Kobe a tekkie who loves Manila

MANILA, Philippines - Not too many fans know that Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant was signed to a contract as a Lenovo endorser only for China and the Philippines but East West Private chief executive officer Patty Scott said the other day there are plans to expand the Black Mamba’s involvement globally.

East West Private is a Cincinnati-based wealth and investment management firm with a strong sports portfolio. Because of its relationship with big-name sports stars, East West Private was able to assemble a team of NBA stars for a two-game exhibition series in Manila during the league lock-out two years ago. Among the stars who played in Manila were Bryant, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, JaVale McGee and James Harden.

Scott and two other East West Private partners Chao Espaldon and Charles (Duke) Pryor accompanied Bryant on the Lenovo tour in Beijing and Manila last week. “Signing up Kobe for Lenovo was something we conceptualized with Tao Corp., which distributes Lenovo in the Philippines, and Mr. (Jun) Sy,” said Scott. “We talked it over with J. D. Howard, Lenovo’s vice president for world-wide business development based in Beijing, and made a proposal to Kobe. It wasn’t difficult to get Kobe to agree because first, he’s a gadgets guy, a tekkie who enjoys innovative things and second, he loves Asia. He has fond memories of his travels to Asia and jumped at the chance to visit Manila and Beijing again. Kobe is aware of the Filipino’s passion for the game and that’s why he connects with Filipino fans so easily.”

Scott said Bryant shot a commercial for Lenovo in Los Angeles after the NBA All-Star break and agreed to a summer visit to Asia. “Right now, Kobe’s a Lenovo endorser for China and the Philippines but we intend to expand the scope to cover the entire world,” said Scott. “It’s the next big step we hope to take with Kobe.”

Another step that East West Private has in mind is to set up a youth basketball camp in Manila with Pryor as chief mentor. Pryor, 35, played at Marian University, a Catholic school in Indianapolis, and launched a program called First Team in 2001 to inspire high school basketball players to become critical thinkers for themselves. Pryor developed a course for players to prepare for collegiate-level competition and eventually the NBA. First Team was such a hit that NBA commissioner David Stern and NCAA president Myles Brand got together in 2009 to support the program which they transformed into what is now known as iHoops under the USA Basketball umbrella. Pryor continued to be involved with the program until last year.

“Since we started in 2001, we’ve taken care of roughly 1,000 high school student-athletes about 35 to 40 percent of whom made it to the NBA including Greg Oden, O. J. Mayo, Austin Rivers, Kyrie Irving, Daequan Cook, Brandon Knight, Brandon Wright, Mike Conley and Eric Gordon,” said Pryor whose website is accessible at ForeverYCP.com <http://foreverycp.com/> . “We invite high school freshmen to join us and mentor them to be ready for a basketball or sports career. Some of our high school basketball players later became stars in football or baseball, like Sergio Brown of the Indianapolis Colts and Marcus Gilchrist of the San Diego Chargers. I think one of our busts was Oden because of the injuries he suffered early in his NBA career but he’s making a comeback with the Miami Heat and I think his background with iHoops has made him stronger to take on the challenge of returning to the NBA.”

Pryor is also involved in mentoring and coaching Hollywood celebrities and entertainers and a counseling program called “Hotline for Depression.” But he’s more widely known for his youth sports platform. “I’ve just been on the phone with NBA legend John Lucas who runs KD’s skills academy with Nike and we at East West Private are thinking of bringing him over to Manila for clinics,” said Pryor. “John is a wonderful speaker with a lot of experiences to share. Another impact guy we could invite to Manila is Chris Thomas who’s a basketball trainer and coach. Chris promotes international tours for Kobe, KD and LeBron James.”

Thomas’ basketball program is called 100%Hoops with a focus on high-level performance training based on the sport science of functional movement with fundamental court drills and exercises. Pryor said East West Private could organize a program with Thomas and bring over rising NBA stars like Irving, Shabazz Muhammad of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Austin Rivers of the New Orleans Pelicans to inspire Filipino youth.

“Our thrust is mentoring the youth for the future,” said Pryor. “At iHoops, we invited players from the ninth grade and monitored their progress up to their senior class. We did basketball skills and academic development. Tao Corp.’s Hoop of Hope is a similar program that’s open to kids from 7 to 18 years old.” Last Saturday, Pryor and Ateneo star Kiefer Ravena conducted a Hoop of Hope camp in Quezon City.