A regular occurrence after practices last season had Los Angeles Lakers assistant coaches Miles Simon and Brian Shaw competing against rookies Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma in a game of around the world.
The entertaining shootouts serve as another example of the competitive spirit head coach Luke Walton has cultivated, and the competitions often include friendly banter and trash-talking.
After one memorable matchup in which Shaw and Walton (filling in for Simon) erased a 2-0 deficit to defeat Ball and Kuzma, the young forward admitted, “B Shaw got in my head. He’s a king trash-talker.