Phil Useful on Kyrie Irving and LeBron James’ relationship, coaching with Kobe Bryant, tensions between Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant, and extra on “Podcast P with Paul George”.
We share this week’s episode of “Podcast P with Paul George”, offered by Wave Sports activities + Leisure, the place PG and the fellows are joined by NBA coach Phil Useful.
On this episode, Phil shares his ideas on the stress between Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant, displays on Kyrie Irving and LeBron James’ relationship, opens up about coaching with Kobe through the peak of his profession, and far more.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
- (20:21): PHIL ON HIS MEMORIES OF TRAINING WITH KOBE BRYANT
PHIL: “…I feel he revered my work ethic. I used to be all the time there early, I all the time stayed late. I used to be all the time on the courtroom with whoever wished to be on the ground and he revered my work ethic as a rookie coach. He noticed what I used to be doing, he noticed that I understood the nuances of what I used to be instructing. I feel our first exercise, Kobe, he was a dude that basically knew what he wished, proper? He’s 17 years in, he was already Kobe Bryant. My very first query to him was, man, how can I assist you get higher? The place can I assist you? The place do you need to go, what issues do you need to work on? And he was very exact. I need to proceed to get higher with my ball dealing with. I need to preserve beginning with my footwork and proceed to work on my separation on my jumper. He knew what he wished and in order that made it a complete lot simpler for me to essentially attempt to dive in and simply collaborate with him by way of simply serving to him proceed to be who he was.”
PHIL: “The most important factor I noticed with Kobe was he was such a vertical participant. Kobe was one of many folks– such as you guys are very vertical, however you’re ready to make use of your verticality to get folks off steadiness and drop down right into a low stance– and one of many issues I advised to him once I first began working with Kobe, you, you’re so vertical and also you’re lengthy. I need to assist you condense your deal with and turn out to be a bit tighter and use the width of your physique to turn out to be sharper together with your hand. I keep in mind the primary time I mentioned that to him, he was simply taking a look at me like, what does that even imply? So I had already accomplished my analysis with video and movie, so I confirmed him a pair issues. He was like, okay, that is smart and simply that was actually the one factor for him as a result of he was like I believed I used to be good at footwork, man– that was a complete nother masterclass once I was working with him and simply as I all the time inform folks on a regular basis, and as coaches, it’s not simply us instructing as gamers, man, you guys train me, I realized a lot from all of you guys within the sense of simply understanding. You already know your nuances, so let me study from you the issues that you simply do properly to the place I can assist intensify your recreation and man, he was gracious.”
- (32:14): PHIL OPENS UP ABOUT DWIGHT HOWARD AND KOBE BRYANT’S ROCKY RELATIONSHIP AND WHY THEY DIDN’T MESH WHILE ON THE LAKERS TOGETHER
PHIL: “Dwight is a corridor of famer so he was in his pond in Orlando, proper? He all the time say the NBA, the markets are completely different. Orlando’s a small pond although Dwight was an enormous fish. He comes from Orlando and he involves Los Angeles, which is an enormous pond, and there’s already an enormous fish in that pond. Dwight has all the time been a man that cared about how folks perceived him and the way folks introduced him in and I feel LA was simply such an enormous place within the vivid lights. It wasn’t too vivid for him however when him and Kobe obtained collectively, man, their relationship was, I need to say it wasn’t rocky, however they had been two completely different gamers and Kobe was who he was and for those who performed with him, you understood who he was as a teammate. Kobe was tremendous demanding and so for those who’re the A-personality and also you come to a different workforce and typically there’s one other A character and that A character may be a bit bit extra vocal or have a bit bit extra of a cutthroat perspective or mentality, it could possibly be powerful, man. So the adjustment of Dwight coming from Orlando to LA and having to cope with one other celebrity, typically these issues, they don’t all the time mesh and other people don’t actually perceive that. Folks simply assume, oh, Dwight, Kobe, Steve Nash, Pau Gasol, they need to all be capable of play properly collectively and it don’t all the time work out like that. Generally folks simply don’t match and that’s all it actually boils all the way down to. Generally folks simply don’t match on a workforce and it simply doesn’t work and it didn’t assist that Steve Nash was not wholesome that 12 months.”
- (43:58): PHIL ON LEBRON JAMES AND KYRIE IRVING COMING TOGETHER FOR THE HISTORIC 2016 NBA FINALS GAME 5 WIN
PHIL: “In the event you return and watch the movie, Draymond was in entrance of our bench simply speaking noise. He was clowning, they had been taunting our bench. Klay was in entrance of our bench and I’m sitting behind the bench through the recreation and I’m fuming. I’m going loopy. I’m cussing at Draymond [Green] within the second– when the sport ended we had been strolling off the ground and I requested, I mentioned, coach, you thoughts if I say one thing to the workforce, I can’t deal with this so we get within the locker room, T Lou was like, yeah man, say what you should say, man, once I inform y’all I blacked out, I blacked out. I used to be simply so mad like, yo man, we’re within the NBA finals. These dudes are kicking our ass. They speaking sh*t in entrance of our bench. They clowned us, they punking us. No, there’s no manner we not constructed like that and I simply actually wished to simply infuse the workforce within the sense of, come on man, we obtained to compete man. We will’t let these dudes, there’s no manner we will let these dudes punk us like this. I had a second, man, I blacked out. It was fairly– they mentioned I used to be in gamers’ faces and so we went again to Cleveland man and the fellas, they responded to simply competing and we received recreation three, we ended up dropping recreation 4 and we get into the locker room and T Lou was so calm and him and LeBron [James] they usually had been tremendous calm…TLou was like convey it in– In the event you don’t assume we will win recreation 5, don’t get on the airplane. And LeBron was like, hell yeah and that was it. Introduced it in, cats went their manner. We get on that airplane and man that recreation 5, bro, that’s in all probability one of the crucial historic– oh my God watching Kyrie and LeBron, folks might say no matter they need. Draymond was out, man, I don’t care. We nonetheless needed to win the sport. Them cats nonetheless needed to compete and carry out. Man, that’s in all probability one of the crucial epic duo performances I’ve ever seen in my life. Them cats, they went to work and it was like all they mentioned was, we win recreation 5, we get again to Cleveland, it’s over.”
- (50:24): PHIL SAYS THERE WAS NO TENSION BETWEEN KYRIE IRVING AND LEBRON JAMES WHEN KYRIE WANTED TO LEAVE THE CAVALIERS
PHIL: “Yeah, no tensions. Kyrie will overtly let you know, he was only a younger cat man. He was younger. I don’t need to say he was immature, however he was a younger cat that wished to run his personal ship and so he obtained to a degree after, I feel it was the fourth 12 months we had been to the finals. Kyrie was sort like, man, I’m able to be out from beneath his thumb. I need to do my very own factor and simply check the water and see if I can lead my very own workforce and there was no rift between these two. The way in which the entire commerce state of affairs got here, in fact the media goes to must say this or they obtained to take a position on no matter they need to speculate however Kyrie simply on the finish of the day, he simply felt like, man, I need my very own workforce. I need to see if I might check the waters and be my very own man. I feel he’s had interviews the place he talked about like, man, if I’d needed to do it over once more, I’d in all probability make a distinct determination as a result of him and LeBron, man, he had been two completely different folks. However that duo man was, they had been harmful bro.”
