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Well, not exactly with... but on the same court as.

No joke, no lie. Kobe is in my gym shooting right now.

My gym closes at 9, some guy comes down and asks the staff to clear off half the court so Kobe can come shoot. The half of the court I was on. 2 guys were on the other half. So I go over there and shoot with them and a few mins later Kobe comes down with a big body guard and starts shooting. So I got to shoot for about 10 mins 10 ft from my idol! Fasldkf!

Then the staff let me stick around for a few more and watch him, cause I know them all and they always let me stick around a few extra mins since I live in the building.

He looks good. Wasn't wearing anything on the finger and was just draining shot after shot. Literally for 6 or 7 mins he missed like 3 shots. Insane and he was in sweats barely warming up.

Didn't have a cam on me unfortunately, although I don't think it would have mattered. While I was watching I pulled my ipod out of my pocket and the big bouncer dude immediately yelled at me 'no pictures!' Still I probably coulda snuck one in.

Oh well, freaking awesome....

I'm such a damn fanboy, I don't know what to believe

Still freaking estatic. How many people can say they shared a court with the Mamba!

I see NBA guys in there a lot since most of the teams stay here. Kobe is the first to come down and reserve the court to practice that I've seen. Just cool to see him on his off day, working out himself. Dude is focused and there is a reason he's the best. Gives me great pride as a fan to see him working that hard.

THAT'S WHAT'S UP!

The Lakers had practice today, why would he go to some odd gym to shoot? He also has a court at his house. Not buying it.

I live in the Ritz Carlton building, the Lakers stay here when they come to Denver. There is a high end gym owned by the Nuggets trainer in the building that doubles as the Ritz gym.

And thats the point, Kobe is focused, putting in the extra time. I've seen a lot of players come through and wander around a bit or head downstairs to Elway's bar and restaraunt (also in the building). Seen a few get in light workouts or hit the spa, seen a few get in pretty hard workouts (Devean George was doing a full on routine a few weeks ago) but Kobe is the only guy I've seen actually come and work extra on his game.

Buy it or not, it was awesome to see. Sad for me though as I was wearing no Laker gear Did have my Kobe's on, but I have the white ones...

The no finger wrap was interesting too, I wonder if he is working extra hard on his stroke without it to adjust... hmm...

thats ********* sick

sweeeeet

kobe's a hardworking dude

what gym is this?

I believe it. Laker fan in Denver playing ball at Hess' gym though? You should be ashamed of yourself.

Its called Forza

http://www.forzadenver.com/home.html

Haha I know, Laker fan and every day I have to play on a court with a giant Mello logo on it

Now the staff knows my secret though, dunno if they'll be as nice to me haha. The guy that lets me stay late every night was joking he needed to go kick Kobe in the shins. I was like Noooo! Can't hurt the Mamba!

Seriously though, moving into a building with a full bball court and gym just down the elevator has been the best thing I've ever done. I'm 33 and healthier and happier then I have been in years... hard to make excuses not to go when all you have to do is ride down...

I can confirm that Kobe does go to a high end gym (Sports Club LA) out here every now and then, he usually does strength conditioning, I have seen him with world renowned trainer Tim Grover on 3 separate occasions. However, he hasn't been coming recently and the last time i saw him was 3 days prior to Game 1 of the NBA finals. Also he never plays basketball or step foot onto the court. He usually keep to himself and doesn't really talk to anybody except for the staff and a few girls here and there.

Yeah but the Lakers were in Denver tonight, not LA. And if they didn't have practice, it would make sense that Kobe went to the gym that was right there to shoot around a little bit. And given that this guy lives here in Denver and knows the name of the hotel downtown that teams usually stay at, I'd say there is no reason to doubt him.

Was it at this gym?

That would be it. Cool court, actually sits above the street in the skyway.

It's funny because I'm from LA and I saw Carmelo Anthony, JR Smith and Sonny Weems (I think) when they came to play in LA last year. It was actually about four or five hours (like at 2am) after they lost Game 5 to in the WCF. They were walking around West Hollywood and it looked like they were going to bars/clubs. The funny thing is that they had a game less than 48 hours later, and got blow out haha. Go figure.

minnytola1960 wrote:It's funny because I'm from LA and I saw Carmelo Anthony, JR Smith and Sonny Weems (I think) when they came to play in LA last year. It was actually about four or five hours (like at 2am) after they lost Game 5 to in the WCF. They were walking around West Hollywood and it looked like they were going to bars/clubs. The funny thing is that they had a game less than 48 hours later, and got blow out haha. Go figure.

This I don't believe, considering they flew back to Denver that night. Nice try though. I especially liked the part about West Hollywood....funny that you would admit that you yourself hang out down there.

Haha. Well believe what you want, but I would put my life on the fact that this is true. I'm actually not sure if it was exactaly in West Hollywood (I'm from Torrance so I'm not too familiar with the Hollywood area), but it was outside Club Vice, if any of you know where that is.

I believe it. Back in 2000 during the WCF. I was in exile for work aka.. Portland. When the Lakers came to town they had some practices at my gym. ( Club sport) it is an old Costco type gym right across the street from the Blazers practice facility.

Anway, we were running some Saturday morning hoops and the entire team came in. Me being the one of a very few Laker fans in Portland and probably the only one in that gym. It was cool to see, other people ( portland fans ) liked it too, but they won't admit it.

So I did shag a few balls for Bshaw, Harper and Kobe and then Phil came in and they pulled a tarp across the entire back court. Keeping fans and the media out.

At that point, we started playing more pick up games and I ended being on the same team as Jerome ( the guy you always see with Shaq, sits behind the bench, Shaq calls him his uncle.) and Keven Fraiser former Fox sports reporter who was killing time until the practice was over.

Our team owned and we had a cheerleader in Shaq as he wasnt paying attention to practice and sat between the tarp rooting us on. Pretty cool time.

Nice story OP, it's always nice to get close to these guys we watch alot on TV, in a non-stalking type way.

Yeah I believe ya! I once had had a run in with Kobe and Vanessa at the movie theater at the Block in OC. I think I told you dudes about it. Me, My Mom, a few others, Vanessa and Kobe. Were all held up in the theater lobby after seeing Pearl Harbor (I think?) by what seemed to be millions of kids who spotted him from outside. Oh yeah and my Mom recognized him before I did. Shame on me. Long story short security had to let us out a rear service door to evade the screaming mass of kids. It was wild Kobe thought it was funny. Vanessa was nice to all of us and she and Kobe apologized to us since we were "stuck" too. We were all more starstruck than anything.