The Maestro

Kobe Bryant was the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart of hoops technique

BY DAVID THORPE

When I train NBA players in the summer, we start at 9 a.m. or later, mostly to allow me to see my kids in the morning. One summer, my client Kevin Martin called me. He said he knew Kobe was doing 5 a.m. workouts all summer, and since Kobe and he often matched up … shouldn't he do early morning workouts too? 

Well, I still wanted to see my twins every morning, so we stuck with our normal schedule. The young players would arrive by 9:30 to dress and stretch. Kevin would roll in at 10 sharp, dressed and ready. No stretching. 

One summer, a few rookies made fun of me for allowing the player they saw as "your son" to get away with being late and not stretching. They made fun of him too, but he never offered an excuse. 

Eventually, I had enough. "You dumb fucks. Kevin begged me to work out at the crack of dawn like Kobe, but I refused. So he gets up early, eats a healthy breakfast, then does his performance and strength training at 7:30 with his personal trainer. Then he drives …