Just before Christmas in 2018,
I received a certified letter in the mail.
"Dear Jeanie, my name is Lee.
"I was born on August 20, 1953, in Los Angeles, California,
"and was adopted at birth,
arranged through a private physician."
She had been looking for her biological parents,
and she believes
that she is the daughter of our parents.
The experience with my brothers
definitely made me have my guard up.
And my family being a high profile family,
I'm used to people wanting something.
There was actually two attempts to stake a claim
by people who had no connection to the family.
It was one of those moments where you feel like
it's an earthquake happening.
Could this be what it seems to be on its surface,
or is there gonna be more to it?
I was head of this family now,
and it was up to me to figure out how to manage it.
Okay, just whenever you guys are ready.
There he is. His first shot as an owner.
You think he likes it?
At this moment, I can't believe it.
What's the future?
Want to replace your father at the top?
Yeah.
Between my daughters and my sons,
there are certainly enough sports teams to go around.
Are you and the rest of the family,
are you guys all on the same page?
The Lakers caught in the middle
of a family power struggle.
I think I've really left them with something.
How many games in a row would the Lakers have to lose
for you to un-retire,
for you to come back to the team?
I mean, if we got to, like-
if we got to 20,
you would think about it, right?
No.
'Cause, see, LeBron...
In the 30-plus years my dad ran the team,
the Lakers only missed the playoffs twice.
And here we were missing year after year after year.
It was- it was deflating.
So we needed to get back to winning a championship.
Luke Walton is back at Staples Center,
this time as head coach of the team he played for.
Luke's looking good.
He's young, and he's a growing coach.
Also he won with the Lakers.
And he was coached by Phil Jackson.
And he did play with Kobe.
And I had believed that Luke would
bring back that Laker feeling.
I grew up in the NBA
with this organization.
I have a chance to try
to get them back to where we were.
There's always a rebuild after the dynasty ends
or a superstar retires.
Once I became the GM and said,
"Hey, I know this is a challenge,
"but I'm gonna say I think we need
"to get a championship for Jeanie
within three or four years."
That was his challenge to me.
The first step in the process was to get
a superstar in Staples Center.
You had to have a real superstar
in order to have a credible franchise,
especially in a city like Los Angeles.
- Our fans are used to that.
It's part of winning as a Laker.
And LeBron James was our dream.
LeBron, full court. Got it!
What a block from James!
Nice pitch to James.
LeBron James is one of the very few players
in the league, if you add 'em to your team,
you're a contender.
LeBron was in Cleveland, Miami,
championships sort of followed.
The greatest player in the game.
It's like manna from the heavens.
Here in Sacramento-
He played
an unselfish kind of basketball
like Magic Johnson.
Off to Magic Johnson.
Cross court. Kareem!
But LeBron's not gonna come here if management
isn't figured out.
The day of free agency,
Magic was scheduled to meet with LeBron.
- Rich Paul is his agent.
So they talked and said LeBron would love
to have a meeting with the Lakers.
But he wants to have it with Magic.
I made sure I was there an hour before the meeting,
sitting outside his house, nervous.
So at 9:00, I inched to the gate.
Okay.
But I don't ring the buzzer till 9:01.
That night, he was more pitching,
'cause he didn't know what LeBron was gonna do.
Basically saying, if you come here, I got you.
I told him I had to be honest with him
that, you know, we may not make the playoff.
But I said, "If you let me work my magic,
"I will put us in a position where we'll be,
you know, contending for championships."
Magic was feeling good about the conversation.
I was trying to do right by my father's legacy
and get the Lakers back to the top.
Magic Johnson, Rob Pelinka,
they're new at this game.
But they did what they promised
when they took over over a year ago.
They were going big game hunting.
And they've landed the biggest of all.
NBA superstar LeBron James,
make that "LA" Bron,
is taking his talents out west.
The four-time MVP agreed
to a four-year, $154 million contract
with the Lakers.
It was very easy to land here
where I am now with the Lakers.
The pressure is what I love more than anything,
hearing people say, "Well, you know,
the Lakers organization is not even competitive."
I really, really get a kick out of proving people wrong.
At the home of the Lakers,
die-hard fans are welcoming the newest Laker.
LeBron, come on, I will welcome you with open arms.
