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Be the type of player people want to play with.
I’m going to take a pause on football chatter for today’s Links to talk about a topic very near and dear to my heart, our favorite LA Clipper, Kobe Brown. During a perusal of The Site Formerly Known as Twitter, I found a recent (amazing) article on KB from LA Times staff writer, Andrew Greif. I liked the story so much, in fact, I didn’t share it with Josh for his links so I could have it for MINE. Teehee.
Now, Missouri fans should be aware of how Kobe got his name — if you’re not, were you even a Missouri/Kobe Brown fan?! — but in case you’ve forgotten, it comes from Brown’s dad Greg taking one of his high school players to La Salle for a visit and spending time with assistant coach Joe Bryant, and taking in the otherworldly star that was Kobe Bryant even in high school. it wasn’t just the play that got the elder Brown excited; it was the whole package.
Standing in the high school’s hallway with Bryant’s father afterward, Brown marveled as several students, each speaking a different language, congratulated Kobe, who thanked them in their language.
“When I heard him speak to those guys in those different languages that just blew my mind,” Brown said. “That did everything. He dotted all the Is and crossed all the Ts. I said my son has to be like this.”
At Lee High School, Kobe was used just like his namesake, as a center on defense and a point guard on offense. And along the way, he learned to follow one golden rule in his basketball family: Be the type of player that people want to play with. So he learned from watching Bryant just as he learned from watching another Laker, Magic Johnson. And he learned from absorbing how his dad coached from the bench at Lee. This golden rule is what people loved about Kobe at Missouri, and what the Clips loved about him enough to draft him.
If there is any suited to succeed in the face of limited minutes and a changing role within coach Tyronn Lue’s rotation, it might very well be a player of Brown’s background, whose unselfishness regularly cost him exposure as a recruit, but at 23 could prepare him to be malleable enough to fit his new team’s needs.
Might it have helped Kobe’s college recruitment to be more of a type to worry about getting his? Yes, of course. But he ended up at Missouri and for that, we are so, so (infinitely so) thankful. Under Zo’s system, he was a power forward and sometimes ball-handler, which put Kobe out of his comfort zone but made him “more comfortable playing in traffic with physicality while defending bigger opponents,” per Greif. He became a tougher player under Zo. And with Gates and CY, he returned to his comfort zone, and he excelled.
Tigers assistant Charlton Young joined Gates’ Missouri staff from Florida State, where he coached Terance Mann. In Brown, Young said he saw the same ability to make winning plays that has turned Mann from a rookie on a two-way contract into a rotation player so highly regarded that the Clippers have not shown interest in including him in any trade for James Harden.
“Instead of taking 500 or 1,000 shots he came in and took 250 perfect shots a day,” Young said. “He came in and stuck the landing with his balance on each one.”
I remember watching Kobe’s summer league performances and thinking, wow, those efficiency numbers are not like the Mizzou ones but chalked it up to maybe some overzealousness with coming to terms with his lifelong dream. Fans weren’t used to seeing KB launch a bunch of shots. But as well all learned, the NBA is in a different stratosphere, and the summer league coaching staff encouraged Brown to be ready to take as many open shots as possible.
In less than two weeks, Jones said, Brown had impressed him with his “unique skill set” molded in part by those around Brown who had pushed him throughout his earliest years to play like a well-rounded teammate, not an overbearing one. At several points during Brown’s 35-point game in Las Vegas, Lue, seated on the baseline next to assistants, uttered compliments after Brown’s steals and blocks.
“He can do a lot of things without having the ball in his hands, as you saw,” Jones said. “...He can do a bunch of different things to complement the cast that we have already. He knows he’s a basketball player first. He doesn’t hang his hat on scoring. He hangs his hat on having a positive effect on the game of basketball.”
I’m sure y’all think I regurgitated this whole article here, but I didn’t! There was more, so be sure to check it out. It was so good. So good!
Next up, now that Kobe has returned to LA to begin life as a Clipper— whole team practices with a new group of players to learn from. How exciting. HOW EXCITING.
The Rook pic.twitter.com/vZLGrPYmtU
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) July 13, 2023
On to the Links!
Yesterday at Rock M
- Another day, another TE question: Is Mizzou’s next star TE on the roster? (by Josh, Parker and Quentin)
- Jaden grabbed some player quotes from Tuesday’s practice
- Matthew interviewed former All-American turned comedian, Greg Warren. His memory is amazing, and has a lot of fun stories
- SBN Reacts: Other than Luther Burden, who will be Mizzou’s most important receiver?
- IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Sam and Matt chatted LIVE about the addition of Marcus Allen to the 2024 mix |
More Links:
Football
- Kansas City Star: Brady Cook in a good spot as Mizzou QB battle continues: ‘Picked up where he left off’ (Mason Young) | Don’t blame Big 12 for conference realignment. They didn’t create this (Sam McDowell)
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Listen to Ben Fred & Matter’s new Eye on the Tigers Pod— Mizzou football marches on while realignment madness strikes again
- Columbia Tribune: Mizzou football’s star corners look to improve on breakout year (Calum McAndrew)
- Columbia Missourian: Depth, improvement highlight Tigers’ offensive line competition (Brandon Haynes— hey, we know him!!)
