Video Essentials With NBA Trainer Chris Brickley: Audemars Piguets, PUMAs & Wilson Basketballs

For our latest installment of our Video Essentials series, we visited world famous basketball trainer Chris Brickley at the Arena in Manhattan’s Summit residential building to check out his daily must-haves.

Trainer to the NBA‘s — as well as hip-hop’s — brightest superstars, Brickley found fame a few summers ago when footage of living hoop legends LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony and others were seen balling at an undisclosed indoor court. It was like an off-season All-Star Game, but here, at Sky, these NBA-ers were working out new skills and tricks, showing off new footwear, and finding their way back to season-ready shape. Every fan was constantly checking the #BlackOps tag on Instagram, hoping to get their basketball fix ahead of the new season. As time went on, the cloak was removed, revealing Brickley as the mastermind behind it all.

Brickley is a longtime hoops fanatic. He played college ball at New Hampshire, but later transferred to Louisville to play under the tutelage of the great Rick Pitino. Upon graduation, he got a job at Ole Miss, with the help of Pitino, then was later hired by Fairleigh Dickinson, where he became the youngest Division I assistant coach in the country. There, Brickley reconnected with former Louisville teammate Chris Smith, who also happened to be the brother of then-New York Knicks guard J.R. Smith. The Smith brothers began asking Brickley to train them so much and at obscure hours, that he caught the eye of the Knicks staff and landed a full time gig with the franchise. From there, everything snowballed into the fruitful life he lives now.

Despite earning his living as a basketball trainer however, Brickley has begun to step out of the shadows that his taller-than-life clients impose, to explore his other passions in fashion and music. He recently launched his own personal streetwear imprint, Color Blind, while also working on tour merch and personal clothing brands for artists like Chris Brown and Travis Scott.

Tune in above to learn about Chris Brickley’s daily Essentials, which includes a massive COTODAMA Lyric Speaker to get players in the right frame of mind, a custom PUMA sneaker that was gifted to him when he signed his endorsement deal, his prized jewelry collection, a bracelet that reminds him of his father and all of his hard work, a laptop to watch basketball film, and of course a basketball.

After watching this episode of Essentials, be sure to check out last month’s installment with Migos star Offset.