Kobe Bryant

Only John Williams could have put me in the orbit of one of history’s most famous basketball players. Kobe Bryant, like so many others, was a huge fan of Williams’ music; he befriended and sought out the composer for career advice and, when he made his post-athletic pivot to filmmaking, hired Williams to compose a short score.

And because I cover film music for a living, I was able to interview Bryant — along with Williams and Disney animation legend Glen Keane — for The Times in the spring of 2017. I even got to meet Bryant in person, backstage at the Hollywood Bowl, when he rehearsed his narration of “Dear Basketball” at an all-Williams concert. It was an obscenely hot day, and I waited outside Bryant’s dressing room while they finished drying his sweat-soaked shirt with a hair dryer before he came out and cheerfully shook my hand.

I gave Bryant and “Dear Basketball” a fair amount of real estate in my new book, “John Williams: A Composer’s Life,” not because of his fame or athletic prowess, but because I feel that his short film inspired one of Williams’ most beautiful works of the last decade, and also because there was something poetic and moving about the whole affair, and about saying goodbye to the thing you love the most — especially as the film became a kind of eulogy for Bryant after his untimely death in 2020.

[The below excerpt is from Tim Greiving’s “John Williams: A Composer’s Life,” out Sept. 2. Greiving is a frequent contributor to The Times.]

Tim Greiving

(Laura Hinely)

Kobe Bryant, the 18-time NBA All-Star, was an unexpected admirer of John’s music: as a boy, Bryant would tie a towel around his neck and run around to the theme of Superman; as a player, he used the Imperial March to hype himself up before games; and as a father, he would rock his infant daughters to sleep on his chest listening to Hedwig’s Theme. The six-foot-six athlete from Philly could hardly have been less like John, but he recognized mastery when he heard it. “I asked myself a question,” Bryant said: “What makes a John Williams piece timeless? How is he using each instrument? How is he using the space between them? How is he building momentum, and then how is he taking it away to build it again?” As a basketball player, Bryant said he was “essentially conducting a game,” “so I just wanted to talk to him about how he composed music and try to find something similar that I can then use to help my game as a leader and winning championships.”

Bryant first contacted John for counsel just before the 2008 NBA season. “The first thing I told Kobe was, I’d never seen a basketball game,” John confessed. “High school, college, professional, or television. And of course he laughed.” “But once I had told him my reason for reaching out to him,” Bryant said, “he saw the connection immediately…If we look in our same industry and we just look at things from that funnel, then you wind up essentially recycling information. So sometimes you look outside of that discipline to have a new point of view, a new perspective on it. [John] was digging it.”

They continued to see each other over the years, with Bryant often visiting John backstage after shows at the Hollywood Bowl. When Bryant retired from basketball in 2016, he turned his attention to entertainment. He wrote a sentimental open letter, “Dear Basketball,” as a retirement announcement, and one of his first post-game projects was turning that text into a short film. He wanted it crafted by undisputed masters of their fields, so he commissioned Disney animation veteran Glen Keane— who designed and animated Ariel in The Little Mermaid, among other achievements— and he asked John to write the score. The first thing John said to Bryant was, “I do classical pieces, and it’s all by hand,” almost as a warning. Bryant answered: “The piece will be hand-animated by Glen Keane, who is you in the animation space. I want it to have the human touch. I don’t want it to be poppy, I don’t want it to be hip-hoppy. I want timeless, classical music.”

Somehow, these three disparate artists—with two decades between each of them—hit it off. Keane was an avid fan of Lost in Space growing up in the 1960s, and when he told John how much he loved the music, John was completely embarrassed. “But it’s wonderful, John!” Keane said. “It held the promise of wonder and excitement and fun and quirky and scary and dangerous, and it was all in this one score. And John— the roots of your entire career are in that score.” Keane asked if he could play some of the old music. John said, “No, please don’t!” “No, I really gotta play it for you,” Keane insisted. “So I did.” The unlikely trio sat around a table in Keane’s office “and we just talked,” said Bryant. “John talked about how [the letter] made him feel, Glen how it makes him feel, and we all centered on the same thing, which is why I wrote it in the first place: the beauty of finding what it is that you love to do, and then finding the beauty of knowing that you will not be able to do that forever. Once they saw the nature of the piece, there was really nothing else to discuss.”

(Oxford University Press )

Keane illustrated the five-minute film with graphite on paper, depicting the arc of Bryant’s letter— from young Kobe tossing rolled-up tube socks, to NBA glory, to retiring at 37. John was equally inspired by Bryant’s childlike enthusiasm and Keane’s artisanal process. “The drawings have great fluidity and, in the best sense of the word, great simplicity,” John said. “They really are gorgeous, not only to look at, but rhythmically they’re fabulous.” Keane always animated while listening to music, and for this story it was selections from Empire of the Sun. John used that score as a reference point, but initially he wrote something that was too big, “and he went back and he rewrote it for something that was more understated,” said Keane, “in a similar way that Kobe’s delivery, his narration, is very personal, uninflected, not trying to sell anything. More like revealing. Kobe’s got a very quiet voice, and that also had a big impact in how we animated.”

John took a short break from The Last Jedi and spent two weeks in March 2017 to write and record this short piece—a gift for Bryant. When the towering baller arrived at the Sony scoring stage, John said: “I hope that you like what I’ve written.” Bryant just looked at John and said, “I feel pretty confident that it’s going to be just fine.” When Bryant heard John’s piece for the very first time, emanating from a symphony orchestra, “Oh my God,” he said. “I almost lost my mind. As soon as his hands went up and then the music started, I almost yelled out loud— but I had to remember that the red light was on and we’re recording… It was the most unreal experience I could ever have.” Bryant looked over “and just put his head on my shoulder,” said Keane, “like, ‘I can’t believe it.’ It was so beautiful. Then when it was done, John turned to us and said, ‘I promise it’s going to get better.’”

