MANILA, Philippines—Not a lot of NBA players can say they got to make memories with two legends in their professional careers.
Even fewer can say they’ve experienced what it’s like being under the tutelage of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James while playing for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Kyle Kuzma is one of the select few.
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“I was very blessed and unfortunate when I first came into the NBA and built a relationship with him and asked him a lot whether it was about basketball, life, business relationships, what to do or not to do,” said Kuzma in a press conference on Monday in Makati.
“Having somebody like that as a mentor to just guide me and take his words and do whatever with them, it’s invaluable.”
Kuzma was a late first-round draft pick by the Lakers in 2017 a year after Bryant retired.
Retirement, however, didn’t stop Bryant from actively helping out the Lakers’ young guns, which included Kuzma.
A year later, LeBron James took his talents to Hollywood and led the Lakers to a championship in 2020 just nine months after Bryant’s death.
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“[I’m] super blessed. Not many people can do that, being able to play with Bron and having a relationship with Kobe,” said Kuzma, who played a key role in the Lakers’ title run.
“There’s so many other people. I’ve played with Rajon Rondo, all-time great Dwight Howard, that list goes so wide and so far and they’re who I learned from so I’m blessed, super blessed.”
Kuzma played four seasons with the Lakers before he was traded to the Washington Wizards in 2021 as part of the Russell Westbrook deal.
Being able to play with Bryant, James and several future Hall of Famers became a point of motivation for Kuzma to do better with the struggling Wizards, who finished with the second-worst record in the league last season.
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Kuzma averaged 22.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists for the Wizards in the 2024 season as Washington’s leading scorer behind Jordan Poole, who normed 16.1 points per outing.
