Warner Bros. Pictures has “acquired a spec script” based on the story of late Basketball HOFer Kobe Bryant joining the Lakers.
With screenwriters Alex Sohn and Gavin Johannsen at the helm of the film, With the 8th Pick, the story will focus on the behind-the-scenes 1996 NBA drafting of Bryant. As Deadline reports, “the project is told from the point of view of John Nash, the general manager of the New Jersey Nets, and incoming Nets coach John Calipari, who really wanted Bryant. However, the New Jersey was a broke organization, and Bryant was an L.A. Lakers fan.”
At the time, the New Jersey Nets held the eighth pick in the draft and considered taking Bryant, but he was still in high school. Instead, Bryant’s stock dropped a bit, and the Charlotte Hornets drafted him with the 13th pick then traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Bryant won five titles with the Lakers and is considered one of the greatest players in NBA history. He won an Academy Award during his lifetime for Dear Basketball, an animated short film about his farewell that he wrote and narrated.
He died at 41 in a 2020 helicopter crash, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna.