NBA Trainer Alex Bazzell Opens Up About How Kobe Bryant Impacted his Life

NBA skills coach Alex Bazzel has been heralded as one of the best trainers in the NBA. After working with stars like Kyrie Irving and Kobe Bryant, Bazzell has built a platform for basketball training along with NBA star Carmelo Anthony.

He aims to build a platform where people learn from the best. Recently, Bazzel sat down for an interview with Sports Illustrated, where he reminisced how NBA legend late Kobe Bryant inspired him to launch the platform.

He said, “Kobe Bryant basically took me under his wing. He was my mentor for the last two-and-a-half years. I didn’t really start working on ‘Through the Lens’ during that time.

“I had this concept that was constantly rolling before the accident and it was something that he had talked to me about wanting to work with me on it but it was never a specific, ‘Hey, let’s do this, this or this.’ There was no company name. There was nothing like that. He just wanted to help me.

“We kind of always aligned with our thought process of women’s basketball and also just training in general. So we’ve always aligned in that way. And obviously, once January happened, the accident happened, I took a step back cause, Kobe’s loss was extremely tough for me, but what was tougher was I worked with not only Gigi [Bryant], but Alyssa [Altobelli] and Payton [Chester], who are two who were on the flight as well.

“I was working with their team two or three times a week down in L.A. So that news kind of took me away from everything, training, anything work-related for probably a month and a half. I didn’t really want to do anything. It was just tough.”

Bazzell Reveals why this program is a tribute to Kobe Bryant

‘Through the Lens‘ was a dream project of Kobe and Alex. Kobe’s demise provided Bazzell with an extra motivation to launch this program. He revealed why this program is a tribute to Kobe.

“I started to build ‘Through the Lens’ in March and I just felt this need to do my part. Kobe’s legacy is cemented and whatever I do is not going to change his legacy but being around him, learning from him and being mentored by him, I felt this responsibility to at least pull my weight and what that looked like was trying to pull everyone together for this common goal of, This is what needs to be accomplished.

“So it helped me heal in a way that I knew I had a responsibility to try to do just because of all the conversations that we had. And I was just trying to figure out the best way to do that.”

Through the Lens will feature the best athletes in the game mentoring the younger players. It will certainly be very helpful for young players trying to elevate their game.