Who tops the Mt Rushmore of Relentless Obsession LA trainers? Handy, Hines, Hanlen, LoVett?
Bam, like a shot to your dome, let me ask: Who do you think is considered the dopest trainer in LA right now? Regardless of the level they specialize in. Who possesses the most “relentless obsession” to help their client ascend in skill, inspire them while working together to achieve that next level goal?
Trying to pick a Mt Rushmore of LA trainers, present or past, might sound subjective but it deserves the spark for people to debate the convo. Don’t you agree, or should we go back to talking about who of MJ, Kobe, or LeBron is the best ever in the NBA? How do we measure which trainer has the deepest bag, best ability to connect to the player, the most skill to help a player?
Many I bet would pick Phil Handy, that personal trainer who also works for the Lakers. Another good bet is Rico Hines, who invites and organizes fantastic open runs and works for the Kings.
I’ve seen both these guys, been in both their labs, and respect em both. In addition to them how about a guy like Drew Hanlen who trains a ton of NBA players? Does their NBA affiliation equate an automatic win to be LA’s Top Trainer?
Remember, Coach K from Duke was asked by the Lakers to coach them in the NBA and he stated that he wanted to stay being a college coach because those guys didn’t need to be coddled. That was his groove. Is coach K less of a great coach because he didn’t coach in the NBA?
So, what is the criteria to be considered the top trainer in LA?
If you have the most high profile IG, website, Twitter, Tic Tok, etc. accounts and are social media hyped up, does that give you more more special sauce?
With all the famous guys I just mentioned, they have solid training ability, they market themselves, they sell wristbands, package their trainer experiences online, give camps and generally make a boatload of money off of their camps. They have celebrity clientele to the up tenth power, which is one way to go.
If you read my work over the last 20 years, you’d have seen your humble writer E-Woods has seen many dozens and dozens of trainers in their labs in LA.
If you’re not a sure-fire NBA caliber player and are looking for trainers who have put in a minimum of 15 years in their craft and are accessible to prep and college ballers, and pro ballers as well - then listen up.
These guys, who do NBA pre draft work outs as well, are my top accessible trainers that have as much skill as any in LA, plus I know them personally: Keion Kindred, Olin Simplis, and Ajay Moye.
They use cutting edge techniques, are the most impassioned, they inspire the most. 100. These guys process varying level of prep, college, and pros and not just the elite baller.
I also hear good things about Jordan Lawley. J-Wright, so many, but if I haven’t felt you or your people, if I haven’t been in your lab, I just don’t know.
Now getting back to LoVett, the focus of the story, I have a tale you won’t believe.
Marcus LoVett is a trainer who, by his admission, doesn’t care if he trains an NBA pro or not even though he has the skills to greatly further the development of an NBA guy. He’ll tell you to your face simply, “I don’t even mess with many NBA guys.”
But buckle your seat readers, you’ll read a story about a dude named Marcus unlike any other, who gives the same effort and diligence in session to a 5 year-old as to an overseas pro.
This dude Marcus LoVett is 48 years and lives in a back house in San Gabriel Valley right now. Marcus can often be a chill guy, then flip the switch and his nuclear power plant goes online. His motivation strategy reminds me totally of Tim Grover, Michael Jordan’s trainer.
I keep hearing LoVett say this over and over again, “Being relentless means demanding more of yourself than anyone else could ever demand of you. Knowing that every time you stop, you can still do more.”
I reminded him that MJ’s guy says this all the time; you guys talk and think alike bro, because you both have no off button in the gym.
LoVett, this dude is deep, he preaches it in his lab. He’s a prophet and a teacher like Chuck D rapped and spit out his verses for Public Enemy in the 80’s and 90’s. Both are Rebels Without A Pause. Vett is always speaking truth to power, never afraid to call bullshit against a system out to slow down an athlete that just wants to compete.
He doesn’t believe in rankings or sucking up to people. He just wants to be real, be a family man, be in the gym with his clients. He doesn’t need a cushy life trying to land super high profile players or high paying clients or contracts, living that glitzy lifestyle.
Living in a simple apartment with with his large family filled with love is good enough for him. He just wants to help his clients to improve and not be a yes man that leads to zero improvement. You will often hear him say, “People pay me to tell them the truth.”
These Public Enemy lyrics help the reader see what Vett is all about:
“I guess you know, you guess I'm just a radical Not on sabbatical, yes, to make it critical.”