It was one of the simplest, yet most inspired pieces John wrote during this decade: a brief journey taken by a humble, hummable tune that bottled a young boy’s guileless dreams and aspiration for greatness and glory. His hymnal theme begins as a gentle woodwind duet, which is passed to strings and then accelerates into soaring triumph to accompany Bryant’s heyday. Then it grows small again, a lonely keyboard wandering a broken chord as Bryant’s voiceover admits that his body can only play for so long. John’s knack for noble flying music closes the loop, with heraldic horns and rolling timpani connecting Bryant’s story to his music for American heroism— concluding with a bittersweet reprise of the theme on piano and an uplifting coda as the credits roll. Like the letter itself, the score is part valentine, part elegy—and John put his heart into it. He premiered it at the Hollywood Bowl in September, and Bryant surprised the audience by joining John onstage to narrate. The short film won an Oscar in March 2018—and then very shortly afterward, it became a poignant eulogy for Bryant when he died, age 41, in a helicopter crash on a foggy Sunday morning in Calabasas that also killed his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna. John’s wistful, symphonic poem suddenly took on a new shade. “It is elegiac, but it isn’t weepy,” John said of the film when he first scored it, never imagining the sudden tragic fate of his young friend.

It strikes its own manner of saluting the man and the game and the accomplishments with a lot of modesty, I think. It’s very touching, and in the end that may be its highest achievement, that it’s able to praise this man the way it does, without a lot of false vanity or hubris that could easily have spilled into it. That’s my take on it in any case.

The record for the amount paid for a basketball card is about to be broken by Kobe Bryant on what would have been his 47th birthday … with some help from his “big brother,” Michael Jordan.

The 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Dual Logoman Autographs card featuring Bryant and Jordan is up for bid online at Heritage Auctions. Bidding closes Saturday at 8 p.m. PDT, with extended bidding available at that time.

As of early Friday afternoon, bidding for the one-of-one card had reached $7.015 million, including the 22% buyer’s premium added to the successful bid. That already shatters the current record price garnered by a basketball card — the $5.9 million paid for the 2009-10 Panini National Treasures Stephen Curry Logoman Autograph card in a 2021 private estate sale.

With more than a day still remaining for bids, it’s still tough to tell what the new record might end up being.

“Most likely, it’ll end up somewhere in the $8-million range,” Heritage director of sports collectibles Chris Ivy told The Times late Friday morning, although he added that he “wouldn’t be shocked” if it went for $10 million or more.

The most anyone has paid for any sports card is $12.6 million for a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card in a 2022 Heritage auction. The Curry card currently sits at No. 4 among all sports cards.

The Dual Logoman Autographs series of cards features the images and signatures of two iconic players, as well as NBA logo patches from a game-worn jersey from each player. Jordan appeared on eight such cards and Bryant was on 11, but this is the only one that paired the two of them.

“It’s the only one that has Kobe and Jordan on it, and it has both their Logoman logos, and it’s signed by both,” Ivy said, “and so kind of all those factors combined together to make this the top card for modern card collectors. And we’re seeing that in the price that it’s generating right now.”

Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan eyes the basket as he is guarded by the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant on Feb. 1, 1998, at the Forum.

(Vince Bucci / AFP via Getty Images)

Cards featuring Jordan and Bryant individually haven’t brought in nearly as much cash, with Jordan’s top seller going for $2.93 million in 2024 and Bryant’s going for $2.3 million earlier this month.

Ivy said it is a coincidence that the auction is ending on Bryant’s birthday.

The beloved Los Angeles icon and daughter Gianna were among the nine people who died in a Jan. 26, 2020, helicopter crash in Calabasas. Jordan was one of the speakers at the father and daughter’s public memorial held on Feb. 24, 2020, at Staples Center.

“Maybe it surprised people that Kobe and I were very close friends,” Jordan said. “But we were very close friends. Kobe was my dear friend, he was like a little brother.”

He added: “What Kobe Bryant was to me was the inspiration that someone truly cared about the way that I played the game or the way that he wanted to play the game.

“He wanted to be the best basketball player that he could be. And as I got to know him, I wanted to be the best big brother that I could be. To do that you have to put up with the aggravation, the late-night calls or the dumb questions. I took great pride as I got to know Kobe Bryant that he was just trying to be a better person, a better basketball player.”

The image is iconic — Kobe Bryant letting out a roar while tugging on his gold Lakers jersey after scoring 49 points during a playoff win over the Denver Nuggets on April 23, 2008.

It has been used in numerous murals around Southern California, including one that is being painted in larger-than-life form on the side of a future Eat Fantastic restaurant on the 700 block of North Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach.

This particular painting, however, is a little different from the others, and from the original image itself. Bryant’s intensity is still there. His pose is exactly the same. He is still wearing a No. 24 jersey.

But in this version, that jersey is not gold with “Lakers” spelled across the chest in purple letters.

It’s white, with “Dodgers” across the chest in blue letters.

Gustavo Zermeño Jr. altered an iconic image of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant for a Dodgers mural he is painting in Redondo Beach.

(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)

The altered version of the iconic image is just one portion of a sprawling mural paying tribute to the Dodgers’ 2024 World Series championship. It’s on the north-facing side of a former Carl’s Jr. building that will open later this year as part of the growing Eat Fantastic chain in the Los Angeles area.

The mural was conceived by artist Gustavo Zermeño Jr. and Eat Fantastic owner Efthemios Alexander Tsiboukas. It features some of the key figures from the Dodgers’ title run — players Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani (with his beloved dog Decoy) and rapper Ice Cube, who is shown riding in a classic Dodger blue convertible as he did when he performed before Game 3 of the World Series.

And then there’s the late Lakers legend Bryant, whose inclusion in the piece was a must, Zermeño said.

“Each [Eat Fantastic] location has a Kobe mural, at least the ones that have a good wall,” said Zermeño, who is a huge fan of both the Dodgers and Bryant. “And for this location, [Tsiboukas] wanted to create something for the Dodgers’ championship team. That’s why Kobe has the Dodger jersey on, you know, staying on theme with the locations having a Kobe mural.”

Zermeño said the original idea was to paint Bryant wearing a Dodgers baseball jersey, as he did while attending the team’s games over the years before his shocking death in January 2020.

Lakers’ Kobe Bryant celebrates a three–pointer against the Denver Nuggets on April 23, 2008, at Staples Center.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

“So we looked up a bunch of images,” Zermeño said. “A lot of them are obviously cool images, but either they were very pixelated, or just didn’t have what we wanted, that really aggressive Mamba-mentality feel.

“So we found this image. And you know, this image has been done before in several murals. But with the Dodger jersey, we wanted to throw a twist on it.”

Tsiboukas said: “That’s my favorite picture of him. I have the exact same one [painted at the restaurant location] in Arcadia. He’s wearing the real jersey, though, the yellow one. So I wanted a replica of that same one I did in Arcadia, and do it in a Dodger jersey, because of the Dodger dynasty right now.”

