Today is the official start of the The National Basketball Association playoffs and along with highlighting players, L’union Suite is paying homage to the behind the scences people who prepare the athletes for their games like Haitian-American trainer Johnny Stephene.
Johnny who’s located in South Florida is an elite basketball trainer to several NBA all-stars such as Kevin Durant and trained several players in the current playoffs like Toronto’s Demar Derozan and Boston’s Avery Bradley.
According to this SLAM article,
Johnny Stephene, founder of HandleLife, blew up the internet a month ago when he put Teyana Taylor on skates at the Jordan XX9 release event in Las Vegas. But that’s not the only thing he’s done this summer. The Boynton Beach, FL, native also helped 2014 NBA MVP Kevin Durant and Men’s USA National Team member DeMar DeRozan with their handles. He’s worked with Nate Robinson during his comeback from ACL surgery. Brandon Jennings, Paul George, Jamal Crawford and Gilbert “Hibachi” Arenas are also clients of his. They all came to him. It started with Agent Zero. Stephene taught kids for free at first, and then he started charging for his drills. Posts featuring him on social media were getting hundreds of likes. Stephene says that the kid’s handles improved so much in just two months, that he started an Instagram account to continue to grow his brand. – Read more
According to this Bleacher Report
With the NBA season underway, there’s one basketball personality not in the league who’s been building an even bigger following than many of the players. In only a matter of months, he’s caught the attention of the NBA’s best players, popular NBA-related brands and thousands of kids worldwide.
Since Stephene started his Instagram account Dribble2Much a little more than a year ago, he’s gained more than 580,000 followers and counting, worked out with All-Stars Kevin Durant and DeMar DeRozan, been considered by an NBA team for employment, organized clinics for kids worldwide, launched an apparel line called Handle Life (a double meaning for his ball-handle and recovery from a major injury) and signed a few endorsement deals with more possibly to come.
https://instagram.com/p/0v8s42sjuG/?taken-by=dribble2much
https://instagram.com/p/04CV6psjky/?taken-by=dribble2much
The next time your favorite player win a championship game, you may have to thank Johnny.
