INQUIRER Sports

WHEN your ?personal? trainer has scored 81 points in a single NBA game, won the 2008 NBA MVP award, bagged a 2008 Olympics gold medal, been part of the 2009 NBA championship squad and claimed the Finals MVP in the process, you have to heed every word he says and do everything he asks you to.

So when Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant told rising Ateneo hotshot Nico Salva to get his fundamentals down pat and refrain from extra movements, the Nike Elite Camp product did so.

?Consistency is the key,? Bryant told Salva in front of a jam-packed audience at the PhilSports Arena in a public workout conducted during his recent visit to Manila. ?Don?t try to do one thing differently. Stay with the fundamentals.?

The ?Black Mamba? then put Salva through several routines picked from his ?Blackout? hoop program, a training regimen named so because, according to Bryant, ?if you go through it, there?s a chance you will black out.?

Salva did not pass out, but he felt just how hard Kobe pushes himself even during practice.

?It was so tiring but it was all worth it,? Salva told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. ?I never expected that he would choose me. There are so many things I can apply to my game, especially when he said, ?You have to practice one move until it becomes natural to you.??

The 6-foot-6 Bryant was only too glad to be of help to the Nike Elite campers.

?It?s all about going out there and teaching kids something new in basketball,? he said of such promotional trips as this one, where he also unveiled his newest line of Kobe shoes called the ?Dream Season.?

Ian Sanggalang, a 6-foot-7 center of the San Sebastian Stags, got even more personal with Bryant as the two engaged in an impromptu one-on-one match.

?I learned so many moves from him,? he said. ?Never mind our 5-0 score. What?s important is I was able to play with him. I didn?t even imagine I would be given that chance.?

Kobe always sets aside quality time to spend with the children who are interested in basketball whenever he travels around the world for promo tours. He also does a lot of charity work for deserving institutions of underprivileged children and this one was no different.

During his one-day visit, Kobe met with young kids from select Gawad Kalinga communities gathered at Nike Park, The Fort.

?I missed being around the kids. They love the game and they take me back to the time when I was a kid and I?d just play all day long,? Kobe said.

Kobe signed autographs for the kids, gamely threw balls to his fans and watched as Nike donated P100,000 to Gawad Kalinga?s Sagip program in his behalf.

?It?s a way of reaching out to them,? he said.

Aaron Kyle Vincent O. Simbol, 11, was very happy to finally see his basketball idol for the first time.

?I?m his No. 1 fan. I like it when he does his three-point shot,? he said.

The same excitement was felt by 11-year-old Keannu David L. Arevalo, who added: ?I wanted to see him for a very long time, and I?m just really happy he visited us.?