The purple and gold may have been removed from the jersey, but Zermeño said he purposefully incorporated them into the sunset depicted behind Bryant as a nod to the Lakers.

Zermeño started working on the mural Aug. 7 and expects to have it completed next week, ahead of Bryant’s Aug. 23 birthday. The portion featuring Bryant is already done — and it has garnered mixed reactions.

“For the most part, I’ve gotten a pretty positive reaction over it,” Zermeño said. “You know, a lot of Laker fans are also Dodger fans, so I think that overlap is pretty consistent throughout L.A. But yeah, man, you’re always going to have some haters. I think a lot of it is more like playful taunting. …

“A couple of people driving by — I think they’re just trying to be funny, making a joke, like yelling ‘He didn’t play for the Dodgers!’ or like, ‘He was a Laker!’ And then some people are just curious why I made that change. I think the people that are curious are older, some of the older crowd that, I guess, doesn’t understand why I would switch it, you know?”

Tsiboukas said he has seen a lot of online discussion about it, including on the popular kobemural Instagram page.

“Maybe 70% love it, and 30% are like, ‘That looks like a Clipper jersey,’” Tsiboukas said. “It’s causing a lot of friction back and forth, but it’s good topic. It’s raising awareness. It’s keeping Kobe’s legacy alive.”

Gustavo Zermeño Jr. hand paints part of Mookie Betts’ mouth onto his Dodgers mural outside the future Eat Fantastic restaurant in Redondo Beach.

(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and his dog Decoy, holding a Dodger Dog toy in his mouth, are depicted in a new mural by Gustavo Zermeño Jr.

(Chuck Schilken / Los Angeles Times)

Zermeño said he doesn’t mind the discourse over his artwork.

“It just, it sparks that conversation,” he said. “So regardless of whether people like it or not, I think it kind of breaks the ice for people to come up and ask questions and learn more about why we created it, and the process of putting it together. …

“It’s art, you know, and art’s meant to kind of create some type of conversation. And if we were to put him with a regular jersey, people would have been like, ‘Oh, that’s cool, but it’s been done X amount of times,’ you know? I’ve seen that photo in at least five different murals. So, yeah, I think switching it up definitely — I don’t want to say it elevated the piece, but it definitely created more conversation than there would be if we just kept the original jersey.”

Don’t call him a traveler. Chad Baker-Mazara said that his journey through four universities allowed him to land in the place he had been looking for since the beginning of his college basketball adventure.

Baker-Mazara, 25, arrived at USC in May. The veteran is hoping to help lead young players in the locker room and on the court after joining his fifth team since 2020.

He began his journey with at Duquesne in 2020-21, then moved on to San Diego State for the 2021-22 season in search of a better fit on the roster. He fell behind academically in San Diego and was dismissed from the team when he couldn’t catch up on classwork. Baker-Mazara then traveled to the East Coast to play for Northwest Florida State College during the 2022-23 season while getting back on track academically before landing a spot on the Auburn roster during the 2023-25 seasons.

It has been a unique journey, but he is confident that he will write the most important chapter of his basketball career with the Trojans during the upcoming season.

USC’s Chad Baker-Mazara, center, shouts from the sideline during a workout at the Galen Center.

(Ringo Chiu/Los Angeles Times)

Born in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, he grew up under the influence of his father, who played basketball for the Dominican national team and in several international leagues. From a young age, Baker-Mazara knew he wanted to play basketball.

“My dad was my first coach, my role model. Watching him play left a lasting impression on me,” Baker-Mazara told L.A. Times en Español.

Although he tried other sports, including soccer and baseball, basketball was his favorite. His dream of playing at higher levels began to pick up momentum as a teenager when he moved to New Jersey. He played at Colonia High School and later at SPIRE Academy, where he began to gain national recognition.

His college career has been anything but linear. He started at Duquesne, where as a freshman he averaged 9.5 points per game and had some outstanding performances. Then came his stint at San Diego State, where he was Sixth Man of the Year in the Mountain West Conference. He then dropped down to the junior college level with Northwest Florida State College and was instrumental in the team winning the NJCAA national championship. There, he exploded offensively, averaging over 15 points per game and shooting 46.9% from the three-point line.

His performance opened the door to Auburn. In two seasons with the Tigers, he established himself as a starter and key player. He contributed defense, maturity and efficiency from the perimeter. In his second year, he averaged 12.3 points, 3 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game, helping Auburn reach the Final Four. During the semifinals against Michigan State, a hand injury temporarily halted hims plans to jump to the professional level.

“I was going to declare for the draft this year, but with the injury, I wouldn’t be able to show my best,” he said.

Baker-Mazara, a versatile 6-foot-7 athlete who can play guard and forward, decided to recover completely and give college basketball one last shot.

After Auburn reportedly offered Baker-Mazara’s teammate nearly twice as much as his name, image and likeness deal, he entered the transfer portal. USC coach Eric Musselman landed a player widely regarded as the biggest loss from an SEC roster during the offseason.

USC’s Chad Baker-Mazara, right, drives to the basket during a practice at the Galen Center.

(Ringo Chiu/Los Angeles Times)

“He’s a proven winner and will be a player that we can play all over the floor,” Musselman said shortly after Baker-Mazara signed with USC. “… Chad plays with incredible passion and emotion that can lift a home crowd.”

Baker-Mazara considers his arrival at USC the symbolic end of a cycle.

“When I was younger, I came to visit the university with my aunt, who graduated from here,” he said. “I saw Nikola Vucevic walking around campus and said to myself, ‘I want to play here someday.’”

Now that dream is a reality.

He is being mentored by Musselman, who previously was an NBA head coach. Baker-Mazara is pursuing a degree in interdisciplinary studies with minors in sports coaching, Spanish and sociology.

“He pushes us to be united on and off the court,” Baker-Mazara said of Musselman. “He wants there to be a real connection between us as a group. And you can tell that the guys want to compete and win together.”

Baker-Mazara is working to thrive in the spotlight, not only for himself and his family but for others who might be inspired by his journey. He is proud to be a high-profile Dominican player at an American college, a space with limited Latino representation.

“Every year there are more Latinos knocking on doors,” he said. “The important thing is that when you get there, you’re not just representing your country, but the entire Latino community. I want people to understand that I’m not the same on and off the court. Out there, on the court, we are rivals. My dream is at stake, and I’m going all out. … Many may not like my mentality because I believe that if you and I are fighting for that plate of food, I will do everything possible to prevent you from taking that plate. On the court, we are enemies.”

