Kobe’s Love For Storytelling Helps Him Move On From Basketball
The story began with a young Kobe Bryant showing his early obsession with basketball, rolling up his father’s tube socks to create a makeshift basketball he could shoot with in his bedroom.
He studied VHS tapes of the “Showtime” Lakers of the 1980s. As he clutched the basketball in his hands without any intent of letting go, Bryant marveled at the Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan posters hanging on his bedroom wall.
“I fell in love with you,” Bryant said. “A love so deep that I gave it my all, from my mind and body, to my spirit and soul.”
Bryant wrote those words in a poem called “Dear Basketball” for The Players Tribune when he officially announced on Nov. 29, 2015 that he would retire following the 2015-16 season. Bryant also spoke those words in a short animated film dubbed “Dear Basketball,” which made its premiere last weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.
The five-minute, 21-second film outlined Bryant’s love for holding and shooting that round leather ball. Since retiring a year ago after a 20-year NBA career with the Lakers, though, the 38-year-old Bryant said he no longer misses it. Does that surprise him?
“Yeah, pleasantly so. That means I’m doing the right thing,” Bryant said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “It’s always concerning to feel like that itch comes back and you feel like you’re missing something and you try to scratch that and this, that and the other. I haven’t had that at all.”
Instead of Bryant itching to hold the ball in his hands, considering adding to his 33,643 career points and five NBA championships, he has developed an appetite for digital storytelling with his Newport Beach-based company Kobe, Inc.
“I’ve been so consumed and have had so much fun in putting stories together and putting up techniques,” Bryant said. “Every day to come into the office, to take on and come up with stories and figure out a way to make those stories real by challenging ourselves to come up with techniques that haven’t been done, it consumes me. I just love it.”
After obsessing over his game and the outcome on the hardwood for decades, Bryant has carried that same mindset into the film room.
Glen Keane directed Bryant’s film after providing character animation for award-winning feature films such as “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin.” Academy Award-winning composer John Williams (“Jaws”, “Star Wars”, “E.T.”) provided the musical score for Bryant’s film.
Well before Bryant partnered with Keane and Williams, though, he had constructed the project with hope they would be his teammates.
“I wanted to write it with the dream of Glen animating it and John scoring it as I was writing it in my head. I tried to write it with enough attention to detail and enough visuals that Glen Keane can really do his thing,” Bryant said. “John leaves enough breadth for him to create the big score that he’s accustomed to creating. That was just a dream I had in my head. I had no idea if I was going to be able to get both of them on the project or not.”
Bryant’s dream came true, though.
Even during his playing career, Kobe Bryant took inspiration from storytelling and the arts, and in retirement he’d explore this passion fully. (AP Images)
He had cold-called Williams years ago to set up a lunch meeting where the two traded ideas and met each other’s families. When Bryant broached Williams about his current project, Williams expressed interest once he finished the latest “Star Wars” film. Bryant also cold-called Keane, who Bryant said he “vibed and clicked (with) instantly.”
“The disciplines may be different, but the nature of them are absolutely the same in how we approach things and our love for them,” Bryant said of Keane and Williams. “That’s where we bonded.”
That included their mutual admiration for classical musical composer Beethoven.
“I was inspired by Beethoven’s fifth (symphony) and how to approach a game, how to measure a game and how to create momentum and build momentum,” Bryant said. “We both think outside the box when it comes to our disciplines.”
While Bryant traces some of his artistic influences to Japanese anime and various genres of music, the former Lakers star has also said he’s an avid fan of Disney movies and shows, the Star War series, Harry Potter books and Sesame Street. Bryant’s vivid imagination played out in different ways in “Dear Basketball.”
The film’s introduction features an animated Bryant throwing down a one-handed dunk, a replica of a play from a Feb. 6, 2013 game against the Brooklyn Nets. Then, Bryant leaped over Brooklyn’s Gerald Wallace and Kris Humphries, a season that featured Bryant initially defying Father Time.
“I remember I was (upset). I attacked the rim hard to send a message,” Bryant said. “In the film, it looks so poetic and beautiful. But I was in full dark Muse mode.”
Bryant saw something in that image beyond his ability to defy gravity and provide a signature play that ensured a Lakers victory.
“It’s the beauty of the shot, going up and the drama that we can build in that moment,” Bryant said. “It’s the hands contesting and ultimately having the beautiful shot going through the net and the net creating a flow upwards. Stylistically, we loved the shot and we loved the tension and the driving to the basket. Not knowing what was going to happen and that buildup was something that was …”
Bryant’s voice trailed off. He then added, “I like that shot.” Bryant also liked the subsequent shots of his younger self. He rolled up his father’s socks to form a basketball. He watched tape of classic Lakers games. He admired his Johnson and Jordan posters. Bryant called those images “an exact representation of what was in my mind as I was writing the piece.”
“It’s as true a form that you’re going to get,” he said. “The posters on the wall are exactly the posters I had in my room from Magic to Michael and how they’re designed and drawn out and to the layout of the room. Everything is true to form.”
Kobe Bryant meets with students at Andrew Hamilton School in Philadelphia to discuss his new book “The Wizenard Series: Training Camp” he created with writer Wesley King. (AP Images)
It’s also true to form how the film depicts Bryant’s competitiveness and ability to hit clutch shots. As he performs those heroics, Williams’ musical score plays in the background to offer a pleasant and dramatic sound as Bryant tells his journey.
“There’s a sensitivity and sensibility to his music,” Bryant said. “He’s able to create timeless music over and over again. You feel like each note and each instrument is speaking to you at a deeper level. It’s not just music. He’s very conscious of the instruments that he uses and how to communicate with each other. Because of that, he’s able to pull out emotions that sometimes we didn’t even know were in there. This being such an emotional peace, I felt it was important to have a classical composition.”
