Lakers: Hulu Doc "Legacy" Recalls Lakers Family's Reaction To Kobe Bryant's Passing
Your Los Angeles Lakers' 2019-20 championship season was disrupted by several heart-wrenching real life tragedies.
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to the horrific shootings that led to a series of worldwide protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, the world was dealt its fair share of sad moments that season.
On the Lakers front, team owner Jeanie Buss lost her mother, JoAnn, on December 16th, 2019, while Laker legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven other souls perished in a Calabasas helicopter crash on the morning of January 26th, 2020.
In the final episode of the 10-part Hulu documentary series "Legacy: The True Story Of The L.A. Lakers," executive produced by Buss and directed by Antoine Fuqua, a lot of Lakers family members past and present reflect on that season and the passing of Bryant.
"We came out of the gates really strong, I felt like we had a chance to do something special: to win a championship," then-head coach Frank Vogel says now.
"We all just clicked," All-Star L.A. power forward Anthony Davis says of teammates that season in interview footage. "Every guy on the team had a chip on their shoulder and wanted to win."
All-Star Los Angeles small forward James passed Bryant as the third-leading scorer in NBA history during a January 25th, 2020 away game against the Philadelphia 76ers, in Bryant's hometown.
"It felt incredible man, just knowing how I looked up to the guy so much from when I was in high school," James says. "It was just mind-blowing and I get to my locker after the game and there's a tweet from Kobe to me... And one thing a lot of people don't know, this is the first time I ever told anybody, this is the first I ever told anybody, he sent me a bottle of wine, a 1984 [James's birth year] La Tâche with a handwritten note. And it's in my wine cellar hung up. It's the only bottle that won't be [consumed] in my cellar."
While in the air flying back from Philadelphia after the game the next day, various players started getting ominous texts, claiming that Bryant had perished.
"Bron's knocked out," Davis says. He woke up his teammate. "I said, 'Bro, Kobe died.' He said the same thing I said, 'Kobe who?' I'm like, 'Kobe Bryant. Him, Gigi.' And he was like, 'Man, stop playing.'"
"Anthony looked like somebody pulled his soul from him," James reflects. "All of us just kind of just broke down. We just all broke down in tears. That was one of the longest flights I've ever been on."
"That s*** hit us hard," Davis recalls.
Showtime Lakers starting shooting guard Byron Scott, who played during his own last NBA season as a bench mentor to Bryant and then coached the 18-time All-Star during Bryant's last NBA season, 2015, recalled where he was when he heard the news. "I was at home," Scott says. "[My wife] and I were getting ready for church. She's in the bathroom getting ready and she screams, 'Oh my god.' I turned the phone off, didn't talk to anybody that day. [I] didn't talk to anybody the next day. I was just heartbroken."
We next hear from Bryant's longtime point guard, Derek Fisher, who was alongside him in five of his championships. "I was on the way to LAX," Fisher says. "My kids called, and they were just freaking out... [I] just got back home and I couldn't take my eyes off the TV because it still wasn't registering that it was real."
"It was the toughest hit that I've ever taken," Bryant's best teammate during his post-Shaquille O'Neal years, six-time All-Star and future Hall of Famer Pau Gasol, says in new interview footage. "My heart sank. I sank."
"Only thing I can say is I wish I would've told him I loved him," Bryant's friend and 2003-04 teammate Gary Payton notes, candidly. "So that's just something guys always regret. We didn't ever really think that he was gonna pass, you know?"
"You know, I didn't even have his number. I don't call nobody," O'Neal tells the camera. "It's not the right attitude to have, but it's the attitude I always have. But if you have to say that after the fact, it's something that you always live with."
"We all thought Kobe was invincible, and in the blink of an eye, he's gone," claims Dwight Howard, a 2019-20 Laker who had also played with Bryant during the 2012-13 season.
"Shortly after my mom passed away, [Bryant] called me and left me a message, which was so like Kobe," Buss remembers. "He was a Laker and he cared about the Laker family."
When Bryant passed away, the NBA postponed a scheduled "Battle of L.A." game between the Lakers and their then-Staples Center neighbors, the Los Angeles Clippers, led by their own Big Two of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The Lakers would eventually play their first home game five days after the death of Bryant, on January 31st, in a 127-119 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
"To go back in the arena and play was just impossible," Davis says. "And we see the crowd, everybody's wearing Kobe shirts, and the tears come back, the emotions come back."
"Everybody felt like the only thing they could do to make anything feel meaningful was to come together and play together for Kobe." ESPN's Ramona Shelburne says.
"I thought it brought us closer," Howard observes.
The team did indeed rally together, going 13-4 after Bryant's death... before the whole world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When NBA activity resumed in July, it would be on the Disney World "bubble" campus in Orlando, Florida. The Lakers did proceed to win their 17th NBA title that season.