Lakers are back. Whoo!
- We're back, baby.
Even though we know that this is Kobe's house,
we know that LeBron James welcome, baby.
The day I signed, Kobe said, "You family now.
You know, whatever you need from me, I'm a call away."
I've known LeBron for a long time, man.
He's really a good friend of mine.
Kobe was definitely someone
I always looked up to when I was a kid
and competed against my first five years in the NBA,
to being a part of USA basketball with him in 2008.
Kobe definitely, you know, gave me that love,
like, you know, "Listen, you're family.
"And we all Lakers, man.
And let's- let's make it happen."
Over the last couple of years,
the Lakers have slipped into an average team.
Now they'll be immediate playoff contenders.
- Y'all thought we was gone?
We not going nowhere. We back.
It only take one star to get this shit popping.
This was a great moment for the Laker franchise.
Also, I was happy for Jeanie.
You know, he could go to any team
that he would want to go to, and he chose our team.
And that validated all the things that we had done,
all the changes that we had made.
- The one promise I gave her
is that we will get this organization
and this franchise back where it belongs.
We were finally on the road back to being the Lakers.
Here we go.
It's a new era of Lakers basketball.
It starts tonight in Portland.
Behind Brandon Ingram is LeBron James,
who is now a Laker.
Sit back and enjoy.
It should be a fun ride all season long.
That was the ultimate validation for Jeanie Buss.
The Lakers had been horrible.
But LeBron joining the Lakers
was LeBron joining a bunch of kids.
So it was a huge leap of faith for him.
A lot of guys on the team
were first year guys, second year guys.
They wanted to learn.
And they wanted to see what it took to be great.
When you have the greatest player in the world
come join your organization,
it raises everybody's level of play.
I was excited and really looking forward
to building that connection between LeBron
and these young guys to maximize what we could do.
2018, I just wanted to be in a situation
where I would be able to have some type of influence.
I knew at the time I was coming in as a mentor, as well.
- I knew it would be tough.
But that's what really motivates me.
The team had started playing
really well together.
The team's won three in a row,
seven of the last ten.
That has to make you feel good.
'Cause it's not just about bringing LeBron,
it's about winning games.
They're really coming together.
And I couldn't be more proud.
Fans in LA deserve-
they deserve the best.
When you're in this game long enough,
you feel when teams are starting to gel.
You know, I was- I was getting that feeling.
I thought-I thought we really were doing it.
And, of course, that Christmas Day
changed everything.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
It's the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers.
James falling away.
Got it.
Nice fake by Curry.
Sidestep layup.
Beautiful from Steph Curry.
James lost it, gets it back.
James holding his left leg.
Felt a pop.
He is now out.
It was the most serious injury he had ever suffered.
It's tough when you're missing one playmaker.
But they're missing two.
LeBron and Rondo both got hurt in that Christmas game.
The two stabilizing factors of this team
were out with injuries.
It took a big blow to us.
When your team is still playing and you're away,
you kind of want to get back with the guys
as soon as possible.
We had kind of built
this mixture of, all right, LeBron is definitely our guy.
But we got some young guys we want to keep feeding
and growing to, okay, LeBron is out now.
And now we have everything is back on you guys.
And that's kind of where it turned to just complete chaos
for the rest of that season.
It was December of 2018.
Everything's happening with the team.
And I'm dealing with this letter.
She was able to get her birth certificate.
And she sent copies of that.
So I immediately recognized my father's signature
and my mother's signature.
She sent copies of pictures of her.
She looked just like my mom.
I remembered that my mom told me
a story about how she and my father
had had a child before Johnny was born.
And they gave her up for adoption.
But this was the beginning of my mom's memory issues.
And people had told me, "Well, you know,
your mom might have seen a movie and got confused."
But then she said,
"In my mind, I named her Marie."
And that stuck with me
because my middle name is Marie.
And my sister's middle name is Marie.
I-you know, I knew that this was real.
This was Marie.
Originally born in Los Angeles,
lived in LA and Phoenix back and forth, back and forth.
And it was a sunny day in Phoenix.
I was in third grade.
I could remember it like it was yesterday.
The door was open.
There was a teacher.
She said, "Well, you know, she's adopted."
And that cut me like a knife.