That musical score did not just complement the images of Bryant’s devotion to his craft and his continuous on-court success. The film also highlighted adversity Bryant faced, including when he tore his left Achilles tendon on April 12, 2013 in a season-ending injury. The Lakers were then swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs.
“It’s finding the beauty in all of those moments; being able to visually represent that things are not always a straight line,” Bryant said. “You don’t have a dream, a dream comes true and it’s a happy ending. That’s not the case. Maybe in fairy tales, but that’s certainly not real life.”
Bryant certainly could not write the comeback story he wanted.
After missing the first 19 games of the 2013-14 season while rehabbing his left Achilles tendon, Bryant returned only to suffer a season-ending left knee injury six games later. Bryant then lasted only 35 games in the 2014-15 season before needing season-ending surgery on a torn rotator cuff on his right shoulder.
Bryant made it through his final season in 2015-16 without suffering a season-ending injury. But he continuously nursed ailments to his knees, shoulder and back while averaging only 17.6 points on 35.8 percent shooting in 66 games.
Bryant capped his career on April 13, 2016 in the regular-season finale against Utah. That night, Bryant scored a season-high 60 points on 22-of-50 shooting in 42 minutes. Bryant’s final three seasons were the three worst win-loss records in franchise history.
“It’s kind of this roller coaster ride that is a never-ending one,” Bryant said. “But it is about finding acceptance in those difficult times and understanding that the great times don’t last.”
Though those tough times prevented Bryant from squeezing out more production and adding to his five NBA titles, he counted his victories elsewhere. He largely credited his three season-ending injuries for helping him prepare for his post-NBA career. He also called reviewing the Muse film “the best thing that happened to me during the injury” to his right shoulder in the 2014-15 campaign.
“I looked at a finished cut of the Muse film. I didn’t like it at all,” Bryant said. “I felt like it was kind of a branding piece. I was just starting to figure out that I like writing and I like storytelling. I have this film here. Let me redo this film.”
So Showtime granted Bryant permission to rewrite the whole film shortly before its release on Feb. 28, 2015. He cut out the interviews his documentary crew conducted with assorted Lakers and NBA figures. The film featured him staring into the camera, sharing the highs and lows of his professional and personal life. He also featured original music.
“Once I started doing that, I found so much enjoyment in that process,” Bryant said. “Then we built a great team around the young and talented editors that spoke the same language. After that film, I thought I loved doing that. This is what I want to do.”
Since then, Bryant has tried to show off his creativity with storytelling in different ways.
Bryant has created, written and directed three pieces for ESPN as part of the “Canvas” series that focuses on an on-court topic. Bryant’s first project called “Guarding the Greats” aired on Christmas Day on ABC as part of their NBA holiday coverage, a segment that explained the key to defending NBA stars.
Last month, Bryant released his second piece titled “Canvas City: Musecage,” which featured Bryant teaching a Sesame Street-like puppet named “Little Mamba” how to tap into his dark emotions as motivation. Bryant also detailed the Russell Westbrook-James Harden comparisons with an X’s and O’s breakdown. Last week, Bryant also analyzed Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard, while explaining the difference between competitive levels.
Through all those videos, Bryant offered a blend of basketball expertise, detailed film breakdowns, humor and animation.
“We put it out there in such a simple and fun way, the first couple of times it’s easy to skim over that,” Bryant said. “Then when you think about what’s being said, you understand the depth of something.”
Bryant sounded most proud of his “Canvas City: Musecage” piece. The story offers plenty of symbolism with “Little Mamba” traveling by train to Mount O’Brien in pursuit of an NBA trophy while experiencing criticism and loneliness.
“That stop-motion piece that we did with the Musecage and the train, we didn’t know if we could do that. It hasn’t been done,” Bryant said. “That was crafted by hand. It was done by hand, frame by frame. We didn’t even know if we could pull it off.”
Bryant might also try to balance his work schedule with helping the Lakers this summer.
Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson, General Manager Rob Pelinka and Coach Luke Walton told rookie forward Brandon Ingram they would like him to train with Bryant. While the Lakers want Ingram to seek perspective on how a young Bryant handled his early time with the Lakers, Ingram has sounded interested in learning about Bryant’s mentality, regimen and fundamentals.
Have Bryant and Ingram scheduled any workouts yet?
“I don’t know, honestly. I’m always around,” Bryant said. “Guys call me all the time, even guys that are still playing in the playoffs. They reach out to me and ask for some advice on certain things or ask me to take a look at some things here and there. I’m always around. So if he wants to come (down) and work out, he has my cell obviously. I’m sure he’ll reach out at some point and come (down) to O.C. and we’ll get a workout in. It’s no problem.”
Whether it’s Ingram or any of the Lakers’ young players, Bryant said he will offer detailed feedback.
“It’s just consistency. That’s all it is, consistency. You don’t build an entire package of the game on one summer. You focus on one or two things throughout the summer,” Bryant said.
“You master those things. Then the following summer, you focus on another one or two things. Then the following summer, it’s another one or two things. Five years from now, you have a game that has no weaknesses in it. But it’s not done in one summer. It’s about having a five-year plan, a 10-year plan and understanding how to get there.”
It’s safe to presume Bryant has a five-year and 10-year plan regarding his storytelling. For the short term, Bryant said he and his team are “finishing up” the next installments of the “Canvas Series” for ESPN. For the long term, Bryant said he will continue making more short films for the Canvas series while also producing other undetermined series, books and long-form films.
“It’s just creating and creating compelling characters and stories and finding the best medium in which they live,” Bryant said. “That’s what we’ll do.”