Kobe Bryant and his process that led to success on the court is no secret. In fact, it’s one of the reasons why athletes across sports hail the Lakers legend as a true icon. Once he retired from the hardwood, the focus was firmly on family, until the art of storytelling influenced him. This was not a set-in-stone path, yet with his first project, Dear Basketball, he won an Oscar. That was not by chance, but Mamba’s ability to pay attention to every small detail, and to not back down from his demands.

This sounds familiar to his behavior on the court. The behavior remained the same as he took his steps in the creative writing field. “He actually was so passionate about storytelling that when he took his book ideas to publishers, what they would do is they would sort of put him in the cookie cutter, like, ‘Well, you’re a successful celebrity or athlete, you have a big following, here’s how we do the book’. And he actually rejected book deals.” Jimmy Soni, who is currently writing a book about Kobe Bryant, explained the Lakers legend’s behavior and his refusal of book deals.

In the past, the 18x All-Star already declined a movie with Adam Sandler. So, saying no to big publication houses wasn’t a big task. Because Kobe wanted results that they couldn’t deliver. Publishing Industry, which has witnessed $45.8 billion in revenue this year itself, so challenging their norms was not easy. But Kobe did it.

“He decided to create his own publishing company because they weren’t going to invest in the quality of the books that he wanted to do. He actually spent two weeks with his team re-architecting the barcode on one of his books because he wanted the barcode to more fluid and elegantly blend into the backdrop of the book. And no publisher was going to spend two weeks and huge amounts of resources to re-architect a barcode. And so at every part of it, he was like, well, what’s the highest quality thing we could do? Publishers were giving him insufficient answers.”

Let’s understand that the barcode is on the back of the book, occupying a tiny space. Yet, for the Lakers legend, it was paramount that even the barcode should be perfectly aligned with his vision. That’s why he didn’t take the traditional route of going to the publication houses and instead built his own.”So he designed his own publishing company so the books could be better. And it’s like, it’s incredible. I mean, it’s like an incredible level of commitment at betting on yourself when you have big publishing houses saying, yeah, ‘you’re Kobe Bryant, we will work with you.’ And he’s like,’ you’re not going to do it to my level.’”

That’s why he was able to secure an Academy Award for an animated short film titled ‘Dear Basketball,’ an emotional letter which he originally penned when he initially announced his retirement from basketball. Focusing not just on the surface level is what made Kobe Bryant one of the successful players to step on the court. That’s why he had no hesitation in refusing to do the movie.

Kobe Bryant rejected $50 million project

Did you know Kobe Bryant lost a role to Kevin Garnett? As per reports, the Lakers legend was the original choice when the script was being written. So, why did the 5x NBA champion give up? The movie was Uncut Gems, a thriller/crime, where the Directors Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie, and main star Adam Sandler were very keen for the 2x Finals MVP to join. His part was then done by Kevin Garnett, and the movie earned $50 million on a $19 million budget.

But the Lakers legend wanted to focus on his directorial ventures and hence passed on the project. Plus, Kobe Bryant knew about his influence and wanted to be a positive role model for young African American children. That’s why he once detailed his plan about his goals and how he wanted to tell stories for his children. He also launched a production company in 2013, which produced the 2017 animated short Dear Basketball. Not to forget, his collaboration with Wesley King on The Wizenard Series: Training Camp book.

Just like an award-winning movie, his book also became a New York Times bestseller in 2019. At first, the plans of transition from basketball were not certain. But once he got hooked on it, there was no stopping the Lakers legend. Another good news for the Kobe fans, a new biopic is in the works, and it solely focuses on the draft drama that led him to Los Angeles in the first place.