Gary vitti lakers biography
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Trainer Gary Vitti, who’s cared for Lakers legends, nears end of watch
The Mercedes-Benz had a navy blue exterior and tan interior, Gary Vitti reminded himself as he walked out of an LAX terminal and toward a job he wasn’t even sure he wanted.
He was happy being the head athletic trainer at the University of Portland, not to mention an adjunct professor, and had already tasted a bit of the NBA via two years as an assistant trainer with the Utah Jazz.
When he saw the Mercedes, Vitti jumped into it and was immediately negative, complaining about the traffic in Los Angeles.
The driver was Lakers General Manager Jerry West, who took Vitti a few miles east for a three-hour interview at the Forum. Then Vitti met Coach Pat Riley, who was direct, even a little intimidating, when he said, “You’re not ‘scarred’ yet. I can mold you into being the best.”
Vitti was 30 at the time and immediately drawn to West and Riley. It wasn’t long before he became the Lakers’ trainer, a job he will leav
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In consultant role, ex-Lakers head trainer Gary Vitti absent since team's regime change
For 32 seasons, from the s Showtime era through Shaquille O'Neal and the beginning and end of Kobe Bryant, Gary Vitti tended to the Los Angeles Lakers, a armatur on their sideline in a career spanning 13 head coaches, eight championships, numerous Hall of Famers and enough stories to fill a library.
When Bryant ruptured his Achilles in , Vitti was there. "Just tape it up," Bryant famously told him. And when Magic Johnson stunned the world by testing positiv for HIV in the fall of , Vitti was there. "When God gave me this disease, he gave it to the right person," Johnson told an emotional Vitti. "I'm going to do something good with this."
Last April, Vitti retired from his full-time post as the NBA's longest-tenured head athletic trainer, but he signed on to remain a consultant for two more seasons, in part to continue researching new technologies that might help not just heal injuries but hop
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Gary Vitti, BS, MS, ATC
Vitti earned his B.S. degree from Southern Connecticut State University in and his M.S. degree in sports medicine from the University of Utah in In addition to studying at the University of Utah, he spent two years as a trainer and teacher at the university while working as an assistant trainer with the NBA's Utah Jazz (). Following his stint with the Jazz, Vitti served as head athletic trainer and an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Portland for two years before joining the Los Angeles Lakers prior to the campaign. Since his arrival in Los Angeles, the Lakers have won eight NBA championships (, , , , , , and ), thanks in no small part to the health of such players as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and numerous others.
In a much-deserved honor, Vitti was named the National Basketball Association's Trainer of the Year in by the NBA's Trainers Association, partially due to his philanthropic work.