With the unrest created by immigration raids in Southern California, Baker-Mazara wants to serve as an example of an immigrant who makes positive contributions.

“When I got here, they made it very difficult for me,” he said of his arrival in the U.S. “They didn’t want to let me play or anything like that. And I, naturally, lowered my head, focused and set my sights on myself, and look where I am now, thank God. So I tell everyone, even if it’s more difficult, even if it seems impossible, try. Impossible is just a word, that’s if you put it there yourself.”

One of the role models Baker-Mazara admires is Hansel Emmanuel, the young Dominican who lost his left arm in an accident at the age of 6 when a wall of concrete blocks collapsed on him. Today, he competes at the highest level of college basketball.

“It was a shock to the whole country when that happened, because Hansel was always a talented kid. That accident caused a lot of noise there. From a young age, you could tell he was different,” said Baker-Mazara, who has known Emmanuel since childhood because their parents were friends.

Emmanuel was not selected in the NBA draft, but he signed a two-way contract with the Houston Rockets.

USC’s Chad Baker-Mazara shoots during a practice at the Galen Center.

(Ringo Chiu/Los Angeles Times )

“What I admire most about him is his mindset,” Baker-Mazara said of Emmanuel. “He never let what might seem like a disadvantage get him down. He pushed forward and kept working. Today he is where he is because he never took no for an answer. And even though I’m older than him, I often look up to him as an example, as someone whose footsteps I want to follow.”

Their relationship remains strong even though they don’t talk every day.

“He’s like a little brother to me,” said Baker-Mazara. “We live 15 minutes away from each other when we’re at home. He knows that with one phone call, he can count on me.”

Baker-Mazara also counts Kobe Bryant as a major source of inspiration.

“Kobe died the day before my birthday,” Baker-Mazara said. “Since that year, I haven’t even celebrated that day. It was like losing a family member.”

Bryant’s No. 24 jersey had a profound impact on Baker-Mazara’s life.

USC’s Chad Baker-Mazara, center, extends his arm in the air while playing defense during a workout at the Galen Center.

(Ringo Chiu/Los Angeles Times)

“Apart from my dad, Kobe was one of the reasons I took up basketball,” Baker-Mazara said. “It was one of my dreams for him to come and see me play. It didn’t happen, but I feel like he’s here in spirit. This is his city. This is Kobe Bryant.”

Baker-Mazara tries to emulate the Mamba Mentality in his daily routine, in the way he competes and faces challenges.

If he doesn’t make it to the NBA, Baker-Mazara plans to seek professional playing opportunities internationally.

“I come from Santo Domingo. I’m not afraid to play in any country,” he said. “As long as I can feed my family and set an example for my little sister, I’ll keep going.”

This article first appeared in Spanish via L.A. Times en Español.

Shaquille O’Neal has an issue with a recent ranking of the all-time best NBA players.

On Monday, Bleacher Report released its list of the “top 100 NBA players ever,” based on a compilation of rankings from a “legion of B/R NBA experts, writers and editors.”

O’Neal finished just outside the top five. He didn’t seem to have an issue with that.

Shaq’s beef was with the placement of his former Lakers teammate, the late Kobe Bryant, who landed outside of the top 10.

“Kobe at 11 is criminal,” O’Neal wrote on X in the comments of a Bleacher Report post that revealed the list’s top 20. He left his comment a little more than an hour after the original Bleacher Report post went live.

Here are the 10 players ranked ahead of Bryant, in order from the top: Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, O’Neal, Tim Duncan, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain and Stephen Curry.

Bryant is followed on the list by Hakeem Olajuwon, Kevin Durant, Oscar Robertson and Jerry West.

O’Neal has made no secret of his feelings on where Bryant ranks among the league’s all-time greats. In 2023, the Diesel told The Times that his “first team” on such a list would be himself, Bryant, Jordan, Johnson and James.

(Coming off the bench for O’Neal on that hypothetical team were Curry, Allen Iverson, Duncan, Karl Malone, Isiah Thomas and Abdul-Jabbar.)

Last month, in connection with the Netflix docuseries “Power Moves with Shaquille O’Neal,” Shaq revealed another personal top 10 list in which he ranked Bryant at No. 2, behind Jordan and just ahead of James.

Bryant ranks fourth in all-time NBA scoring (33,643 points) and his “Mamba Mentality” work ethic is still cited as a major influence on current athletes. He spent the first eight years of his career as Lakers teammates with O’Neal, with L.A. winning three NBA titles during that span.

Those Lakers also lost to the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 NBA Finals. Soon after, O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat, with tension between the two superstars seen as one of the main reasons for the move. O’Neal won another NBA title with the Heat in 2006. Bryant won two more with the Lakers, in 2009 and 2010.

Over the years, O’Neal and Bryant acknowledged their rocky relationship as teammates but also insisted that they actually were close friends.

“I just want people to know that I don’t hate you, I know you don’t hate me. I call it today a ‘work beef,’ is what we had,” O’Neal told Bryant on “The Big Podcast with Shaq” in 2015.

“We had a lot of disagreements, we had a lot of arguments,” he said later. “But I think it fueled us both.”

Years later, when it appeared their feud might be heating up again, the two NBA greats took to social media to nip that notion in the bud.

“Ain’t nothin but love there,” Bryant wrote of his relationship with O’Neal.

“It’s all good bro,” Shaq responded.

Bryant and his daughter Gianna were among the nine people who died in a Jan. 26, 2020, helicopter crash in Calabasas. O’Neal was one of the speakers at the Feb. 24, 2020, memorial service for “my friend, my little brother Kobe Bryant and my beautiful niece Gigi.”

“Kobe and I pushed one another to play some of the greatest basketball of all time and I am proud that no other team has accomplished what the three-peat Lakers have done since the Shaq and Kobe Lakers did it,” O’Neal said. “And sometimes like immature kids, we argued, we fought, we bantered, we assaulted each other with offhand remarks on the field. Make no mistake, even when folks thought we were on bad terms, when the cameras are turned off, he and I would throw a wink at each other and say let’s go whoop some ass.

“We never took it seriously. In truth, Kobe and I always maintained a deep respect and a love for one another.”

The news seemed routine.

The ramifications could be resounding.

Late last month, LeBron James exercised his $52.6 million player option with the Lakers for next season. It was an expected transaction that, at first weary glance, appeared to be no big deal.

Of course he would take the guaranteed money, more than anyone else in the league besides Brooklyn could give him.

