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Right after that, the Kobe clinic started. It was before the preseason and all the guys were at the gym playing pick-up — just the players. Kobe comes in. Everyone’s choosing their matchups and no one picked up Kobe. Surprise, surprise, right? I was the only one left.

“JC, you got Kobe!” Someone yelled.

It wasn’t even preseason yet, but Kobe was going full speed. Somehow he made it look as if he was just gliding around. I don’t think he had played all summer due to his injury, but he still killed everyone. The first possession, he caught the rock along the baseline and hit a turn-around jumper in my face … a shot I’ve seen him hit literally a thousand times on TV.

“Hey, don’t hurt yourself, young fella,” Kobe uttered to me.

It was one of my “Welcome to the NBA” moments. I experienced a few of those moments during my rookie year. I had the unenviable task of guarding Kobe throughout training camp. There aren’t too many guys who get an opportunity to sit down, talk to Kobe and actually pick his brain, but I was afforded this privilege. It was an incredible learning experience for me, to say the least. For all the stories you hear about Kobe talking trash and demanding a lot from his teammates, on many occasions he’s picked us up, too. He leads by example; however, you don’t hear about that much in the media.

Aside from the rookie duties, another huge aspect was developing friendships with team veterans. Despite having such an off year for Laker Nation, our unit was still pretty close. Nick Young and Carlos Boozer took me under their wings on the road. There were no internal conflicts that you hear about on some teams when they go through tough times.

The bond wasn’t always about basketball. It was more about us being a family off the court. Sometimes you’ll hear about rookies feeling isolated — you go into your hotel room, order room service and you’re solo. My experience was the complete opposite. Carlos would be like, “Yo, JC, we’re going out to eat. Be downstairs at 7:30.” It wasn’t an invitation, but more like an order. Nick is a big shopper, so he would always let me know when they’d go to the mall. They always kept me in the loop, and that made me feel included as the newest player.

Kilroy wrote:This is why I think we might need to bring Boozer back... He's the locker room glue guy between the young guys and the vets, namely Kobe.
But one's enough and Young should bounce... High and far.

aaron_gray wrote:Was the Bulls game the one where Jordan Hill became Michael Jordan?

Sofa King wrote:

Kilroy wrote:This is why I think we might need to bring Boozer back... He's the locker room glue guy between the young guys and the vets, namely Kobe.
But one's enough and Young should bounce... High and far.

Bass will fill Boozers role on and off the court