Lakers rumors: What to really expect from a Kobe Bryant documentary

Let’s get this out-of-the-way for Lakers fans. There will be a Kobe Bryant documentary in the future. The only question is when it will happen. Lake Show Life breaks down what the project may entail. To Kobe Bryant stans, it will not be all roses.

Anyone waiting for episodes three and four of “The Last Dance” yet? How about the first episode of Kobe Bryant’s documentary to be named later?

In the media and entertainment world, everyone is looking for the next best thing. ESPN found it big time the Michael Jordan documentary, “The Last Dance”. To put this in perspective, people went insane over it and trust this point, they haven’t got into the good stuff yet. They are just setting up the stage at this point.

The opening weekend spanning two hours of ESPN’s docuseries “The Last Dance” on Sunday, which shined the light on the unreported parts of Jordan’s career, fame and legacy outlived the hype.

• The first hour averaged 6.1 million viewers on ESPN and ESPN2.
• The second hour averaged 5.3 million viewers on the two ESPN networks. 
• Think about how many people watched it on Netflix?
• The Last Dance was the most-watched original content broadcast on ESPN since the sports giant started producing originals in 2004. The previous high was 3.6 million viewers for “You Don’t Know Bo” in 2012.
• The two hours overall averaged 3.5 million viewers in the key ad demographic of adults 18-49.  This equivalent to about a 2.7 rating, way ahead of anything else on TV on Sunday night.

For anyone that has no clue to what the last bullet point meant, to the network marketers they see that age group of people who buy products (Also read: They spend the most money in this country!).

In short, ESPN executives are probably happier than the sports fans at this point. Couple the amount of viewers The Last Dance got along with the potential eyes on the NFL Draft this weekend, the sports world has forgotten the H-O-R-S-E debacle.

Lake Show Life will let everyone in on a little secret. The ratings will go continue to go through the roof. Dennis Rodman’s episode is coming up. This tweet from LA Times’ Arash Markazi caption sums up the world about 2020 and the video sums up why the next episodes will be better than last week.

https://twitter.com/ArashMarkazi/status/1252370336873451523

The money will be rolling in for a lot of people for the next few weeks through May 17th. According to Forbes, only one person will not get any money. Who? Michael Jordan.

"$0: The amount Jordan will bank from The Last Dance. He’s donating his entire share of the proceeds, which should reach at least $3 million to $4 million, to charitable causes."

Don’t worry NBA fans, his retro Jordan releases will go through the roof and the Charlotte Hornets will increase in value after the NBA season ends. Then there’s all those endorsements that will get some shine too. The drink Jordan is drinking throughout the documentary is a tequila that he owns. The man is a marketing genius.

Guess who else was? Kobe Bryant. 

Well it seems that a camera crew followed Kobe Bryant to document his final two seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers. Knowing how Kobe mapped his career in the mold of Jordan, more than likely a documentary of his own will be on the way, noted filmmaker Gotham Chopra told ESPN LA.

After Kobe Bryant was lost in a helicopter crash in January, there could be an even bigger groundswell of sports fans would flock to watch. With the off-court accomplishments that were starting to overshadow the on-court accomplishments, it was evident that Kobe was becoming the businessman that Michael was in retirement life.

With Kobe Bryant scheduled to appear in “The Last Dance” at some point in the upcoming weeks, the ratings of the episode could determine the future of the documentary being released.  Bryant reportedly filmed his part about a week before his tragic passing in a helicopter crash.

Will it happen? Yes. If any of the information reported by ESPN’s Baxter Holmes is reasonably correct, bank on it.

According to Holmes, Bryant used a personal camera crew to film his season-long retirement tour in 2015-16. Then he outlined the crew was granted unprecedented access during Kobe’s final season with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Smart money has Bryant’s estate owning the rights to that footage through his production company Granity Studios. His company won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2018 for producing “Dear Basketball”, based on Bryant’s retirement letter in the Players’ Tribune.

The bottom line is this.

"But Bryant’s crew received what was considered unique privileges, in no small part because they were working for Bryant, several staffers said. And they received access that was even beyond that of Spectrum SportsNet, which had previously signed a 20-year, $4 billion deal with the Lakers, sources told ESPN."

If Kobe’s crew had more access at that time than a network the team had a $4 billion deal with, something will happen. But for a documentary to have substance, EVERYTHING has to be covered. Remember, the Jordan documentary isn’t over. The gambling, the death of Mr. Jordan and things that obviously made Michael Jordan uncomfortable will come out.

The same will happen with Kobe Bryant. Is the world ready for that?

Over the next several pages, Lake Show Life goes into depth on why many want to see the documentary to ride the wave of Michael Jordan’s, but don’t want to sully Kobe Bryant’s legacy at this time.