Lakers: Author Jeff Pearlman shares a revealing Kobe Bryant Thanksgiving story

Kobe Bryant has countless behind-the-scenes moments with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Kobe Bryant is the most beloved player in the history of Los Angeles sports and is regarded as many to be the greatest player to ever suit up for the Los Angeles Lakers. We all now know Kobe as the Black Mamba, but before he was the Black Mamba, he was a young shooting guard that had to learn how to be a better teammate.

New York Times best-selling author Jeff Pearlman joined the Lake Show Life Podcast to discuss the three-peat Lakers from the turn of the century, revealing some interesting dynamics about Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and that team as a whole.

Pearlman has a new book coming out “Three-Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty,” where he dives deep into this relationship and dynamic.

On the Lake Show Life Podcast, he gave us a little snippet of what is in the book, sharing a telling Kobe Bryant Thanksgiving story.

"“It’s the day before Thanksgiving and all the players are leaving and Karl Malone spots Kobe walking out of the locker room and he goes ‘yo young buck, come here’. He whispers something into his ear.Kobe then goes player to player and wishes them a happy Thanksgiving. He needed someone to tell him that he needed to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Little things like that — he needed those veterans to guide him along.”"

Kobe Bryant could not have become the all-time great that he became, eventually taking NBA players under his wing, without the veteran leadership that was surrounding him early in his career.

Pearlman shares even more stories about Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Without revealing too much of his book, Pearlman shared other stories about Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers that you can listen to below.

Some of the stories include Kobe’s first time as a Laker in the NBA Summer League, how the New Jersey Nets almost drafted him but didn’t because of a young John Calipari and spending eight hours in Montana with the legendary Phil Jackson.

Pearlman also discusses how the current NBA bubble is a great book that is waiting to be made someday as well as giving his pick to who would win in a two-on-two basketball game between Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar vs. Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

Pearlman’s new book releases on Tuesday, September 22nd and is filled with countless other stories about the Los Angeles Lakers from 1996 to 2004. The book is available for pre-order on Amazon.