In becoming an NBA elder statesman, Kobe Bryant has adapted the role as coach on the court with the younger Los Angeles Lakers.
Don't expect Bryant to embrace that role once his playing days are ended, his new head coach says.
Yahoo! Sports reported Wednesday that first-year Lakers coach Byron Scott, who played with Bryant when Bryant came into the league, says Bryant does not have the patience to make the transition to the bench when he decides to retire.
"He's too tough," Scott said after the Lakers' first practice on Tuesday. "He would probably be a whole lot more demanding than Pat Riley, myself and guys like that. It would be tough. Plus, he would expect guys to play like him, to have that type of passion that he has for the game. And to have the love for the game that he has and to have that commitment.
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"Guys today just don't have that like he does. He's just a dying breed. I don't think he would bode well if he wanted to coach."
Phil Jackson said a similar sentiment about Bryant last week, USA TODAY Sports reported.
"No one can approach that. I don't expect anybody to be able to model their behavior after that, although Kobe modeled his behavior a lot about Michael Jordan," Jackson said. "But he went beyond Michael in his attitude towards training, and I know Mike would probably question me saying that, but he did."
Both Scott and Bryant did say that their relationship now has picked up where it left off when Scott was mentoring both Bryant and Derek Fisher during the 1996-97 season, when the two rookies joined the then-36-year-old Scott on the Lakers' team.
"It's no accident if you look at the young guys on that team and how we turned out with myself and Derek Fisher," Bryant said of the relationship with Scott, according to Yahoo! Sports. "We had an incredible veteran."
Fisher earlier this summer was named head coach of the New York Knicks.
Bryant recently has indicated that he wants to enter the business world, picking the brains of several moguls, including Oprah Winfrey and never has expressed an interest in coaching.
But if enough people keep saying that Bryant wouldn't make a good coach, who more than Bryant would want to prove those people wrong?
Do you think Kobe Bryant would make a good coach in the NBA? Comment below or tell us @SportsWN.
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