Lakers News: Assistant Coach Phil Handy Loves To Pay It Forward

Three-time champ enjoys helping young coaches on their journeys.

Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy, who is actually in the midst of his second tour of duty with L.A., is apparently a big fan of supporting young up-and-coming coaches as they rise through the ranks.

To that end, Nav Parmar, an assistant coach for the University of Northern British Columbia men's basketball team, recently spoke to Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson in a Bovada Sports interview about his relationship with Handy.

.@nparmar24 talks about his relationship with Lakers’ Assistant Coach Phil Handy.

cc @ScoopB pic.twitter.com/yrJ2J5xygN

— Bovada (@BovadaOfficial) December 23, 2022

"Phil's like my guy, man, that's my older brother," Parmar told Robinson. "So during the [pre-vaccine era of the] pandemic, actually, we reached out to each other and, you know, I haven't gotten a chance to go to L.A. yet just because of the pandemic. But my plan is to be there and, you know, helping train at the academy that's [officially] Sports Academy -- previously the Mamba Sports Academy. But every day, you know, I talk to him, we play two or three times a week... we're just constantly texting. He's always guiding me through things and mainly off-court advice. Just, you know, he's teaching me life lessons along the way. His son's like my nephew. It's family."

"And I'm very appreciative and grateful to have him in my life as a mentor and as someone that I can always go to whenever I need, just, you know, if it's not basketball-related, just advice in general," Parmar continued. "And he's always there. And Phil's one of those guys, man. He just wants to see others succeed. He's got no ego. He's as humble as they get. And he's always kind of -- if I'm not reaching out to him, he'll ask [how] all my family's doing and he'll ask how things are going. And just checking in all the time. [I'm] just extremely grateful, extremely fortunate to have that mentor in my life that guides me every single day."

Handy has enjoyed a championship-laden career so far. He first served as an assistant coach for the Lakers from 2011-2013 under then-head coach Mike Brown. He followed Brown to the Cleveland Cavaliers, with whom he lingered long after Brown had moved on (he stayed on with Ty Lue's title-winning regime through 2018). Handy next linked up with Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, as the team won its first title in 2019 (it was Handy's second). He has been with the Lakers since 2019. He won his third championship in 2020, and stuck around after the Frank Vogel firing to serve under new head coach Darvin Ham.