Of course he would stay in Los Angeles, where son Bronny sits on the bench and his home sits on a hill and his myriad businesses are sitting pretty.

Of course, of course, of course … but …

Bronny James (9) leaves the court ahead of father LeBron after a win over Minnesota, during which they became the first father and son to play together in the NBA on Oct. 20, 2024.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Wait a minute. There was a catch.

For the first time since James arrived here seven years ago, there was no second or third or fourth year attached to his contract.

The Lakers didn’t offer him an extension. They refused to guarantee him a spot here after next spring.

For the first time in his Laker career — actually, the first time in his entire 23-year career — James will thus play this season on an expiring contract.

In NBA speak, that means two words.

Trade bait.

Except James has a no-trade clause, and it’s unimaginable he would agree to go to another team that would have to gut their roster to match his salary.

So for the first time, the wiley, elusive, flexible LeBron James is stuck.

He’s stuck on a team clearly catering to the needs of a different superstar in Luka Doncic.

He’s stuck on a team that might be viewing his contract not as an asset but an albatross.

He’s stuck on a team that might be looking to get rid of him but can’t.

He’s stuck on a team where he said he wants to end his career, but where that ending might eventually be out of his control.

He could perhaps free himself by thinking about Nov. 29, 2015.

That is the date that Kobe Bryant, a month into his 20th season, officially announced his retirement.

You remember it, right? What happened next was the most surprisingly delightful farewell season-long tour in the history of sports.

“I thought everybody hated me,” Bryant said at the time. “It’s really cool, man.”

Hate him? America loved him, and showed him that love in every NBA arena across the country, standing ovations from coast to coast as he cruised his way toward that stunning 60-point career finale.

The Lakers were generally terrible, the hobbled Bryant was mostly awful, but the nights were wholly magical, the stone-faced bad guy opening himself up to a national respect and admiration that he never knew existed. It was important that he saw this before he retired. It became infinitely more important that he saw this before he died.

LeBron James flexes for the crowd during a game against the Hornets.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

At the end of the tour I wrote, “… a final act that, in typical Kobe Bryant fashion, was unlike any other in the history of American sports. Opening up to a world he never trusted, becoming accessible and embraceable after years of stony intensity, Bryant used the last five months to flip the narrative on his life and career, erasing the darkness of a villain and crystallizing the glow of a hero.”

Bryant had said before the season that he would never do a farewell tour, that he didn’t want to be lauded like baseball fans lauded the prolonged retirement journey of the New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter.

“We’re completely different people; I couldn’t do that,” he said.

Yet saddled with an expiring contract just like James, Bryant ultimately wanted to do something that James might consider, giving the organization a head start at rebuilding while controlling his own narrative.

Before Bryant’s decision could be leaked, he announced it himself in an open letter to basketball that was so touching it became an Oscar-winning film. He even arranged for a copy of the letter, sealed in an envelope embossed with gold, to be placed on the seat of every fan attending that night’s game at then-Staples Center against the Indiana Pacers.

Not exactly a T-shirt, huh? It was elegant, it was classy, it was perfect, just like the tour, initially criticized in this space as being selfish before your humbled correspondent finally realized that Bryant was right, it was really, really cool.

“It’s fun. I’ve been enjoying it,” Bryant said. “It’s been great to kind of go from city to city and say thank you to all the fans and be able to feel that in return.”

You hear that, LeBron?

This is not a call for James to retire, but a call for James to begin considering how that will happen, and how the classy Lakers would nail it if it happened here.

Lakers star LeBron James battles three-time MVP Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets for rebounding position during a playoff game in Denver.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Granted, the James and Bryant situations are not comparable. Even though James is 40, and Bryant was 37, James is still one of the league’s best players while Bryant was statistically one of its worst. And while James is still physically powerful, Bryant never fully recovered from his torn Achilles and was battered and broken.

James might have more gas in the tank while Bryant was clearly done.

But James himself has indicated that he probably has, at most, two years left. And every season his injuries become more insistent and debilitating.

And now that the Lakers are under new ownership with no ties to James, and now that current management has already given this team to Doncic, James doesn’t have much of a future here.

He has made noise about going back to Cleveland, and maybe after this season he’ll want to return to where his career started.

But if he’s even thinking about retirement after this year — a legitimate option for the first time — he shouldn’t wait to do so while walking off the court following an early-round loss by a mediocre Laker team.

Nobody does retirement tours like the Lakers. And nobody has ever done one like Kobe Bryant.

Decidedly in the twilight of his career, LeBron James can learn from both.

A day after having to leave the biggest game of his life, Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton shared his first public comments since tearing his right Achilles tendon early in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

“Words cannot express the pain of this letdown,” Haliburton wrote on X (formerly Twitter) after undergoing surgery Monday to repair the tendon. “The frustration is unfathomable. I’ve worked my whole life to get to this moment and this is how it ends? Makes no sense.”

But for the majority of his five-paragraph post, which Haliburton accompanied with a photo of himself smiling and forming a heart with his hands from a hospital bed, the two-time All Star also delivered a message of optimism and determination. And he did so, in part, by quoting late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, who overcame the same injury in 2013.

“I think Kobe said it best when in this same situation,” Haliburton wrote. “‘There are far greater issues/challenges in the world then a torn achilles. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, find the silver lining and get to work with the same belief, same drive and same conviction as ever.’

“And that’s exactly right. I will do everything in my power to get back right.”

Bryant’s words were part of a lengthy Facebook post early in the morning on April 13, 2013, hours after tearing his left Achilles tendon while driving to the basket during a game against the Golden State Warriors the previous night. After suffering the injury, Bryant famously stayed in the game long enough to sink two free throws.

In his post, Bryant describes his raw emotions and even uncharacteristically expresses some self-doubt before his famous Mamba Mentality inevitably surfaces.

“All the training and sacrifice just flew out the window with one step that I’ve done millions of times!” wrote Bryant, who was 34 at the time. “The frustration is unbearable. The anger is rage. Why the hell did this happen ?!? Makes no damn sense. Now I’m supposed to come back from this and be the same player Or better at 35?!? How in the world am I supposed to do that??

“I have NO CLUE. Do I have the consistent will to overcome this thing? Maybe I should break out the rocking chair and reminisce on the career that was. Maybe this is how my book ends. Maybe Father Time has defeated me…Then again maybe not!

