Lakers Rumors: Kobe Bryant appearing in ‘The Last Dance’ next week?

Before ‘The Last Dance’ aired for the first time, there were Lakers rumors that Kobe Bryant would not only be appearing in the 10-part documentary but that his interview was filmed in mid-January, just a week before his passing.

Richard Deitsch of The Athletic first reported the news and Laker fans have eagerly been waiting since. While MJ and Kobe’s primes did not cross, their timelines certainly did and Kobe carried on that embodiment of the character and hard work after Jordan retired.

The timeline of ‘The Last Dance’ has not yet caught up to Kobe Bryant, even if the emphasis is on the 97-98 season, which was Bryant’s second year in the league and first all-star season. However, in episodes five and six, which are set to air on Sunday, May 3, we might be getting that Bryant cameo.

Lakers Rumors: Kobe Bryant teased for next week’s episode of ‘The Last Dance’:

ESPN’s Twitter account posted a photo of Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan together, seemingly teasing next week’s episode. Is this just a play on what Jordan is telling Kobe in the photo, or are we going to get Kobe in some capacity on Sunday?

I absolutely think it is the latter as the timeline is starting to catch up with the 97-98 season to intertwine with Kobe Bryant. Episode four ended with the team’s big loss to the Utah Jazz before the all-star break, giving a cliffhanger ending as this was the same time that Jerry Krause made comments about Jordan’s future.

Not only is that all-star game the first in Kobe’s career, but the Jazz game came three days after the Bulls took on the Lakers in Los Angeles. The Lakers killed Chicago in that game, 112-87, and Kobe scored 20 off the bench.

That game absolutely should be highlighted, even if it came slightly before where the documentary left off. This was a young, upstart Lakers team that was poised to eventually be the team to beat (and they were three years later), similar to Jordan’s Bulls in the mid-’80s.

It is a perfect dynamic to call back to the other narrative of the documentary, which was the origin of MJ’s Bulls, to make that Kobe comparison as well as highlight that year’s All-Star Game, where Jordan was the MVP for the last time in his career ironically in the first year that Kobe made the team.

How much Bryant will we get? That is unclear. I am sure there will be something about the Lakers game and the all-star game, with some comments about Kobe being the next MJ as a way to dramatize that “is MJ going to retire?” narrative from episodes three and four.

And I am sure that we will see that interview clip, with Kobe talking about how much of an inspiration Jordan and how getting to play prime Jordan helped his career