Tributes to late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant are pouring in for his 47th birthday. But new reports say part of the Mamba’s story could eventually come to the big screen.
Kobe Bryant Biopic: Movie on Lakers Star Gets Major Development
Warner Bros. Acquires Spec Script for Kobe-Centered Project
Warner Bros. Pictures has picked up a spec script for a film about Kobe’s draft experience, according to Variety. Tentatively titled “With the 8th Pick?,” the storyline would follow Bryant’s journey toward the 1996 NBA Draft, when the Lakers acquired him from the Hornets, who took him 13th overall. The spec script—a script written without executive or studio backing—was created by Alex Sohn and Gavin Johannsen.
Variety’s Matt Donnelly and J. Kim Murphy added:
“Other insiders familiar with the script described the film as ‘Moneyball’ meets ‘Air,’ Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s recent feature detailing Nike’s courtship of a rookie-year Michael Jordan.
Warner Bros. had no comment when asked about the project.”
Entertainment journalist Jeff Sneider first broke the news and added that Tom Brady’s production company, Religion of Sports, would be partners in the project along with the producers of “KING RICHARD,” the biopic on the father of tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams. Religion of Sports was also behind a Bryant-related documentary, “Kobe Bryant’s Muse,” which offered a deep-dive into his career until 2014 and aired on Showtime. Other projects of theirs include Netflix and ESPN+ shows around Brady, Serena Williams, Simone Biles and Connor McGregor.
Sources told Variety, however, that “any third-party involvement was way premature.”
How New Jersey Factors into Kobe’s Journey
Though the Hornets and Lakers play key roles in Bryant’s story, why include No. 8?
Before Bryant put on a Hornets hat and a Laker uniform, he nearly became a New Jersey Net. Then Nets GM John Nash wanted to draft Kobe with the eighth overall pick, but passed under external pressure to take Villanova star Kerry Kittles. While Bryant’s career was legendary in its own right, Kittles was certainly no slouch. The 6’5” shooting guard made the 1997 All-Rookie team and finished fifth in Rookie of the Year voting. Over the course of his nine-year career (excluding a 2000-01 season lost due to injury), Kittles averaged 14.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists. He did end up finishing his career in LA, spending the 2004-05 campaign with the Clippers.
“Everybody knows I was talked out of that,” former Nets head coach John Calipari told ESPN’s Ian O’Connor in 2011. “But let me say this, the opportunity to coach Kerry Kittles, I wouldn’t give up for anything. I love Kerry Kittles, and I said at the time he’ll be better than Kobe these first couple of years, but in five years Kobe’s going to be off the charts.”
Nearly 30 years since the 1996 NBA Draft, the Nets’ decision remains one of the league’s greatest “what-ifs,” and it could get its own spotlight if this film comes to fruition.
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