SAN ANTONIO — All of Carter Bryant's friends grew up that way. So did he. But the Southern California native had one advantage over the rest: He shared a last name.
"I was a Kobe Bryant guy," Bryant admitted. "And then all of my favorite players growing up were Kobe disciples. You hear their stories, and picking people's brains ... I've always been wired (to think) the only way to get better than people is to outwork them."
He continued: "You hear Kobe talk about the idea of 'compound interest.' You just keep working and working, and over time, you're going to be too far for guys to catch you."
Bryant grew up in Riverside, Calif., about 82 miles from Pepperdine University — one of many places he'd heard Kobe spent long hours in the gym. Bryant also heard the famous tales: Kobe taking a 40-mile bike ride through the desert at night and teaching himself the first movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano entirely by ear.
The San Antonio Spurs' forward had no intentions of swimming the San Antonio River or repainting the "Mona Lisa" this summer, but he had one concrete goal for his second season.
"I'm trying to be a ceiling-riser," Bryant said Wednesday night after the Spurs' 123-103 preseason win over the Phoenix Suns. "We're a damn good team with me off the floor, but how can I make this group better when I'm on the floor? How can I be important?"
Coming off his first visit to the NBA Finals, Bryant took an opportunity to re-evaluate his game. He entered the league as a promising 3-point shooter with high defensive upside, and by June, he'd shown flashes of those talents. He needed to work on confidence.
"He has a lot of upside," Devin Vassell said of Bryant during training camp. "He just needs to understand (that) playing simple, playing the right way, will get you a long way."
At first, that mental block manifested itself in a dunking problem. Bryant, despite his 6-foot-6 frame, couldn't finish lob attempts or flush a basketball with two hands. Later in the season, it turned into hesitation from beyond the arc. After the rookie sank five 3s against the Portland Trail Blazers in early April, he revealed his teammates were on him about it.
"Going through a full season and making a lot of bad mistakes," Bryant began, "really bad, embarrassing mistakes, gave me a baseline of ... this is what I need to get better at. And I just attacked that this summer. It was playing off on close-outs and making open shots."
Bryant reported to the gym at 4 a.m. most days for his first workout, followed by another session at 7 a.m.. After those, he'd go home and recover until he went back for more around 3 p.m., hoping to improve at the little things he felt could earn him more minutes in Year 2.
His final session — shots only, he says — came at some point in the evening.
"I would make about 500 there," Bryant said. "The total of my day was for sure over 1,000."
Bryant's impact has already looked encouraging. In his two healthy preseason appearances — the forward rolled his ankle against the Suns on the road — he's averaged 13.5 points, five rebounds and two combined steals and blocks on 6-for-12 shooting from 3-point range.
His shot looks smoother, but his swagger has already caught the attention of his teammates.
"He's a lot more confident," De'Aaron Fox said. "He knows that we want him to shoot. We want him to play with energy ... just trying to make the game as simple as possible for him."
Outside of his independent work, Bryant soaked up all he could from training camp. While he arrived at Victory Capital Performance Center with better ball-handling, shooting and lateral quickness, he had plenty more to learn about playing relentless defense.
Guarding Fox, Stephon Castle, Victor Wembanyama, Dylan Harper and Julian Champagnie in perpetual motion over the span of five days proved an effective lesson.
"There's no days where ... I get a break," Bryant said. "You just keep looking down the list and it's like, these dudes work ... I think that's why everybody on this team is so talented."
After spending most of last season watching Vassell — his self-proclaimed favorite player in the league — work out, Bryant also took a few things from Harrison Barnes' workout regimen. As it turns out, taking after a 34-year-old NBA champion has its perks.
"The biggest thing I learned was the efficiency of working out," Bryant explained. "H.B. is the best example I've ever seen. H.B. will work out for 35 minutes, 40 minutes, and work his ass off for those minutes ... and then he'll come back and do the same thing."
Bryant took that approach into his offseason training. Resisting the urge to associate longer gym hours with better results allowed him to further hone his shooting, ball-handling and rebounding. He went from needing 90 minutes to make 500 shots to 45 by September.
"Getting better doesn't always look like running yourself into the ground," Bryant said. "Sometimes that's unproductive. You start getting tired. You're creating bad habits."
This preseason, Bryant has made progress addressing those. Mitch Johnson claims he can make a few better reads and take a few better angles, but he's on the right track.
"I think he's putting his energy into the right spots," the coach said.
In his heyday, the same could have been said about Kobe Bryant. And while he spent his days practicing three hours before practice in the dark without a ball, Carter Bryant found four-a-day workouts and 1,000 made shots did the trick just fine.
The Spurs don't need Bryant to carry the load Kobe once did for the Los Angeles Lakers, but still just 20 years old, the forward is OK with that. He'll be his own Bryant.
"I just have to make shots, get paint touches and finish at the rim," he said. "That's not too difficult of a role ... they make my life easy."
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