She was not granted a starting spot right away — not even with Team Mamba in need of a center. After practices, she had to run extra to “catch up to the other girls,” as Zach recalled Bryant saying. “I work with her a lot, but you could tell the difference with Kobe,” Zach said. “When Kobe was speaking, he didn’t have to say, ‘Pay attention.’”“He basically taught me how to play defense and how to rotate,” MacKenly said. Such is MacKenly’s potential that she has received verbal scholarship offers from Louisville and Arizona before playing a single high school game.

Source: New York Times January 24, 2021 13:00 UTC