"Had to leave the gym a few times to throw up" - Jayson Tatum gets brutally honest about back-breaking workout with MVP trainer Drew Hanlen

Jayson Tatum has put in years of hard work to reach the mountaintop of the NBA as a champion. This journey has been anything but painless, as his trainer can attest to.

Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda's Mark Medina, Tatum's trainer Drew Hanlen recalled an anecdote that the Celtics star wrote in his foreword to Hanlen's new book, "Stop Bulls*****ng Yourself":

"Jayson opens up and talks about the first workout that we ever had with each other," Hanlen told Medina. "He said, ‘I’ll never forget our first workout because he tried to kill me...I had to leave the gym a few times to throw up, but I wasn’t going to let him break me.'"

Tatum capped off this anecdote in his foreword by recounting that Hanlen invited him to another session after they finished their initial workout. Tatum obliged and the two have been "working together ever since."

The Tatum-Hanlen partnership began during the Olympic gold medalist's high school days. In an appearance on NBC Sports Boston's "Hoopin'" show, Hanlen talked about a certain practice that they implemented in those formative years:

"There were times when he'd be playing a bad team in high school, and he knew he wasn't going to play in the second half because they're gonna be blowing them out," Hanlen recounted. "We'd work in the upstairs gym before the game so he still got that work that day."

Hanlen — whose new book came out earlier this month — has also worked with the likes of Joel Embiid, Bradley Beal and Zach LaVine.

Jayson Tatum on his first workout with Kobe Bryant: "I was super nervous"

During a promotional event for Hanlen's book, "Stop Bulls*****ng Yourself," earlier this month, Tatum recalled the first time he ever worked out with his idol, the late Kobe Bryant:

"I've been watching basketball since I was four. 16 years later, I finally got to meet the person that inspired me to play this game the way I did," Tatum said. "Leading up to it, I was super nervous... it was just like an out-of-body experience." [Timestamp - 9:18]

Bryant went on to be a mentor to Tatum as the Celtics star navigated the early goings of his career.