Following the retirement of Kobe Bryant and the end of his era with the team a year before, the Los Angeles Lakers made major changes to their front office last season, with Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka replacing the former regime of Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak.
Since the overhaul, Johnson has been fairly open about his desire for Bryant to come aboard, with reports saying that he wants Bryant to be involved in a “player relations” role. Johnson has also told the media he knows Bryant “wants to be involved” with the team.
If that’s true, Bryant doesn’t want to be involved in a front office capacity, via Dan Gelston of the Associated Press:
Bryant has said he has no interest in a Lakers’ front office role and is content to keep his scouting reports within the family.
“I coach my daughter’s sixth grade team. That’s the extent of it all,” Bryant said. “She’s a beast. She’s tough. She’s a little firecracker, man.”
The Lakers do have a fairly full front office as it is, so chances are they wouldn’t need Bryant to come on in any day-to-day type role as it is. That being said, he could still help the team, even in a less consistent fashion, if he was willing to do things like work out with their younger players on occasion or let them pick his brain about things.
Lakers forward Julius Randle has said he already has a texting relationship like that with Bryant, and working out with him is something Brandon Ingram has expressed an interest in doing.
If Bryant does so, even without joining the Lakers in any type of official capacity, he could still fulfill Johnson’s wishes for him to be involved without having to commit to an actual front office role that it sounds like he’s not really interested in taking on just yet.
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