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34 games into their season, it’s safe to say the Los Angeles Lakers are pretty horrible defensively. The purple and gold are allowing 109.8 points per 100 possessions this season, which is worse than their league-defense a year ago, and only saved from being the worst defense in the league by the Portland Trail Blazers offering up less resistance than wet tissue paper.
Lakers head coach Luke Walton wasn’t necessarily expected to fix the Lakers defense right away, but if he wants some tips to help his team defend superstars he might be able to call on an old teammate for help.
Retired Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant partnered with ESPN to release a short video he wrote, directed, and narrated titled “Guarding LeBron” as part of his series on “Defending the Greats.”
The slickly produced video features Kobe sharing his secrets for preparing to defend a great player, including gems like how one has to focus on shutting the player down just to slow them down, intermixed with retro video game-like footage and Looney Tunes clips (seriously).
The video is a fun preview of what Kobe might be up to during his retirement, and well worth six minutes of any Lakers fan’s time.
Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.