New York Knicks starting forward Julius Randle is currently recovering from a shoulder injury sustained earlier in the season. Randle played a key role for a Knicks team that dominated the Eastern Conference at one point in January, but his injury, combined with the absences of OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson, now have New York scrambling to avoid the dreaded berth of Play-Ins in the next postseason.
Of course, Randle’s career began when he was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2014, who at that time still employed the late Kobe Bryant.
Randle recently stopped by the Roommates Show podcast, hosted by Playmaker, with his Knicks teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, to discuss some of the rigorous training methods he took part in with the late Lakers legend.
“I had a workout with this guy at 5:00 in the morning, and we did straight defense for two hours, and I’ve never had a workout like that. I’m not talking about training or anything, like one-on-one training, bro, like you come to the gym to work on your game, it’s like no, let’s do some defensive slides bro at 5 in the morning and conditioning,” Randle said. “I wonder , bro, what the hell is this? Bro, it’s crazy. And he says no, bro, you can’t slide your feet like that. Like you have to do it this way, like even this one he’s super detailed and I I’m like, man, oh this is a level like that, he was just obsessed. Like he dedicated his life to this craft and for me to grow up watching him idolize it, it was such an inspiration and to this day I still get chills talking about it.”
Kobe Bryant became known for, among other things, his legendary work ethic during his tenure with the Lakers, some of which evidently rubbed off on the future Knicks forward.