- PowerMizzou: Mizzou football notebook: Walker’s role, DE depth, & Robinson’s development (Jarod Hamilton) | Catching up with Missouri safety commit Jackson Hancock (Sean Williams) | Watch this interview with Nathaniel Peat
- Yahoo!Sports: In somehow even weirder realignment news, the ACC is considering SMU in addition to Cal and Stanford in expansion talks (Ross Dellenger)
They do realize the Atlantic and Pacific oceans aren’t the same, right?!
conference administrators pic.twitter.com/DmDG9Ptn2Y
— Lucy Rohden (@lucy_rohden) August 8, 2023
- WTG, Javon!
.@_ybvon listed at the #️⃣2️⃣ offensive lineman in the SEC (per @PFF ) #MIZ | #STP pic.twitter.com/WqesAbs8MR
— Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball) August 8, 2023
- It’s Luther Time. And putting time.
That’s it. That’s all.@lutherburden3 | #STP pic.twitter.com/rxoMs3PO4f
— Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball) August 7, 2023
Just tap it in. ⛳️#MIZ pic.twitter.com/Hd4KlY8szk
— Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball) August 8, 2023
Other Mizzou Sports
- New Hoops commit Marcus Allen breaks down Mizzou commitment (Drew King, PowerMizzou)
- Welcome, DeMyla Brown!
A tight-knit group
— Mizzou Basketball (@MizzouWBB) August 8, 2023
Get to know, @demylabrown! pic.twitter.com/tk6fBXQKpx
- MU soccer started their season with a 2-0 exhibition win over Memphis, per Missourian reports. Forward Nicole Icen scored the first goal with a header off a free kick by midfielder Milena Fischer. Forward Kylee Simmons later scored to make it 2-0. They’ll play another exhibition match on Saturday at OK State, and then kick off their season a week from now.
- In Missourian Track & Field coverage, MU incoming freshman Sterling Scott won a U20 Pan Am triple jump gold medal with a personal best of 51 ft, 5 in Puerto Rico. Former UW grad assistant Tanner Anderson will join the staff as a middle-distance and distance assistant, as well as recruiting coordinator.
- Happy retirement to longtime athletic director, Eric McDonnell!
Longtime Mizzou athletic trainer Eric McDonnell is retiring. Has been working with MU athletes since 1982. https://t.co/iCP1qRTnD9
— Dave Matter (@Dave_Matter) August 7, 2023
- New season, new coach, new court, new team. Lookin good, Mizzou Volleyball!
New season… New court. #MIZ pic.twitter.com/SYNyPurjxH
— Mizzou Volleyball (@MizzouVB) August 8, 2023
- We have an answer to the KJ signal! Welcome, no. 7 Missouri prospect and Class of 2024 St. Louis native, Tytus Cissell! He’s an INF/OF switch hitter. Versatile. I like it!
Kerrick Jackson lands another in-state commitment from Francis Howell High School. Cissell is ranked as the 7th best prospect in the state of Missouri’s 2024 Class and 318th nationally according to Prep Baseball Report. Good in-state get for #Mizzou Baseball. https://t.co/uutYmwGEjr
— Sammy Stava (@StavaonSTL) August 8, 2023
- And later Tuesday another player confirmed their commitment, Xorian Robinson, who backed out of his 2025 commitment to Memphis and is following KJ to Missouri! Welcome, Xorian! Per Perfect Game, the SS/OF grades out as an “8” which is “potential draft pick and/or excellent college prospect.”
Side note: KJ needs to start stating the year on these signals. I can’t keep track.
I am extremely blessed and excited to announce my commitment to the University of Missouri. I would like to thank God, my family, and all of my coaches.@Im_That_Dad_KJ @BeyondSportsLab @coachbruce1911 pic.twitter.com/xgHMb0ikaN
— Xorian Robinson (@XorianR) August 8, 2023
Former Tiger news
- Watkins was reminiscing and I loved to see it. Brad Smith was my most favorite of Tigers. I wanted one of his no. 16 jerseys so, so bad, and never could find one.
I'm admittedly biased, since our time at Mizzou perfectly overlapped.
— Order On The Court ⚖️ (@DataMizzou) August 8, 2023
But there is nothing, and I mean nothing, that Mizzou football has done since that gives me the same feeling as watching Brad Smith bounce into open space.pic.twitter.com/MhdDTXYLkT
- Sophie time! As of 10:50 pm on Tuesday, she was up to 14pts in 22min and shot 4-6 from three to go with a REB, 2 AST, and 2 PF. All of her points but the two FT were three-pointers. Cool, huh? Go Merc!
https://t.co/T1oq2VmF1B pic.twitter.com/mT7348BYlu
— Phoenix Mercury (@PhoenixMercury) August 9, 2023
- Tyronn Lue, Clippers believe Kobe Brown may steal of NBA Draft (Tomar Azarly, Clutchpoints) from July 28
- Congrats, X-Man!
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