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| With TJ Manotoc and Duke Pryor at the Smart Araneta Coliseum watching the UAAP games. |
This appears on nba.com
Charles
‘Duke’ Pryor: On mentoring Kobe Bryant
by rick olivares
Kobe Bryant is positive that he can
make a comeback from his season-ending Achilles tendon injury to be in the Los
Angeles Lakers’ starting lineup come the new season’s pre-season tip-off.
His long-time trainer, Tim Grover, is
in charge of rebuilding the 34-year old Bryant’s body into one that is perhaps
better, by the new season.
However, while Grover, who was also
Michael Jordan’s personal trainer during the Chicago Bulls’ heyday in the
1990s, handles the physical aspect, there’s another man in the background who
is working on Bryant’s mindset.
Welcome Charles ‘Duke’ Pryor.
Pryor has spent the past decade
working with the NBA and the US NCAA as well as celebrities and entertainers
with their ‘life goals’.
Duke is Bryant’s ‘mentor’.
What Duke does is to guide and inspire
players.
Pryor is in Manila to explore possibilities
with the Tao Corporation, one of the Philippines’ top 100 companies, whose core
business include health and wellness, distribution and marketing, as well as
resources and financial services.
Pryor’s joined Bryant during his
recent press conference in Manila where the NBA star promoted Lenovo’s brand of
smart phones and later gave an inspirational talk to a select audience. There
were no tell-tale signs of Kobe’s injury as he walked without a limp.
“(He’s a) Tremendous man,” marveled
Pryor who stayed on even after Bryant had left Manila to return to the United
States. “Working with Kobe has been easy. He’s been a great person off the
court.”
Pryor spoke of mentoring Bryant after
he suffered an season-ending Achilles tendon injury last April 12.
“Any elite athlete who goes down and
has never experienced something like that (a major injury), they are always
going to get down on themselves because this is something new something;
something they haven’t experienced before,” explained Pryor who refused to
divulge the names of other NBA players he has mentored before due to
confidentiality agreements.
“What we do is to figure out why a
player got hurt. Why you’re in this situation. How do we take you back to the
same or higher level.”
But Duke warned that mentoring isn’t a
cake walk. “Life coaching isn’t easy because most people do not want to talk
about their lives to friends or family because they do not want to get judged.
That is why sometimes they talk to other people.”
The methodology sounds simple, but
Duke assures it is not. “We initially sit down and talk get to know each other.
You have to gain their trust and when you do, then you go back to the root of
what caused these things. Roots are real deep. You have get to the root of the
problem and to be honest with yourself.”
“And Kobe is a marvelous client,”
summed up Pryor. “He’ll be ready and as good as ever when the new NBA season
tips off.”
When Pryor isn’t mentoring athletes or
celebrities, he goes home to Indiana where he spends time with his family and
coaches in a youth basketball league.
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THANKS, TJ!
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