Stanley Johnson Calls Training With Kobe Last Summer ‘The Hardest Workouts of My Life’

Arizona product Stanley Johnson could be a lottery pick in this year’s NBA Draft. To prepare for life in the League, last summer he worked out with Kobe Bryant before he even got to Zona. Smart kid.

Today at the NBA Combine in Chicago, Johnson described those workouts with Kobe as the “hardest workouts of my life.”

Depending on how the lottery balls fall next week, Johnson could wind up playing alongside Kobe next season.

More, from Mark Medina of the LA Daily News:

His eyes lit up as he recalled the experience, Arizona forward Stanley Johnson fondly remembering exactly what it felt like to train last summer with Lakers star Kobe Bryant.

 

“The hardest workouts of my life,” Johnson said here during the NBA pre-draft combine.

 

So even if the Lakers were not among the initial teams to interview Johnson, the former Mater Dei standout still has an early glimpse on what it be like to team with its star player.

 

“He’s going to be hard on me for sure,” Johnson said of Bryant. “He didn’t give me no excuses because I’m a rookie. He’s going to expect a lot out of me as a rookie. I get to compete with him the days he practices. I know I’m going to get a great leader out of him and he’s going to expect me to do well because he wants to win since it’s his last year. He wants to win and so do I.”