During a candid conversation on the Club 520 Podcast last summer, Basketball Hall of Famer Dwight Howard described the late Kobe Bryant as “an a**hole” and noted that LeBron James “wants everybody to like him.”

NBA reporter and author Yaron Weitzman found Howard’s comment to be particularly illuminating.

Even though Weitzman had already wrapped up the final draft of his book, “A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers,” he decided to revise it to include Howard’s perspective.

The book delves into the intense and often chaotic journey of James’ championship-winning era with the Lakers, while also exploring his complex relationship with Bryant. This friendship, marked by initial rivalry, was tragically cut short by the 2020 helicopter crash that took the lives of Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others.

Someone who collaborated with Bryant explained to Weitzman, “They were always compared, with many claiming LeBron would surpass Kobe. Kobe heard it all, and it really p***ed him off.”

When LeBron entered the NBA in 2003, Bryant wasn’t particularly focused on forming friendships. At the time, he was a 25-year-old three-time NBA champion, firmly established as a leading figure in the league. This mindset shifted after his retirement in 2016, but during his early career, he was primarily driven by competition.

And yet, it was James who Sports Illustrated dubbed ‘The Chosen One’ a full year before he was drafted first overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

LeBron James defends Kobe Bryant at the Staples Center in Los Angeles back in 2006

James admittedly tried to force Bryant to come out of his shell when the two were in Beijing 

LeBron James was just beginning to become personal friends with Kobe Bryant in 2020 

As Weitzman wrote, the ‘way LeBron carried himself bothered Kobe too.’

Then there were James’ friendships with rivals like Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade, the latter of whom he’d ultimately join in Miami alongside Chris Bosh. 

Of course, that didn’t come until 2010, by which time the James-Bryant tension had begun to thaw thanks to the 2008 Olympic ‘Redeem Team.’

Like so many relationships among elite NBA stars over the last three decades, James and Bryant were brought together by Team USA. It was four years after the former had failed to win gold in Athens, infamously setting the stage for a foundational shift within US basketball. 

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was brought in to lead a group that now included Bryant as well as James, Anthony and Chris Paul, among others.

Talent wasn’t going to be an issue for the 2008 squad, but sharing the basketball was an obvious challenge for a group of All-Stars unaccustomed to playing together. And of course, Bryant’s mentality had always been to shoot first and ask questions later, if ever.

A natural pass-first player, James sought to get ahead of the problem during an exhibition against Australia by asking Krzyzewski to rein in Bryant’s shot selection. 

‘Yo, Coach, you better fix that motherf***er,’ James told Krzyzewski at the time, as quoted by Weitzman.

This time it’s Bryant who gets James to crack up as the two practice ahead of the 2008 Games

 LeBron James and Kobe Bryant take in the swimming finals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, and Anthony Carmelo enjoy a laugh while beating Australia en route to a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It was the group’s first gold

On another occasion, James and teammates wrapped up a team breakfast only to realize Bryant had missed it because he was working out by himself. 

In that moment, James pulled his Olympic teammate aside. 

‘He was like, “We all know what you’re about, but if we’re trying to get this gold back to the United States, we need to do things together,”‘ Olympic teammate Tayshaun Prince said, as quoted by Weitzman.

‘Kobe didn’t have people talk to him like that,’ Prince added. ‘But he saw what LeBron was doing and recognized his leadership and what he was trying to accomplish.’

James’ efforts with Bryant extended well into their downtime as he tried relentlessly to get the introverted second-generation NBA star to enjoy himself.

‘I understand Kobe is serious as hell when it comes to work, but he wanna smile too,’ James told reporters at the time. ‘He wanna feel accepted, too.’

So, when Bryant turned 30 in Beijing that summer, James and teammates ensured everyone, including restaurant staff, serenaded the birthday boy against his clearly articulated wishes.

He also mimicked Bryant’s on-court hand signals, all of which held the same purpose in James’ eyes.

‘All this means is get the hell out of the way,’ James said, as quoted by Weitzman.

Team USA would breeze to a gold medal before James and Bryant returned to being NBA rivals. They’d never cross paths in the Finals, but the two Nike spokesmen did voice a pair of puppets for one sneaker commercial.

It wasn’t until after Bryant’s 2016 retirement and James’ 2018 arrival in Los Angeles that the two finally seemed to truly connect, albeit over the objections of Lakers fans.

Bryant greets James in 2019 – three months before his fatal helicopter crash in California 

It’s not that they were unhappy to have James. Rather, they were still hopelessly in love with Bryant, whose singular focus led them to paint murals in his honor long before his untimely death. 

James, as Lakers fans were all too aware, was in LA for other endeavors, like Hollywood films, his own production company, and his three kids’ budding athletic careers.  

‘When LeBron first gets here and you have these [Kobe] murals to face,’ Weitzman said. ‘You would think LeBron would be welcomed universally, and something about him, LA, especially initially, didn’t accept him the same way. There’s a mystique to Kobe that LeBron doesn’t have and I don’t think that’s through any fault of his own.’

But if there was some resistance to James in LA, it wasn’t coming from Bryant, who suddenly found a reason to return to Staples Center after a brief hiatus.

As James was surpassing him on the NBA’s all-time scoring list in January of 2020, Bryant told the LA Times’ Bill Plaschke that fans should embrace their new star: ‘Appreciate this guy, celebrate what he’s done, because it’s truly remarkable.’

And when James did ultimately pass Bryant on the all-time scoring list, the Lakers’ new star would write ‘Mamba 4 Life’ on his sneakers in a nod to his former rival’s nickname.

Afterwards, James told reporters it was ‘humbling’ and to wear the same jersey as his friend, Bryant.

This kinship continued away from the spotlight, too. As a person close to James told Weitzman, ‘the two were really starting to build a relationship.’

A bronze sculpture of Kobe Bryant and Gianna Bryant by artist Dan Medina is on display on January 26, 2022 in Calabasas, where the father and daughter were among nine killed 

LeBron James pays tribute to Kobe Bryant days after the tragic helicopter crash 

Weeks later, with the Lakers aboard a return flight to LA, the players learned the news: Bryant, Gianna and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas.

Although he initially refused to believe what he was hearing, James quickly gathered teammates in prayer and asked for God to watch over Bryant’s widow Vanessa and their surviving three daughters.

Some, like ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, later reported that James missed Bryant’s memorial service. However, Smith and others have since corrected the record, stating he was in attendance but off camera.

In any case, James and the Lakers would rally around Bryant’s memory to win an NBA title in the league’s coronavirus bubble later that season. The lingering pandemic prevented any victory parade, thereby denying James the chance to be feted in LA the way Bryant was before him.

But the real tragedy was celebrating anything without Bryant.

‘Their relationship was just beginning,’ Weitzman said. ‘Kobe would have been a good sounding board, or just a friend of LeBron. How many people can know what that’s like?

‘I think it robbed [James] of something.’