and will to win.

To be able to enter to NBA Bubble and have no access to your family or the outside world is a big ask. But the players obliged, focussed on the task at hand, and came through as NBA Champions. It was a team effort from the Lakers, led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis. But every player in the squad carried their weight and was rewarded for their effort.

The NBA was very strict about allowing family members to enter the bubble. They allowed for limited family members to come in as each team made it past a single round in the Playoffs. This was a great initiative from the NBA, as family is one of the most important things for any NBA player.

The Los Angeles Lakers are family

Heartwarming moments, such as Jayson Tatum being reunited with his son Deuce, were a great product of this rule from the NBA. What makes this even more impressive was that the NBA was able to allow family members to enter without registering a single positive COVID-19 result.

After the tragedy of Kobe and Gianna Bryant in January, the Lakers team became as close as a family. They relied on each other a lot to get themselves through the trials of the NBA Bubble. To see the camaraderie, not just between the players, but their families was truly a powerful moment.

Lakers’ assistant coach Phil Handy went on Danny Green’s Inside The Green Room podcast. Handy was asked about coaching the young children of the Lakers players and gave a truly wonderful response. He said, ““I’m going to tell you right now, all four of those kids are just like their dads. In some kind of way. David is just like Dwight. He fouls everyone but doesn’t think he’s fouling. Little Do, wants to negotiate and argue everything. Little Cheez, he gets the rock, he not passing. Then you get little Dud, score a bucket with Juju. Amazing kids, man.”

Handy was a member of the coaching squad that led the Lakers to the NBA Championship, their first in 10 years.