Kobe Bryant writhes in pain after suffering a torn Achilles tendon during a game against the Golden State Warriors on April 12, 2013, at Staples Center.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“Its 3:30am, my foot feels like dead weight, my head is spinning from the pain meds and Im wide awake. Forgive my Venting but whats the purpose of social media if I wont bring it to you Real No Image?? Feels good to vent, let it out. To feel as if THIS is the WORST thing EVER! Because After ALL the venting, a real perspective sets in.”

That’s where Bryant writes the words that Haliburton quoted.

“We don’t quit, we don’t cower, we don’t run,” Bryant wrote later in the post. “We endure and conquer.”

True to his word, Bryant returned to the floor with the Lakers on Dec. 8, 2013. He dealt with several other injuries — including a knee injury that ended his 2013-14 season just six games after he returned from the Achilles — before retiring at the end of the 2015-16 season, his 20th in the NBA.

More than a decade later, a 25-year-old star is using Bryant’s words as inspiration, days after being unable to help his team in a 103-91 loss to the Thunder with the NBA championship on the line.

Here is Haliburton’s full post:

“Man. Don’t know how to explain it other than shock. Words cannot express the pain of this letdown. The frustration is unfathomable. I’ve worked my whole life to get to this moment and this is how it ends? Makes no sense.

“Now that I’ve gotten surgery, I wish I could count the number of times people will tell me I’m going to ‘come back stronger’. What a cliche lol, this s— sucks. My foot feels like dead weight fam. But what’s hurting most I think is my mind. Feel like I’m rambling, but I know this is something I’ll look back on when I’m through this, as something I’m proud I fought through. It feels good to let this s— out without y’all seeing the kid ugly cry.

“At 25, I’ve already learned that God never gives us more than we can handle. I know I’ll come out on the other side of this a better man and a better player. And honestly, right now, torn Achilles and all, I don’t regret it. I’d do it again, and again after that, to fight for this city and my brothers. For the chance to do something special.

Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton falls to the court with an injury next to Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander during the first quarter of Game 7 of the NBA Finals on June 22.

(Nate Billings / Associated Press)

“Indy, I’m sorry. If any fan base doesn’t deserve this, it’s y’all. But together we are going to fight like hell to get back to this very spot, and get over this hurdle. I don’t doubt for a second that y’all have my back, and I hope you guys know that I have yours. I think Kobe said it best when in this same situation. ‘There are far greater issues/challenges in the world then a torn achilles. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, find the silver lining and get to work with the same belief, same drive and same conviction as ever.’ And that’s exactly right. I will do everything in my power to get back right.

“My journey to get to where I am today wasn’t by happenstance, I’ve pushed myself every day to be great. And I will continue to do just that. The most important part of this all, is that I’m grateful. I’m grateful for every single experience that’s led me here. I’m grateful for all the love from the hoop world. I don’t ‘have to’ go through this, I get to go through this. I’m grateful for the road that lies ahead. Watch how I come back from this. So, give me some time, I’ll dust myself off and get right back to being the best version of Tyrese Haliburton.

“Proverbs 3:5-6 ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.’”

Could Achilles injuries be the Achilles heel of the NBA?

Regardless of allegiance, anyone watching Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Sunday had to be struck by the calamitous impact of the injury to superstar Tyrese Haliburton on the Indiana Pacers.

Haliburton had the ball in the first quarter, took a step backward and began to go left. Pushing off with his right foot, the right tendon tore, and the Pacers chances of defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder were shredded.

“In that moment, my heart dropped for him,” OKC guard and Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander told reporters. “I couldn’t imagine playing the biggest game of my life and something like that happening. It’s not fair.”

It’s also not uncommon. Haliburton was the third superstar lost during the playoffs to an Achilles tear, following Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks and Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics.

Players who sustained the injury during the regular season include Dejounte Murray of the New Orleans Pelicans, Dru Smith of the Miami Heat and two of Haliburton’s Indiana teammates — Isaiah Jackson and James Wiseman.

Regenerative medicine doctor Jesse Morse pointed out in X posts that the high-grade calf strain Haliburton suffered in Game 5 was a precursor to the Achilles injury.

“Hailburton was playing with fire by playing in Games 6 and 7 after being diagnosed with a high-grade calf strain, an injury that is notoriously slow to heal,” Morse wrote. “There was a significantly increased risk of a possible Achilles tear due to him already having the high-grade calf strain, regardless of what the ‘data shows.’

“We saw it with Kobe Bryant. We saw it with Aaron Rodgers. Likely more. A calf strain lead to an Achilles tear.”

Bryant ruptured his left Achilles on April 12, 2013, after playing every minute of eight consecutive quarters as the Lakers pursued a playoff spot with two games remaining in the regular season. Bryant had suffered injuries to his knees earlier in the game. He returned to action eight months later.

Rodgers tore his left Achilles in his first game as quarterback of the New York Jets on Sept. 11, 2023, shortly after he’d experienced tightness in his calf. He missed the entire season but returned in 2024 at age 41.

The Achilles tendon is a fibrous cord that directs movement from the leg to the foot, connecting muscles from the calf to the heel bone. A sudden explosive movement like running or jumping can cause the tendon to tear or rupture.

The origin of term Achilles stems from the hero of that name in Greek mythology. His mother sought to make him immortal by dipping him into a river that held magical powers. She held him by the heel, however, leaving it vulnerable.

Sure enough, the seemingly eternally brave Achilles was killed by an arrow to his heel during the Trojan War. The Achilles’ heel has been known ever since as a metaphor for a person’s vulnerable spot.

Haliburton certainly displayed a knack for heroics all season, culminating in the jump shot he made with 0.3 seconds to play in Game 1 of the Finals that gave the Pacers a victory over the heavily favored Thunder.

He helped them to reach Game 7 and hit a trio of three-point shots early in the contest only to — alas — crumple to the floor when his Achilles tendon popped. The Thunder prevailed, 103-91.

“We needed Ty out there,” Pacers forward Obi Toppin told reporters. “For him to go down in a game like that, that sucked the soul out of us.”

The story is so good, so rich, that Hollywood couldn’t resist.

The Lakers, a golden brand. The stars on the basketball court. The celebrities on the sidelines. The spotlight on the show flying up and down the floor 24 seconds at a time.

HBO made a series. Books have been authored. Documentaries have been filmed. No hyperbole is too outrageous.

Magic Johnson and Larry Bird helped save basketball. The Lakers were the greatest show in town. The highs and lows, the devastation and the jubilation, made them iconic.

And the ringmasters for the last 45 years have been the Buss family.