# LoVett is relentlessly different
He has the same deep bag of techniques to help players employ their step through like I saw Phil Handy assist Kevin Durant with at the Mamba. Who do you think Master P has gone to to do great training for his kids? Percy is real in the game of hoop, and looks for real. He must know Marcus makes em say “ughhh!”
Marcus appreciates Percy Miller’s kids and sees great potential for Hercy in his future in Big East play. His younger son Mercy as a terrific 2-way player.
Marcus loves kids and will help Parks and Rec 5 year-old kids for weeks, sometimes for multiple months at a time, 6 hours a day, months at a time. Can the other ultra famous trainers who have the skills to improve a pro player say they will give that effort to little kids so much as Marcus?
#Marcus is for the people
Let’s meet Marcus Lovett who grew up at an early age in Wichita Falls, Texas and Fort Wayne, Indiana. His childhood was very difficult, but since those harsh days he has forgiven all who made his life difficult and is on good terms with them.
He says, “Over time, me and my father learned to love and to understand our life together.” Marcus is just a positive good dude, “I went through a lot as a kid and all that made me tougher. what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? But the word love is in my name and I try to spread it.”
Unfortunately Marcus grew up in a household where his dad would badly beat his mom and he and his other two brothers. His father, Michael Sr., had an extensive rap sheet for various offenses and served time in prison.
The hits Marcus took were so severe that sometimes he’d lose consciousness for a few seconds at a time, yet his eyes would still be open. Those hits might have contributed to his ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).
Worst of all, his mother Debra was so dejected at the idea of bringing Marcus into her abusive world that when she was pregnant with him she made a homemade brew of poison and drank it thinking it might spare him from the horrors she thought he’d have to go through.
But thankfully, Marcus and his mom did make it and he was born, coming into the world 11 months after his older brother Michael Jr.
You need to know Marcus to understand this statement I’m about to make. He’s humble, but beyond confident, the most inspired conversationalist I’ve ever, ever met, and I’ve known 10,000 people.
Marcus while a pre-born baby, I conjecture he probably was saying this to himself, “That’s all you got? I can handle anything the world sends me, mom. King Kong ain’t got nothing on me.”
LoVett is the most angelic dude I’ve ever known, yet the toughest MF, coldest piece I’ve known, one not to be trifled with. Any man born with the antidote inside him, that can’t be poisoned, that’s a man who is born to show others how to overcome things. He says, “My mission is to never take a moment of life for granted.”
Marcus told me once, “LeBron isn’t the only one striving for greatness. I’m striving to be the best kind of family man, everything I can be.” Me, E-Woods, your humble writer has also been a grade school teacher for 24 years besides a writer and talent evaluator helping college coaches link up with fire talent. Marcus is more of a teacher than any teacher at any school I’ve taught side by side with. He can see talent way easier than I can.
Marcus wanted it known that he’s dedicating this story and his training to older brother Michael (“Champ”) who lost his life a couple years ago. He was a good person and a proud owner of a legendary barber shop.
I’ll let Marcus elaborate, “Champ was no back-down defender. He stood up to a disrespectful client who returned with his brother to gun down my brother in front of his Legendary Barber Shop. Everyone knows the name of his shop in Fort Wayne.”
So Marcus marches on and does good in Champ’s name and spirit, and that powers his efforts. You can feel Champ’s aura in Marcus’s vibe. You can tell at 48, that this guy loves what he does and is just getting started in his journey to impact another 20 years of clients in the world of training!
Let’s let Marcus share more on his childhood, “I was never laid back as a kid, I did gymnastics, baseball, boxing, football. I was a football player 1st, and still am. My older brother Michael, we called him ‘Champ’, he tortured me in sports to get me better and I thank him for it.
“We played and played basketball to no end, him throwing me passes, him such a great playmaker. He was slippery and he wasn’t known as a scorer but he’d light you up for 20 at a moment’s notice.”
I’ve gotten to know LoVett so well over the recent past, it’s easy to see he’s got that ultimate swag. Dude has this smooth cadence and way of taking in convo, smooth like Hennessy going down. It’s like when you hear rapper Snoop Dogg rapping over radio in your ear - smooooth. His personality is very inviting to all around him.
With Marcus it’s never “me”, he’s always preaching “we”, and that’s the name of his program, the We Win program. Hear more about his philosophy, “I just try to be real, stay humble. It’s not about money. You can be living in an apartment and as long as you have love, your people are safe, you’re sharing yourself, the things you love, your passion, then it’s all good.
