It is a well known fact that recently-acquired Los Angeles Lakers point guard Isaiah Thomas grew up a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, and Kobe Bryant in particular. Thanks to the trade deadline deal, Thomas now has the opportunity to play for his favorite childhood team.
Thomas, however, had previously established relationship with Kobe that was strengthened last year during the playoffs. Then a member of the Boston Celtics, Thomas reached out to Bryant, asking him to watch film with him; to which Kobe obliged.
Thomas was the latest guest on the Lakers.com ‘Voices’ series and spoke about how meaningful it was to get help from his childhood idol:
“That was special to me, because to be able to have Kobe Bryant talk to you and help you out is amazing, especially for me. That was my favorite player growing up.”
Thomas also added that Kobe opened his eyes to a lot of things that he wasn’t paying attention to at the time:
“I’m a guy that watches a lot of film … and I thought what I was watching were the right things,” Thomas said. “When we first sat down and watched film last playoffs, he was just going in so much detail of things that I never even looked at on film […] It was crazy, because I never even thought about basketball like that, and then when I started to think like that, I would see it before it happened in the game and I would think, ‘Damn, Kobe really just told me that last night.’”
There are very few players who have that type of attention to detail and someone like Kobe can help players so much just through what he sees on the court.
Studying film is such an important part of getting better, especially for young players and Thomas was the beneficiary of that. The fact that he can continue to receive advice from Kobe while wearing the purple and gold only makes things that much better for Thomas.
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