Kobe Bryant's Former Coach Trains Indonesian Students In The 2023 Indonesia All-Star DBL Squad

Former coach of Kobe Bryant, Micah Lancaster, while training Indonesian students. (Photo: Doc. DBL Indonesia)

JAKARTA – A number of students who are members of the elite DBL Indonesia All-Star 2023 basketball squad have gained valuable experience. They get guidance from agility coach, Micah Lancaster, in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Monday, July 3, 2023.

Micah is not just any trainer. He previously coached the late basketball legend, Kobe Bryant.

In addition to coaching Bryant, Micah was the agility coach for many top NBA players such as Victor Oladipo, Karl-Anthony Towns, Brandon Ingram, and Mario Chalmers.

He even got the chance to become one of the actors in the movie "Hustle" thanks to his abilities.

"Many players train with me because I am known as a coach who is able to find player weaknesses and exploit them. So, today you will make a lot of mistakes which is very natural," said Micah.

Micah is an individual coach that players need to find out their weaknesses and improve them for next season. He is a person who is very detailed in seeing every movement of the players he trains.

"The training material that I give young players and the NBA is basically the same. I don't discriminate. I also provide material that they can continue to practice even if they are not here. If they continue to train that, I'm sure they will continue to get better," he said.

The practice opens with dribbles. There are several variants used by Micah to strengthen the fundamentals of the players' ball bounce. Including one hand dribble and one other hand holding and playing with a medicine ball.

"Dribble is an important factor in basketball. I don't want what happens in your right hand (when holding a medicine ball) to affect your dribble in your left hand, and vice versa. You have to be able to control both equally well," he explained.

The session continues with offensive moves. In this session, the players were faced with a drill about reading the opponent, or the term read the defender.

The players are required to stop at one point after driving, then press the cone which has an automatic light.

Each color of the light requires them to make certain movements such as continuing to drive to the basket, side step then shoot, as well as between the leg crossover then drive to the basket.

The last training menu is to do a good layup plus finishing bounced off the board that has been marked. Here, the players must start their layup steps and land at a predetermined place. In terms of direction, the place that Micah determined made the players stay away from the ring.

Here, the goal is for the players to be able to also finish even when the situation is difficult and not quite balanced by knowing the direction of their jump-land and the bounce area on the ring board.