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Newsletter: Lakers! Lonzo Ball will meet with Kobe Bryant ‘if the situation presents itself’

Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant
(Michel Euler / Associated Press)
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Hi, this is Tania Ganguli, Lakers reporter for the Los Angeles Times here with your weekly newsletter.

The Lakers are in snowy Cleveland on Thursday finishing up a four-game road trip that has gone surprisingly well. They beat Philadelphia, holding off a fourth-quarter 76ers push with a game-winning shot by Brandon Ingram. Then they handled the reeling Charlotte Hornets a few nights later.

This trip has had everything from Ball family drama to encouraging signs from the Lakers’ young players.

We’ll get into all that in today’s newsletter.

But first …

Will Lonzo Ball reach out to Kobe Bryant?

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Kobe Bryant did a bit of a media tour this week in advance of Monday’s jersey retirement ceremony when the Lakers play the Golden State Warriors. Bryant jerseys bearing both Nos. 24 and 8 will be retired.

He did a series of one-on-one phone interviews with members of the local media.

During our conversation, Bryant said Ball hadn’t reached out to him.

When the Lakers drafted Ball, there was sort of an assumption that he and Bryant would get together at some point. After all, to understand what it’s like to be a teenage future star playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, there might be no better person for Ball to speak with than Bryant.

Though Bryant has no official title, in his ceremonial role as elder statesman he has already helped at least one rookie. Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma had dinner with Bryant recently, a dinner initiated by Kuzma.

“I think anybody would like to sit down with Kobe,” Ball said. “When the time comes I would definitely be willing to do it and just learn everything I can.”

Asked if he plans to request a meeting with Bryant, Ball said, “If the situation presents itself then it’ll happen.”

It’s not something the Lakers have pushed on Ball or any other players, but the value of Ball spending time with Bryant is clear to Lakers coach Luke Walton. Walton said he’s spoken to Bryant, his former teammate, about arranging a visit to speak with the young Lakers, but Bryant’s schedule hasn’t allowed it.

“He said he’s willing to come talk to the guys and help out when the schedules line up,” Walton said. “It just hasn’t happened.”

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Added Walton: “There’s enough similarities that I think Kobe has a lot he could share with Zo as far as the way he went about his career and how he grew as a young player and turned into the player we all know him as now. So I think there’d be some good wisdom there.”

Why do we care if and when it happens? Because this is an organization that cares a lot about its history.

Since last we spoke

—One thing I talked with Bryant about was the level of involvement he has had or not had with the Lakers this year. He doesn’t watch Laker games religiously, mostly catching them when his schedule allows. In the months since his retirement, Bryant has offered himself as a resource for the Lakers, and that connection strengthened when the Lakers hired Rob Pelinka, Bryant’s former agent, as their general manger. Pelinka is Bryant’s middle daughter’s godfather and naturally the two speak regularly. It’s not always about basketball, but that’s his window into how things are going with the Lakers. “I had no preconceived notions of my involvement,” Bryant told me. “It was never something where I thought these are my expectations of my involvement with the organization.”

—The Ball family — LaVar, Tina, LiAngelo and LaMelo traveled for part of this trip. LaVar played the heel during a timeout as the Lakers closed in on a win over the 76ers and the entire crowd reacted. That same day, former UCLA player LiAngelo and 16-year-old LaMelo, former UCLA commit, hired Lonzo’s agent, Harrison Gaines, to pursue international opportunities. They’ll play in Lithuania and their father told me he’ll accompany them for at least part of the time. They had a pop-up shop attended by thousands of New Yorkers on Sunday, and on Tuesday news broke that the Lakers have had conversations with LaVar about the tone of his rhetoric.

Brandon Ingram had an off night against the New York Knicks, but this has been a great trip for his development. That started in Philadelphia when he hit the game-winning three.

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—My favorite story of the week was this: Brook Lopez had to think fast when an alarm rang on his phone the morning he was supposed to leave for the Lakers’ road trip. The Skirball fire was descending upon his Bel Air Crest neighborhood. Lopez has no human housemates, but he does have a cat, Poupin. Rather than leave Poupin to deal with the fire situation himself (the neighborhood was eventually evacuated), Lopez had a car service take the cat to Fresno, alone.

Coming up

Growing up, Lonzo Ball had posters of three NBA players on his wall: LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Thursday night he’ll get to face the only one of those three he’ll ever play against. LeBron, by the way, made the rare decision to skip post-shootaround availability Thursday with the Lakers in town. I was told he almost never does that. After Cleveland, life won’t get much easier for the Lakers. They’ve got the Warriors twice in the next week and the Houston Rockets once.

Schedule

All times Pacific

Thursday at Cleveland, 5 p.m., TNT

Monday vs. Golden State, 7:30 p.m., NBATV

Wednesday at Houston, 5 p.m., NBATV

Until next time

Stay tuned for future newsletters. Subscribe here, and I’ll come right to your inbox. Something else you’d like to see here? Email me. Or follow me on Twitter @taniaganguli

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