NBA king-maker

“Everybody participates in the glory. We all have our roles.”—  Phil Handy

You may not realize it, but Phil Handy has been a huge contributor to the success of your favorite basketball teams for a while now. The champion assistant coach has won titles with three different teams, and has trained a veritable Who’s Who of the greatest hoops professionals of all time for over a decade now. He has helped propel teams to the NBA Finals for a record six straight seasons, from 2015 to 2020. It is his passion and his purpose, to help these elite athletes get better.

As the youngest of six boys, Handy first became aware of basketball as a way to belong. His brothers constantly played it. By age four, he wanted to do it, too. It was the game that glued the siblings together. And even as a child, his brothers would tell stories about how he would form his own teams, together, acting like a little general manager, creating his own tournaments and match-ups and so on. That early, they all knew that basketball was in the cards for him. As his brothers played their way through the college system, he wanted to be like them. His parents also made sure to broaden the boys’ awareness and experience through travel. One of the places they vacationed in annually was Hawaii, and that’s where Phil played college ball. After graduating from the University of Hawaii and winning a Western Athletic Conference Championship with the Rainbow Warriors, the 6’5” guard played for the Golden State Warriors. That’s when he realized that basketball would be a profession for him. And true enough, he spent the majority of his career in five different countries in Europe, winding down with a couple of years in Australia.

“I left home and I never really came back,” Handy said in an exclusive interview with The Star. “From that point when I went to Hawaii, travel was going to be a part of my life. I think it’s just a great opportunity to learn about different cultures and different people.”

After he retired in 2003, Phil moved back to the US to be with his family. His parents and brothers were all getting older, and he wanted to spend time at home. Moreover, he relished being able to rest his body and own his time. After more than two decades of training, playing and traveling through the Continental Basketball Association (where he made the All-Rookie Team); France, Italy, Germany, Spain, the UK and Down Under, he could wake up when he wanted to, go to the gym if and when he wanted to, eat what he wanted, and just enjoy life.

“My whole life, I had to watch what I eat, work out at a certain time, keep myself in shape,” Handy explains. “And you know, that’s very demanding on your body. That’s what we sign up for, but I recognized at that moment, I didn’t want to do that anymore. I was content; I had a great career. It gave me an opportunity to dive more into training. I didn’t know that I would become a trainer. I just knew that I wanted to do something in basketball. So when I retired, it wasn’t that hard to let go. It was just a natural progression for me.”

The veteran import also realized that his urge to compete as a player had already been satiated. He had had a successful career, but still wanted to give back to the game. Handy started a new business: training elite basketball players. So when Mike Brown took over as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in 2011, Handy was ready to join him in pioneering this newfangled field called “player development.” But first, he had to earn the respect of one of the greatest players and hardest workers the game had ever seen: Kobe Bryant.

To be continued.