Southern California is currently living right as not only did the Los Angeles Lakers recently win the NBA’s first In-Season Tournament, but the Los Angeles Dodgers also recently signed the biggest free agent in baseball history in Shohei Ohtani.
The Dodgers were able to lure Ohtani away from the L.A. Angels by signing him to a 10-year, $700 million contract and he now joins the long list of star athletes that play in Los Angeles.
It was a long free agency process for Ohtani, meeting with a number of teams before eventually choosing the Dodgers. Each team made their respective pitch, and ultimately it was the Dodgers that Ohtani decided was the best organization to spend the rest of his playing career.
And it appears the Lakers made have played a role in Ohtani’s recruitment as well. According to Jeff Passan and Alden Gonzalez of ESPN, Ohtani said the highlight of the Dodgers’ pitch was a video they showed him of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant:
Back in 2017, Bryant had filmed the clip as a favor to the team. Now, more than three years after his death in a helicopter crash, Bryant’s reputation as the ultimate competitor spans all sports, and his message to Ohtani registered the same posthumously in 2023 as it would have then: There’s no better place in the world to win than Los Angeles, and there’s no better team in baseball to win with than the Dodgers.
“That was one of the highlights of the whole meeting,” Ohtani told ESPN through his interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara. “I was really surprised to see it. It was a strong and touching message.”
Bryant tragically passed away in 2020 so that had to have been an emotional video for Ohtani to see. The Dodgers also recruited Ohtani when he first came over from Japan and signed with the Angels in 2017, so that was when Bryant recorded the video although it was never shown to the Japanese star until now.
The Dodgers are hoping that Ohtani could have a similar impact on the team, city and world that Kobe did during his 20 years with the Lakers. He definitely has the talent to do so as well as a shared mentality with Bryant, who wanted to win at all costs.
Even after his passing, it’s amazing to see the impact that Bryant continues to have on the world today, especially on young athletes like Ohtani who are trying to achieve greatness in their respective sports. Kobe was able to win five championships during his time with the Lakers, and the hope is that Ohtani will be able to do something similar with the Dodgers.
Hachimura excited about Ohtani joining Dodgers
Kobe was a huge Dodgers fan so surely would be excited about Ohtani joining the team this winter. Another member of the Lakers who is excited is Rui Hachimura, who is from Japan and has a past relationship with Ohtani.
Now that Ohtani’s contract is signed, it will be interesting to see if Hachimura brings him out to a Lakers game at Crypto.com Arena in the near future.
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