Mackenly Randolph is basically basketball royalty.
The 6’0” University of Louisville freshman has sat courtside while watching — and learning from — some of the sport’s most influential athletes. She moved to California after her dad, former NBA player Zach Randolph (or Z-Bo to fans) was traded from the Memphis Grizzlies to the Sacramento Kings in 2017, and soon found herself playing on a middle school team with basketball legend Kobe Bryant as her coach.
“Kobe called my dad, and he was like, ‘We would love for Mack to have a place,’” she exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, March 11, referring to a spot on the late basketball legend’s daughter, Gigi Bryant’s, team. “I was like, ‘What the heck — no way Kobe Bryant really wants me to come.”
“That moment was kind of surreal,” she continued. “I grew up watching basketball, I know basketball, so knowing Kobe Bryant was going to be my coach was crazy.”
Bryant definitely made the girls on his team work — early morning workouts and all. “We trained with him every day, and mind you, we were middle schoolers and he’s getting us up at 6 AM,” Randolph explained. “We’re doing sand lifts, we’re doing lifting workouts in the summer.”
(Kobe, his 13-year-old daughter Gigi, and seven others tragically died in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020, on the way to a basketball tournament.)
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According to Randolph, basketball was always meant to be the sport for her. Her dad was a two-time NBA All-Star and she was always around players from the league (who she affectionately refers to as “50 different bonus uncles”). Her coach at Sierra Canyon School motivated her to win, and she was the school’s second girls All-American (an annual honor for the country’s best high school and college players) after USC superstar JuJu Watkins.
A lot of people think of Drake’s “Papi’s Home” when they think of the well-known school (with the line “Sierra Canyon parking lot lookin’ like Magic City parking lot”), or they think it’s just where “all the rich famous people’s kids go” Randolph said, but the school is — and offers — much more. “I think Sierra Canyon is a really good school, and with basketball, they’re at an elite level there,” she explained.
“The coaches and the teachers there just want you to excel in sports and in the classroom,” she added. Randolph met her future Louisville teammate Izela Arenas — the oldest daughter of three-time NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas and Laura Govan — at Sierra Canyon, and the pair tried nearly every sport together, including volleyball and soccer.
Turns out, the University of Louisville was a natural fit for Randolph as she considered her next steps — in both basketball and in regards to her education.
“The connection I have with Coach [Jeff] Walz and [associate coach] JP (Jonneshia Pineda) is a very special connection,” she explained. “Here at Louisville, I’m at home, and this is my family.” She and Arenas both settled on the school during the recruitment process. They also play alongside Tajianna Roberts, a standout freshman for the Cardinals — though in high school, when Randolph and Arenas played against Roberts they beat her team in the CIF quarter-finals (“Ask her about it,” Randolph joked, “She loves to tell the story”).
Randolph, who says she most admires Las Vegas Aces superstar A’ja Wilson and Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, will experience her first March Madness tournament this month. “I’m super excited to just be in that environment and have that experience,” she said of her NCAA tournament debut. “I’ll be ready to play.”
As for next season, Randolph wants to do everything she can to keep growing her game. “I feel like this year was kind of a trial run,” she explained, “[with] ups and downs, bumps and bruises… but I learned a lot, and feel like I’m ready to take it to the next level.”
