Kobe Teaches Teammate: Alcohol and Big League Sports Not a Good Mix
From the highest level of the NBA to weekend warriors on inner city courts, alcohol is not a good mix with athletic ability. The faster a rookie learns the lesson, the further and faster his career is likely to progress. Rookies that don’t learn the lesson may turn out like Vin Baker who derailed his career with the SuperSonics, or Keon Clark who played with the Nuggets among other teams. Both had rocky careers that ended early due to alcohol.
During Luke Walton’s rookie year with the Lakers, he once showed up for practice smelling like the alcohol he’d drunk the night before. As far as he was concerned, he probably didn't think he’d done anything different from the other rookies but Kobe Bryant singled him out to teach him an important lesson.
Maybe it wasn’t necessarily a lesson about staying sober as much as it was about not letting the team down. As reported by www.complex.com, Luke said about Kobe, “In his eyes, it was like ‘No, I see and smell weakness’.” Kobe then instructed the other teammates to leave guarding him to Luke alone. No one was to help him. Then Luke would be able to find out for himself what the prior night’s alcohol had done to his game.
Luke thought it was funny, at first. But when no one would help him and when Kobe scored seventy points in that practice game, he got the point. All that alcohol had reduced his ability on the court.
Fortunately, Luke didn’t destroy his career with alcohol. How much did this encounter teach him a lesson he needed? He didn’t say but he played with Kobe and the Lakers for nine years. Then in 2016, he took over the head coaching position for the Lakers.
The Destruction of Ability
We all rely on our abilities, from the loftiest executive to the newest restaurant employee. No matter what people think that drugs and alcohol offer them, the truth is that the use of drugs or the excessive use of alcohol gradually destroys one’s ability to succeed in life. Whether it’s the ability to hold a job, manage a relationship, be a good parent or be on top of one’s game when it really counts, there’s no drug or drink that makes things better.
Substances can push problems and pain to the background for a little while but there are better ways of coping than cocaine, marijuana, booze or other substances. Luckily for Luke, it looks like he got the right message at the right time.
