On Nov. 29, 2015, Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant released a poem on the Players’ Tribune titled “Dear Basketball” to announce that he would be retiring at the end of that season. Bryant went out in style, scoring 60 points and leading the Lakers to a comeback victory over the Utah Jazz in his final game.
With his basketball career now over, Bryant has moved on to his new career in filmmaking, something he says he is very passionate about.
He teamed up with ESPN this past NBA season in creating a six-part documentary series called Canvas, in which he broke down some of the NBA’s best geared towards teaching children using animations.
Animation is something that Bryant has taken a serious interest in, and it appears he is continuing down that path as he is currently in the midst of creating an animated film based on his “Dear Basketball” poem.
Bryant will be working with composer John Williams on the project, something he is very excited about, via Joe Brescia of The Post Game:
“My original idea to make the poem into a film was because I wanted to find some way to work with John Williams,” said Bryant, a fan of the prolific composer who scored the movie and whose resume includes “Star Wars” and “Harry Potter.”
Bryant also mentioned that he will be working with director Glen Keane on the project, something he described as the cherry on top.
In addition to his current project, Bryant said he has a couple others in the works:
“We’ll continue down this path for sure,” he said. “We have a couple things in the works. ‘Dear Basketball’ was a great opportunity to test out animation and sports.”
While Bryant is busy with his filmmaking ventures, a return to the basketball world could be in the works as Ice Cube recently said that he has been recruiting Bryant to play in the BIG3 League in the future.
Whether or not Kobe takes Cube up on the offer remains to be seen as he seems content focusing on storytelling in his post-NBA career.