Getty Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant and Chicago Bulls guard Michael Jordan talk during a free-throw attempt.
Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan were two of the best to ever do it on an NBA court.
What were the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls icons like?
On a recent episode of the Scoop B Radio Podcast, I asked Sacramento Kings scout, Adam Filippi who has worked as a scout for both the Charlotte Hornets, the team MJ owns, as well as the Lakers.
Check out a snippet from our Q&A below:
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: You discussed having three daughters yourself and kind of their reaction to Gianna’s passing. Can you dive into how it’s been like in your home since the news that came out about Kobe?
Adam Filippi: You know honestly I started getting texts, and I didn’t know it was true. My daughters are 18, 14 and 12 and they’re all on social media that’s how they get information of course. Well they texted me about what happened and of course I had to get online and check and unfortunately it was true, and my kids were so sad and crying. They don’t follow basketball that much. But for some reason, this really hit them and all we talked about in our back and forth texting and family chat was we’re just hoping that none of the kids were on board. And as the day went on 30 minutes later, unfortunately they announced that Gigi was on the helicopter and that was what brought us all just to major tears and my daughters were so upset about it. I think it’s because they kind of relate to maybe you know I mean Kobe had four daughters, I have three, but I think when you look at your kids as a whole as a team and losing one member is just devastating for the rest of the family obviously and for little girls, especially I think they maybe related to that and my wife definitely did. My wife is ice. She’s tough and she just broke down. She’s a schoolteacher and she had a hard time teaching today she told me, and I live away from my family. They live in Europe, I live over here so for me it was very hard not to be able to go over and hug them and tell them that I love them. I think every parent fells that way.
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: [sadly] Yeah…. You being around Kobe, you being brought up in Italy watching him and then you both being employed by the Los Angeles Lakers organization, when you look at Kobe and his legacy as a basketball player and a human being, as well as his work ethic how could you summarize that in two sentences?
Adam Filippi: His legacy in two sentences…. I don’t know. I’ll be honest. In these last two days, I have not thought about him with a Laker uniform on in real gapes. I just kind of reflected on the tragedy and, how nice he was to me, and seeing him behind closed doors in practice. I did not reflect on him being who he is but I could pick two words that scouts look for in players, I would say: professional is a word that I use all the time with him. He was so professional at all times. I mean the way he handled himself with the media, with attention from fans, I mean even Michael Jordan sometimes would say I can’t sign this or doesn’t want to sign autographs…it’s so hard being bigger than life. And he was bigger than life and he handled it extremely well especially for a person who did not want to be in the spotlight that much. So to me, I think he was the star who was professional and capable of handling it the right way instead of falling into the “Hollywood” thing or being just you know, not polite to the media, to fans, to people who wanted something from him. He tried his best to make all his fans happy and the media happy. And he did it with a smile and with just a professional approach.
Brandon ‘Scoop B; Robinson: In your lifetime is there anybody else through scouting, just living, breathing, sleeping basketball that you’ve come across that you can give that characterization to? What other people would you give that characterization the way that you just described Kobe?
Adam Filippi: Nobody. Not even close. I’ve been doing this for 23 years almost, obviously I didn’t play at the highest level, I’ve been around players that have had great leadership or great competitiveness, or great skills but put everything together…Nobody. And I have worked with Michael Jordan but not as a player but as the owner of the team, so I cannot make that comparison because I wasn’t around him. But I cannot even think of anybody who comes close from a competitive standpoint, from a technical standpoint, from an emotional standpoint I just cannot think of anybody that I would even mention in the same phrase as Kobe.