Kobe Bryant’s NBA origin story can be retold in With the “eighth Decide,” a movie exploring the draft-day choices that modified basketball.
Kobe Bryant and the 1996 NBA Draft take middle court docket in a brand new Warner Bros. mission that dives deep into the pivotal hours that reshaped basketball historical past.
The studio has secured rights to With the eighth Decide, a spec script written by Alex Sohn and Gavin Johannsen, which zeroes in on the behind-the-scenes choices that led to Bryant touchdown with the Los Angeles Lakers as an alternative of the New Jersey Nets.
In accordance with The Hollywood Reporter, the movie is being produced by Tim and Trevor White of Star Thrower Leisure, alongside Ryan Stowell and Gotham Chopra from Faith of Sports activities, an organization co-founded by Tom Brady and Michael Strahan.
Described as a tense draft-day thriller within the spirit of Moneyball and Air, the movie unpacks the 2 weeks main up to the 1996 NBA Draft.
It focuses on the interior debates throughout the Nets’ entrance workplace, the place common supervisor John Nash and head coach John Calipari reportedly clashed over whether or not to take the highschool phenom with the eighth Decide.
Monetary issues and uncertainty about Bryant’s readiness led the group to cross.
Bryant, who had declared for the draft straight out of Decrease Merion Excessive College in Pennsylvania, was in the end chosen thirteenth general by the Charlotte Hornets.
He was then traded to the Lakers in a pre-arranged deal involving veteran middle Vlade Divac. That call would launch a 20-year profession in Los Angeles, the place Bryant turned a five-time NBA champion and international icon.
The movie avoids masking Bryant’s tragic 2020 dying in a helicopter crash, as an alternative specializing in the formative second that set his profession in movement. Producers are nonetheless within the early phases of growth and haven’t but introduced a director or solid.
Bryant’s highschool profession was already legendary earlier than he entered the league. He averaged 30.8 factors, 12 rebounds and 6.5 assists per recreation his senior yr and broke Wilt Chamberlain’s Southeastern Pennsylvania scoring document with 2,883 factors.
Although closely recruited by prime faculties, he selected to go professional at 17, changing into simply the sixth participant to leap from highschool to the NBA.
With the eighth Decide provides to the rising listing of Bryant-focused initiatives, however this one narrows in on a selected turning level that helped outline the fashionable NBA.