That era culminated Wednesday when a majority of Buss’ six children agreed to sell controlling interest of the franchise to Mark Walter for a record price — a $10-billion valuation that’s the highest in pro sports history.

The initial reaction to the news — a sale that shocked the Lakers’ biggest partners inside and outside of the NBA — centered on what it will mean for the organization. Will Walter and his partners pour the same financial resources that they’ve deployed to turn the Dodgers into the best team in baseball? How will their capital boost the weakest areas of the franchise’s infrastructure? What will happen next?

We don’t know for sure. We do, though, know what just wrapped — an era of pro-sports ownership unrivaled in success and melodrama.

The start

Dr. Jerry Buss wasn’t a physician — the title came from a degree in chemistry at USC. And the money? It didn’t come from science. It came from real estate. But Buss was always one to sense an opportunity, and Jack Kent Cooke’s record-breaking divorce settlement meant that he was about to capitalize on one.

In 1979, Buss scrambled to put together a wild business deal — properties and cash moving between Buss, third parties and Cooke before the self-made man ended up with The Forum, the Los Angeles Kings and, in what would be his legacy, the Los Angeles Lakers. The price was $67.5 million.

The timing was impeccable. The team would win a coin flip and with it the right to select Johnson with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Buss’ and Johnson’s relationship helped lay the groundwork for the player-empowerment era that dominates the current NBA, Buss realizing faster than his peers that the biggest and best players were what drove the league’s success.

In his first season as owner, the Lakers won an NBA title, kicking off a decade-long battle with the Boston Celtics that helped the NBA move from the margins of pro sports to the mainstream.

In this 1979 photo, Lakers owner Jerry Buss is shown with children (clockwise from top left) Janie, Johnny, Jim and Jeanie.

(Gunther / mptvimages.com)

Yet it was more than Johnson leading fastbreaks, flashing smiles and dishing no-look passes. It was the merging of sports and entertainment that helped define what fans now experience.

In 1979, shortly after purchasing the Lakers, Buss commissioned the first Laker Girls dance team. The Forum Club became one of the city’s hottest nightspots. The games were more than athletic contests. They were events.

For the first 12 seasons Buss owned the team, they never won fewer than 54 games in an 82-game season. Titles came in 1982 against the 76ers, 1985 and 1987 against the hated Celtics and 1988 against Detroit.

The Lakers built one of basketball’s most unstoppable machines — Jerry West in the front office, Pat Riley on the sideline and Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Byron Scott and Michael Cooper flying on the break.

As Buss became one of the NBA’s most powerful figures, his children were at his side, learning the business. His daughter, Jeanie, famously helped organize events at the Forum. The family’s true promoter spirit couldn’t be suppressed — soccer, indoor tennis, roller hockey, the Buss family tried it all.

Even after Johnson’s stunning retirement after his HIV diagnosis, the Lakers missed the playoffs just once before they fully reloaded, first with Shaquille O’Neal, then with Kobe Bryant and finally with Phil Jackson.

Nothing, though, would last forever.

The transition

In 2005, The Times’ Hall of Fame basketball writer, Mark Heisler, wrote about Buss’ succession plan coming into focus.

“Jerry Buss wanted a crowd-pleasing basketball team the movie stars could relate to but might have gone too far,” Heisler wrote. “He wound up with the greatest floating soap opera in sports, and basketball was almost beside the point.”

Still, it was Buss’ legacy.

“I just can’t visualize myself walking away, relinquishing control,” Buss said in a 2002 story in The Times. “My relationship with this team is a lifelong marriage.”

The thing about family businesses, it turns out, is that family drama is always at play.

A Sports Illustrated feature in 1998 painted a story of jealousy and unease that seemed prophetic.

Kobe Bryant, left, holds the Larry O’Brian Trophy as Shaquille O’Neal holds the NBA Finals MVP trophy in 2000.

(AFP / Getty Images)

As Buss scaled back his involvement, Jeanie took on a greater role in the business side of the franchise while son Jim became a basketball executive. And the Lakers kept on winning.

Tensions between O’Neal, Bryant and Jackson ended with the dissolution of another dynasty after three consecutive championships. Belief in Bryant led to two more rings once they reunited him with Jackson and added Pau Gasol to the mix.

Through it all, the Lakers remained a family business in its truest sense, Buss’ youngest sons Joey and Jesse learning the ropes in business and scouting in the same way his older children did.

Jeanie‘s romantic relationship with Jackson, at best, complicated things in the organization. Still, she was always the one her father intended to lead the organization, beginning when Buss put her in charge of the team’s indoor tennis franchise when she was just 19.

“I figured, ‘If Dr. Buss [she refers to him by his preferred title] says he thinks I can do it, I must be able to do it,’” Jeanie told The Times in 2002.” If he never doubted me, how could anyone else? It was only later that I thought, ‘What the hell was I doing?’”

In 2005, son Jim began to take on a bigger role in the organization, becoming the team’s vice president of player personnel.

“When I hear somebody say, ‘Are you qualified?’ I’m like, ‘If you had eight years of Jerry West plus Mitch Kupchak and all the talented scouts working on a daily basis tutoring you, I don’t know what other credentials you could have,’” Jim said then.

When Buss died in 2013 from complications of cancer, all six of his children held titles with the Lakers.

“Jerry Buss helped set the league on the course it is on today,” then-NBA commissioner David Stern said. “Remember, he showed us it was about ‘Showtime,’ the notion that an arena can become the focal point for not just basketball, but entertainment. He made it the place to see and be seen.”

While Buss was living, the Lakers missed the playoffs only twice. In the six seasons after his death, the Lakers never won more than 37 games.

Something had to change.

The fallout

Bryant took a fateful step at the end of a game late in the 2013 season, his Achilles tendon rupturing in his left leg. He miraculously made two free throws before heading to the locker room — a moment codifying him as an all-time Los Angeles legend and a moment, it turned out, that signaled the good times were about to end.

The following season, coach Mike D’Antoni’s Lakers won just 27 games, Nick Young leading the Lakers in scoring and Bryant playing only six times. After the year, Jim Buss told The Times that he saw a pathway forward and he told his family the same in a meeting earlier in 2014.

“I was laying myself on the line by saying, ‘If this doesn’t work in three to four years, if we’re not back on the top’ — and the definition of top means contending for the Western Conference, contending for a championship — ‘then I will step down because that means I have failed,’” he said. “I don’t know if you can fire yourself if you own the team … but what I would say is I’d walk away and you guys figure out who’s going to run basketball operations because I obviously couldn’t do the job.

