This week Andy welcomes a longtime friend to the podcast, Showtime Lakers legend and three-time NBA champion Byron Scott!
Byron grew up in Inglewood, CA in the shadows of the Great Western Forum, home of the Lakers and where he would play 11 seasons in his 14-year NBA career. As a rookie, he played with Kareem, Magic and the Showtime Lakers and in his last NBA season, he returned to the purple and gold and became a mentor to a rookie named Kobe Bryant. Byron went on to coach in the NBA for nearly two decades, returning to his hometown team to coach Kobe’s final two seasons. In this episode, Byron discusses unforgettable moments of the Showtime era and 2022 Showtime Reunion in Maui, what he saw in an 18-year-old Kobe Bryant, leading the NJ Nets to the 2002 NBA Finals against the Lakers, his “Off the Dribble” podcast, his NBA coaching inspirations, why Kareem will always be his GOAT, the legendary rivalry between the Lakers & Celtics, his incredible charity work and so much more!
Byron on the special bond with his Showtime teammates: “Everybody that put that purple and gold on in the ‘80s that won a championship, (Dr. Buss) looked at them as family and that’s how we kind of treated each other. I think that’s the best word that I can use, “family.”…When we got out there, and we went on that court, we were always united, because we played for one common cause: championships. And so I love the fact that even to this day, we all still genuinely love each other… So it wasn’t shocking to me after 37 years to see us all come together and have as much fun as we had.”
Byron on today’s NBA rivalries: “The times of having great rivalries like we did with the Celtics, I think those times are gone. Players don’t hate each other like we did. I mean, hate’s a strong word. But we did… they hated us…the city of Boston hated us, LA hated the city of Boston. I mean, it was a true rivalry. And I don’t think you’ll ever see anything, at least in our lifetime, we’ll ever see anything that’s going to be close to that type of rival.”
Other topics discussed in this episode:
3:24 Showtime Lakers Reunion in Maui
14:35 Byron remembers Kobe’s early signs of stardom
16:54 Byron coaches the Nets to the 2002 NBA Finals against the Lakers
20:10 Byron’s Off the Dribble Podcast
23:08 Byron reveals how four Hall of Famers – Pat Riley, Larry Brown, Rick Adelman and Jerry West – inspired and helped him transition into coaching
27:52 Byron’s take on LeBron breaking Kareem’s scoring record
29:45 How the Lakers-Celtics rivalry carried over into Byron’s coaching career
32:40 Byron discusses his current work, volunteering with charities fighting homelessness and sickle cell anemia and running his soon-to-be-released 3 Points Brand bag business
Check out this week’s Legends of Sport with Byron Scott for a trip down a victorious memory lane and a look into everything Showtime, Lakers, and NBA with two Lakers legends.