“Too many people put importance on who clicks the heart button on IG, how many numbers you get on an app, but it’s the real hugs that are important. I’m not into politics and to me being in the gym is a good place to be.
“I take my craft so seriously. The last 20 years it’s always been a variety of word of mouth clients. A mix of prep, college, and sometimes pros. Whoever is in front of us, we put them together by ability and get them whoever they want to be if they are willing to work and look inside for what they can become.”
Marcus suffers from ADD and his college promised it would help him get it diagnosed and help in getting some possible academic accommodations to assist him staying eligible before he agreed to attend there.
He explains it best, “I love and respect the schools that I attended. I never cheated and gave my best and still struggled in a traditional learning style. When you see the addendum on a syllabus that addresses any learning concerns at colleges and universities, it was my case that jump-started that. If I was the cause for others to have a better chance, I will not complain.”
After Marcus helped lead Oklahoma City College in his junior year to the 1996 NAIA title, averaging 25 ppg, along with 10 rebounds a game, they didn’t live up to their end of the bargain in 1997 and he had to fight in court to stay on the team.
His shot to be a pro was cut short by not playing most of his senior year after the Lakers and Celtics were sending scouts to see him his junior year. It must be noted that Purdue was high on Marcus in prep, the talent was always there.
More academic assistance, and maybe if he had less abuse at home and more support, who knows how much farther he could’ve gone at a D1 out of prep with his talent?
Let’s skip to the part when Marcus decided by 1997 to be a trainer.
M-LoVett was at a crossroads, trying to fulfill that dream of playing in the NBA while taking care of his budding young family that included Marcus Jr. He had a friend Marrin Doty Jr. (“JR”), an LA hoop insider who was Magic Johnson’s stretch man and a sports therapist to elite athletes.
JR was always at LA’s most competitive open runs and got Vett on Kiki VanDeWeghe’s LA Pro Am team. He got him to realize he could be that special trainer because he saw greatness in him, and also got him plenty of clients in the early 2000’s as well.
Lets hear JR speak on it, “Marcus was such a family man, so honest, and such a baller. At 6-3, he’d post up 6-9 guys and tear them up. He never let a few dollars stop him from taking care of a kid that was down on their luck that needed training.
“If Marcus saw a disadvantaged kid, even back then, he knew the power of basketball to uplift the spirit of a person and get them opportunities. His skill as a baller and trainer was undeniable.”
Ever since Marcus LoVett was young, he loved Jerry Tarkanian’s UNLV Running Rebels and always wished to play for that legendary coach who also coached at Long Beach State and Fresno State. Tark the Shark’s offense was known to obliterate defenses in the 80s and 90s in college basketball and Marcus wanted to replicate that success.
I’ll let Marcus explain his system, “I have a training system, a mountain that is predicated on defense. When I played in junior college at Oklahoma City College, I put so much pressure on the guards that before they hit half court, I’d turn them 3 times. It was a mind game, we ‘ turnt’ up and turnt’ you out boy’, and our bench bums would be playing before halftime.”
#Marcus is brutally honest
Marcus says this about his mountain of success, “I believe defense is most important because you cause the offense to miss. Next is rebounding, then next is you have passing. After that is dribbling, then finally shooting. That’s the hierarchy of the skills I teach in order. We work on these in drills, and in game situations.”
You can’t know Marcus LoVett without knowing how great are the kids he has, and he has a lot of them. His oldest daughter Jyah is such a prodigy that she earned an offer from a PAC-12 program as a freshman in prep. Zekiah (“Bumpy”) is having a phenom year in junior college under the legendary junior college coach Phil Mathews and of course Marcus Jr was an absolute phenom in prep.
Marcus senior helped his son explore options to go live and move to Chicago for part of his high school and play with the famed Morgan Park High program and the Mac Irvin Fire AAU programs. Both are fire and the latter AAU program is where Amari Bailey once played for.
LoVett Jr went on to play for Chris Mullins and Mitch Richmond at St. Johns College and had a standout career there. He’s now having a great career overseas in Finland.
But the question is how did Marcus senior get his kids to play so well, how’d he get Marcus Jr to develop such handles at an elite level like Rafer “To my Lou” Alston who played for Jerry Tarkanian?
Hear from Marcus Jr himself how his dad was instrumental in his basketball development, “My pops has taught me how to be a man growing up in this world. I needed that father figure around me, he always was there for me and that’s what I appreciate about my father more then anything.
