The note to Kobe Bryant had been sitting there for 12 days with no response.
Back on June 21, 2018, when NBA free agency was nearing and the rumblings continued to grow louder that LeBron James was likely to sign with the Lakers, there was a key question left unanswered when it came to the superstar dynamics: Since LeBron surely wouldn’t come without another elite player by his side, who was going to come with him?
This was the post-retirement reality of covering Kobe, a reporting world where those long and candid walks to the Staples Center loading docks that were such a unique part of his playing days — and usually R-rated — were replaced by Twitter DMs where he would occasionally help with informed insights from a distance. Considering the way he was revered by this generation of players, and how many of them never hesitated to reach out for advice or counsel, it was safe to assume Kobe had a good feel for the goings on here.
In this case, the…