“There’s no question in my mind we will accomplish success. I’m not worried about putting myself on the line.”

In 2015, the Lakers won only 21 games. In 2016, the team lost a franchise-most 65 times against a franchise-worst 17 wins. In 2017, they were headed to another season in which they would be more than 30 games under .500 when Jeanie fired Jim and Kupchak, the team’s general manager.

They were replaced with Bryant’s former agent, Rob Pelinka, and Johnson.

Jeanie Buss applauds the Lakers’ efforts during the team’s 2010 NBA championship ring ceremony at Staples Center.

(Chris Carlson / Associated Press)

Shortly after the decision, Jim, along with his brother Johnny, tried to remove Jeanie from the team’s board of directors, sparking a legal feud that included Jeanie filing a restraining order while she wrested control of the team.

“I must also point out that Jim has already proven to be completely unfit even in an executive vice president of basketball operations role and I recently had to replace him,” Jeanie said in court documents.

The Lakers signed LeBron James in 2018, traded for Anthony Davis and built a title team in 2020, the family’s biggest success in the years following their father’s passing.

With Jeanie firmly in charge, brother Joey helped run one of the league’s most-respected developmental teams in the South Bay Lakers — a program that helped develop players such as Alex Caruso. Jesse Buss and his scouting department found value in late first-round picks like Josh Hart and Kyle Kuzma as well as an undrafted star in Austin Reaves.

In 2022, Jeanie produced a documentary for Hulu that dealt with heaps of the family’s drama, and Wednesday’s sale not coming from a majority — and not unanimous — vote again means that not everyone is on the same page.

While the Buss family will retain minority ownership, things will never be the same in the organization. The influx of money, of modernization, of more corporate structure could help the Lakers on the court.

But what they were under the Buss family, they’ll never be again.

“I really tried to create a Laker image, a distinct identity,” Jerry Buss once said. “I think we’ve been successful. I mean, the Lakers are pretty damn Hollywood.”

And on that era, the credits have begun to roll.

For 46 years it’s been a wonderful ride, the sweetest of sagas, the Buss family treating the Lakers like their precocious child, nurturing, embracing, empowering, transforming them into arguably this country’s most celebrated sports franchise.

But it’s time.

It’s time to give their baby to somebody who won’t be burdened by the family ties or deep friendships that have increasingly interfered with the chasing of championships.

It’s time to hand their beloved to somebody with enough money to keep it strong and enough vision to keep it relevant.

It’s time for the Lakers to… become the Dodgers?

Yes! It’s them! They’re here! Welcome, welcome, welcome! Come on in! Make yourself at home! History has been waiting for you!

This is really happening, the majority ownership of the Lakers is really being sold to Dodgers chairman Mark Walter and his TWG Global group at a franchise valuation of $10 billion, making it the richest transaction in sports history.

To Los Angeles sports fans, it’s worth even more.

For the future of professional sports in this city, it’s priceless.

This is the best thing to happen to the Southland’s sports landscape since, well, the last time Walter’s TWG Global group bought something this big.

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It was 2012, and they bought the Dodgers, and just look what they’ve done with them.

Since 2013, Walter’s team has been in the playoffs every year, won their division 11 of those 12 years, appeared in four World Series and won two of them.

Since 2013, the Lakers have won one title in their only Finals appearance during that period while making the playoffs only half the time.

Mad respect to the Buss family, who oversaw 11 championships while providing the stage for greats from Magic Johnson to Kobe Bryant to LeBron James. But since the death of patriarch Jerry Buss in 2013, the organization has lacked a sustained championship vision and effective championship culture.

Everybody loves Jeanie Buss, who will continue in her role as Lakers governor, but she has grown increasingly out of touch with the demands of the modern game.

Where contending teams are now led by analytics-driven minds, she would rely on old friends like Linda and Kurt Rambis and Rob Pelinka, who became part of the family by being Kobe Bryant’s agent.

Where contending teams increasingly relied on younger players, Buss’ Lakers were always tied to aging superstars, their title hopes crashing around a hobbled Bryant and now buckling under a slowly eroding James.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss with children (clockwise from top left) Jeanie, Johnny, Jim and Janie in 1979.

(Gunther / mptvimages.com)

Since Jerry Buss’ death, the vision-less Lakers have wandered through the NBA desert in search of a strong leader who could build for sustained success.

In Walter’s group, they have that leader.

If the Dodgers are any indication, the Lakers are in for the sort of massive facelift that would make even a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon blush.

There will be money poured into the Lakers’ woefully small infrastructure, more money for coaches, more money for scouts, more money for trainers, more money for the amenities at Crypto.com Arena.

Who knows, maybe even more money for a new arena eventually? Don’t scoff, the Dodgers spent more than $500 million just to put a shine on Dodger Stadium, they will dig deep for that fan experience. They will dig deep for everything.

If there’s an insanely expensive but wildly successful general manager candidate out there — former Golden State guru Bob Myers comes to mind — the new Lakers will buy him.

Jeanie Buss attends a game between the Lakers and the Milwaukee Bucks at Crypto.com Arena on March 20.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

If there’s an experienced but costly head coaching candidate hanging around, the new Lakers will nab him.

Although they will be somewhat constrained by the salary cap, the new Lakers will go deep into any tax to buy the best players as long as they can retain their draft picks.

The Dodgers are about winning every year, not just the next year, so expect the new Lakers to covet the future as much as the present.

This is good news for young Luka Doncic. This is not such good news for James.

The Buss family always vowed to do whatever it takes to keep James happy and allow him to retire here. The new Lakers won’t be so sentimental. James hasn’t signed on for next season yet, and maybe this change of ownership changes what once appeared to be a slam dunk.

The new Lakers won’t have the rich heart of the old Lakers. But they also won’t have the old destructive loyalties.

The new Lakers will be only about winning, something Jerry Buss understood and amplified, something which has been sadly lost since his passing.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss celebrates with the Larry O’Brien Trophy after the team’s 1980 NBA championship victory.

(NBAE / Getty Images)

The Buss family was good for Los Angeles, and their stewardship of one of this city’s crown sports jewels should be celebrated.

But it’s time, and it’s perfect that their neighbors down the road have decided to be the ones to spruce up the place.

Before this sale, the only thing the Dodgers and Lakers shared occurred after victories, when both team’s sound systems would blare, “I Love L.A.”

Now they share a championship bank account, a championship vision, and a championship commitment.

Man, I love L.A.