“He also taught me how to play the game of basketball, that’s my pops. He was my first inspiration, he made me want to play basketball, and it’s been lots of countless days and nights since then we were in the gym together trying to perfect my game.
“I needed that tough, hard love during that time in my life. I listened to what he told me and it ended up all working out for me at the end. My pops has been there from start to finish and he means a lot to me in my development as a man and a basketball player.”
Below is Californiapreps Publisher Dave Keefer's first ever attempt at iPhone video:
Nick Irvin played for Jerry Tarkanian at Fresno State and played with Rafer Alston there too. Nick coached Marcus LoVett Jr at Morgan Park and here’s what he said about Marcus Sr, “LoVett senior is about relationships, it’s all about trust with Vett.
“He cares about people so much, he loves his kids so much, and his clients so much that he goes all out to get them to very high levels. He gets the best out of everybody. We called Vett Jr Isiah Thomas’, which is really rare. Such a special family.”
Let’s hear from an incredibly respected voice in LA basketball, Jason Powell who is the medical trainer for the LA Clippers. He’s had his son Aaron with Marcus since he was 8 years old and Aaron is now a high major budding player at Campbell Hall as a 10th grader with offers from Indiana and a plethora of other D1 schools.
They both appreciate Marcus. Hear Jason speak on how LoVett helped nurture his son, “Vett is like a well seasoned pot of gumbo, he is such a mixture of so many things that all kids need. He has been the cornerstone and the beginning of Aaron’s young basketball journey. Tough love and non traditional is the best way to describe him. The essence of what real competitive basketball is all about.”
Plenty of successful dudes have trained with Vett in the last 21 years since his start in 2001, and they’re not even ballers. Take Travis Johnson, wide receiver of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Having gone to Servite High, played hoop in high school, all the skills and life lessons that Vett poured into him led him into NFL, out of Montana State of all places.
I’ll let Travis explain, “Marcus, he’ll tell you the honest truth if you are sucking that day. He’ll tell you what’s up but he’ll also give you the right skills and pump you up in that same day. He’s that kind of guy.
“I could not have done it without him. We had so much fun. Playing with his son, constantly grinding, constantly dreaming of putting into action what we were learning. It was all worth it.”
Bennie Boatwright, out of USC, says of LoVett, “Marcus is that transient who knows just what to put in your ear, knows just how to prepare you for a game.” Bennie is currently with the G League Mad Ants, transitioning for his time to come up to the NBA Indiana Pacers organization.
Another powerful story that comes from the lab of Marcus is him working with Kihei Clark of Virginia, who won a NCAA chip there. His dad Malik had high praise for his son’s time working out with LoVett.
I’ll let him explain, “Marcus is a good guy, he’s so good with the basics. And he always preaches to the kids to listen to their parents. There are no secrets to being great with the kids, you just have to get good work done in the gym.”
Click here for a feature story by Erik on Jyah LoVett
Other people who have done things at a high level include Tiffany Gooden, that #1 player in all the land out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Marcus befriended her at an early age and she went on to have a fire college career at Iowa, and even become a lawyer after her four year career.
Who did she seek out to train her son Elijah? I’ll let her speak on Marcus’s goodness, “His strength is finding what a player needs to improve on, and addressing the skill to meet what will get them there. Marcus has that personality to make it all happen, he’s the right man for the job.”
Someone who knows Marcus very well and has been tasked with guarding childrens’ welfare is Sam Estrada, Parks and Recreation Director in Duarte. He gives so much praise of Marcus because seeing 1st hand how LoVett can take 50 kids and divide them into groups and know just how pull the best from each kid.
Sam explains, “Marcus is that guy that kids will move to a new gym for even if he moves from Sylmar to Duarte, he’s that well loved. We’ve worked together since 2010 and since then it’s been great to see him treat all the kids with equity. We have kids with low socio-economic backgrounds, and ones with millionaire parents, but they all get his best and improve in incredible ways that we even gave him an award recently.”
An incredible city deserves a Mt Rushmore of trainers for the ages and this story is a call to action.
Who can you nominate that has overcome obstacles in unbelievable ways? Who has transformed people that are a credit to our society? Who is worthy of talk because of their grind, who is sowing the seeds of that next great baller that will make their mark for the next generation NO DOUBT?
I told Marcus that I was on this earth to write and that I’m not a baller or trainer as good as he is. I didn’t even play in college. And I told him that he was the embodiment of this Rudyard Kipling poem I knew because he’s the epitome of being forever “relentlessly obsessed.”
It goes,
“If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!"
