Few people knew Kobe Bryant better than Gary Vitti, the head Lakers trainer who worked closely with the future Hall of Famer for his entire career. And what amazed Vitti the most was how unspectacular Bryant was from a pure athletic standpoint.
“If you really look at Kobe from the perspective that an athletic trainer would, there’s nothing special about him,” he told CBS This Morning.
And, yet, Bryant would become great anyway.
“He worked harder than anyone that I’ve ever been around,” said Vitti, who along with Bryant retired in 2016 after a 32-year career.
Bryant died tragically at the age of 41 on Sunday in a helicopter accident with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others. After Vitti was honored in 2016, Bryant said of Vitti, “What he meant to my career is [something that] you can’t really put into words.”
Fighting back tears and sharing touching memories, Vitti opened up about their time together. The two would often joke that he watched Bryant grow up and Bryant watched him grow old.
Gary Vitti hugs Kobe Bryant in 2016.Getty Images“I was not supposed to outlive Kobe Bryant,” said Vitti, who’s 65 or 66 years old.
His favorite memory was the 2000 NBA Finals against the Pacers, the first of five titles Bryant would win.
“He really blew his ankle out,” Vitti said. “I’m mobilizing his foot, like moving bones around in his foot, and all of the sudden, he feels, and I feel, a pop … and I said, ‘This is either going to be really good or really bad.'”
Bryant would score 28 points on the bad wheel and go on to enjoy a remarkable career. But Sunday, he was gone.
“This is truly a tragedy,” Vitti said.
