"I shoot, and I guard; there is no passing involved in that" - Phil Handy shares Kobe Bryant's hilarious explanation of his position

Phil Handy has spent much of his coaching career working alongside LeBron James. Still, during his early days with the Los Angeles Lakers , he got to work with Kobe Bryant. And while they only spent a few years together, the Black Mamba greatly impacted him.

That shouldn't come as a surprise given how prominent a figure Bryant is in the world of basketball, but it's interesting to see from a coach's perspective. When sharing his favorite Kobe story, Handy showed how the Lakers legend managed to overpower his coaching staff.

Handy reveals Bryant's awesome definition of an SG

Offensively speaking, there wasn't much that the five-time champion couldn't do on offense during his time in the NBA. He was an 18-time All-Star and five-time champion largely because his shotmaking skills were so good that it didn't matter if he was good or bad at anything else.

If there was an area Bryant struggled in on offense, it was his passing, as he averaged just 4.7 assists per game in his career. Kobe was a shooting guard, though, and according to Handy, his definition of the position made it so that passing was not a requirement for him.

"He was explaining to somebody one time about what it means to be a shooting guard," Phil Handy on The LADE Show. "They was talking about passing the ball, and the conversation went a few different ways, but at the end of the conversation, Kobe was like, 'I am a shooting guard. I shoot and I guard. There is no passing involved in that.' He was dead serious."

Bryant always trusted himself most

Basketball is a team game, and passing is a big part of it. Coaches always want their players to move the ball around the floor because having their offense get bogged down by isolation-heavy sets from guys looking to score is typicallyn't a winning strategy.

Coaches tried to preach that to Kobe, but it didn't work. Typically, this would be an issue, but Kobe isn't a normal player. He was so good of a scorer that it was OK for Handy to lay off on telling him to pass the ball because oftentimes, the best result was him shooting the ball.

Of course, the 'Black Mamba' wouldn't shoot the ball just to shoot it, but it wasn't like he was going up and down the court to get his teammates involved. Bryant wanted his team to score points, and the easiest way to do that often resulted in him taking those shots.

Everyone knows Kobe had an alpha mentality, and his description of the shooting guard position in the NBA showcases that perfectly. And at the end of the day, shooting and guarding were the two things that he did best during his time in the league.

Related: "Kobe Bryant is better than Michael Jordan” - ESPN's Jemele Hill on why a 28-year-old Kobe was already better than MJ