Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson motivates Lakers with stories of life experiences, overcoming disappointment

LOS ANGELES — Before he played pro basketball, Kyle Kuzma played pro wrestling. Growing up in Michigan, he would fashion homemade title belts and leap from dressers, channeling his favorite WWE performer: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

“I was a big fan of his growing up,” Kuzma said.

So when Johnson, now a major Hollywood star, visited the Lakers’ practice facility on Tuesday morning as part of the team’s “genius talks” program, Kuzma came armed with questions.

Turned out, The Rock had things to say to him, too.

Johnson had seen Kuzma’s interview after he scored a career-high 38 points in Houston on Dec. 20. After being asked if he expected to have games like this, the 27th draft pick nodded vigorously and said, “Yeah.”

“He just loved my response to what I said,” Kuzma said. “He thought it was pretty cool, so that was pretty cool actually.”

Kuzma called Johnson’s visit “very motivational” while Coach Luke Walton said the wrestler-turned-leading man touched on “what he has done in his career from learning from his disappointments, learning from his life experiences, how he approaches different situations.”

Johnson joined a distinguished line of successful people to address the Lakers this season, including film studio executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, rapper Kendrick Lamar and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

General Manager Rob Pelinka began inviting people to address his team earlier this season. Luke Walton said the goal is “to develop our players off the court, as well, and when you sit down with people who have achieved what (Johnson) achieved and some other people, it can help them organize their life a little bit and grow up a little quicker.”

A day before Johnson spoke to the Lakers, Olympic sprinter Allyson Felix paid a visit to the team’s El Segundo headquarters.

“She was awesome,” Walton said. “She was amazing. Some guys wanted to challenge her to a race, so we’ll set something up in the offseason or in preseason next year.”

Turns out, it was guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope who made the challenge. It didn’t sound like many of his teammates believed he could prevail against the six-time gold medalist.

“She was wearing jeans and untied Jordans and could probably still beat him in a race,” Kuzma said.

That’s what Walton envisions, too.

“I want to set it up just for my own personal amusement,” he said.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

As Tuesday morning’s shoot-around wrapped up, Channing Frye went through drills on one basket, Brandon Ingram worked out on another, and Josh Hart worked on spot-up shooting on another.

All three have been sidelined with significant injuries. None looked that far from returning.

Walton said Hart’s hand is still “fat,” while Ingram (strained groin) is likely the closest to a return.

“Channing I guess could be in that race too,” Walton said. “Channing has been doing well, he has been in here doing work, still no contact work but he could be in that race.”

Frye played two games with the Lakers before the All-Star break, when he underwent an appendectomy.

Hart, who broke the fourth metacarpal in his left hand two weeks ago in Miami, was originally expected to be out four-to-six weeks.

“It is near the end of the season,” Walton said, “so unless the doctors have 100 percent cleared him, there will be no rush to get him back.”

DIDN’T WEAR OUT HIS WELCOME

Travis Wear hasn’t had a game quite like his Lakers debut, when he scored seven points and played the bulk of the fourth quarter to lift the Lakers to a win in San Antonio on March 3.

His play over the course of five games, however, was enough to earn him a second 10-day contract. The Lakers remain short-handed on the wing due to the injuries, and Wear has proven a suitable fill-in.

“He earned it,” Walton said. “He’s played well in his opportunities that he’s got. He made shots and more importantly he has done little things well, communicating our (defense).”

Wear averaged 10.4 minutes over his first five games, including three Lakers wins. He averaged 4.6 points and 2.4 rebounds while making 42.9 percent of his shots.

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