The Celtics-Lakers contention makes little difference to who Kobe Bryant helps in retirement.
While at the same time Lakers point protect Lonzo Ball has apparently not looked for Bryant’s recommendation right off the bat in his profession, Celtics wing Jayson Tatum looks for it at relatively every turn. Tatum, who Boston drafted one spot after Los Angeles took Ball with the No. 2 pick in 2017, designed his amusement after Bryant as a child and is preparing with the Lakers legend now as a sprouting NBA star. The two strong scorers from inverse sides of the contention have built up a nearby working relationship as of late, and the likenesses between the two are striking to the point that Bryant straightforwardly asked why the Lakers didn’t draft Tatum over Ball.
It began when Tatum’s mentor, Drew Hanlen, demonstrated Bryant a video he pounded up of the youthful Celtic duplicating a wide cluster of the resigned Laker’s moves, all to a clasp of Tatum telling ESPN,
Kobe Bryant was the reason I started playing basketball. Always was and will be my favorite player of all time.
My man @jaytatum0 is a bucket because he studies film & has spent YEARS perfecting his craft. Stole a lot of his best stuff straight from his idol @kobebryant #puresweatfam pic.twitter.com/woNmY9ou82
— Drew Hanlen (@DrewHanlen) July 15, 2018
We actually showed Kobe it yesterday, Hanlen told Sidelines podcast host Evan Daniels, via USA Today, and he was like, ‘Why didn’t the Lakers draft him?’ which was pretty funny after seeing that.
Hanlen proposed Bryant made the remark to some degree jokingly, as though to state,
How come the Lakers didn’t draft another me?
However, the reality remains that the Lakers could have drafted Tatum over Ball. Of course, the Celtics may have stayed with the No. 1 pick and taken Tatum there on the off chance that they weren’t so certain the Philadelphia 76ers would draft Markelle Fultz and the Lakers were stuck on Ball.