I never really thought about it until that moment.
It's like wow, what's wrong with me?
So that's really when the wound first started.
I didn't know who they were.
And I didn't know how to find them.
Every morning, I'd look in the mirror
and go, who do I look like?
What does my mom look like?
Is she pretty?
You know, what's she doing now?
Does she think about me, you know?
And then in 2017 on television,
there's an ad, "Give the gift of ancestry."
And I went, "Oh, should I do that?
Maybe."
So I got the kit, spit, mailed it off.
Said a prayer.
I just wanted to meet my mother.
That's all I really wanted to do.
"Please understand that I do not want anything
"from you or any others.
"At 65, it's nice to know my family history,
"and I thought you might want to know about me too.
"And I hope my timing isn't awful.
"But how do you write a letter like this?
"I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely, Lee."
You know, she's my older sister.
She wrote back,
and she was very sweet and just said,
"I've sent your letter and your pictures to all the siblings,
and you have to give them time to process this."
I was in shock at first.
There was a secret that my parents kept forever.
Because of my dad's kind of lifestyle,
I always wondered if I had any other siblings out there.
And she's a full sibling.
Either they were extremely embarrassed
about a lie that-
that got too big to tell the truth
or, you know, they just felt like it was better unsaid.
It blew my mind that he never mentioned-
I can't even tell you the intimate things
that he told me.
If anything like that existed,
I would for sure believe that I knew that.
On everybody's mind is, like, okay, now what?
All I can think of is that
I want my mom to meet Lee.
You know, the timing, you know,
it was just- it was just awful.
The team was suffering.
So no distracting from the fact that the Lakers
have struggled in the last 14 games.
They're being outscored by 9 points per game.
They've lost 10 of 14.
What do you take away from Lebron's...
We were fourth in the conference.
But without LeBron in the lineup,
we started to fall in the standings.
If this year,
for the first time in nearly a decade,
you are not playing in May and June,
what do you think that's gonna feel like?
Um, I don't know. It's gonna be different.
You know, unfortunately we didn't handle
our business on the road.
So now we're, you know, back in a hole again.
Team president Magic Johnson
"admonished" Coach Luke Walton.
Well, I thought he was
on the chopping block all year.
I mean, it was in the media, talking about him,
you know, not winning with the young guys.
The message around
that Laker organization this week
and around that coaching staff has been this coaching staff
better win sooner than later.
Evidence is mounting
that Luke's job security depends on it.
It just got to this point where LeBron was hurt.
The team's losing.
They didn't make the damn playoffs.
It was just unacceptable.
It was our last game of the season.
You know, they weren't going to the playoffs.
There were a lot of frustrating moments
during that season,
and I think that that pissed off Magic.
Luke, is there any anxiety
over the coming days in your near future?
No. No, no, no anxiety. Um...
I just happened to be at the tail end
of Luke's presser.
And as Luke finished, Earvin told the reporters,
"Hang on a second. I got something I want to say."
First of all, thanks, everybody.
I've been thinking about the great meetings
I had with Jeanie the last couple of days.
And you know I love her as a sister.
And, um, so today,
I'm gonna step down as the president.
Then I went into the coaches' locker room,
and so Luke was sitting in there with Tim Harris.
So I said, "Did you guys know that Magic was stepping down?"
And you didn't even say anything to anybody?"
And so Tim Harris was like, "What are you talking about?"
And so we turned on the TV, and sure enough,
it was everywhere.
We had no-I had no idea.
It did catch us all, and probably even Earvin,
to some sense, by surprise.
And somebody gonna have to tell my boss,
'cause I know she's gonna be sick.
But I knew I couldn't face her face to face and tell her.
Have you really not told Jeanie?
- No, I haven't.
I'm driving to Staples Center and I'm running late.
I get a phone call from Tim Harris,
our chief operating officer.
And I just answered the phone and I said, "I got a flat tire.
I'm on my way. I'll be there soon."
And he goes, "Turn around. Magic just quit."
I go, "What are you talking about?"
And I turn on the radio.
You can hear it live.
It's hard when you love a person like I love Jeanie,
and I don't want to disappoint her.
- First I felt blindsided.
But then it started to feel familiar.
Back in 1981, the same thing happened
when Magic went to the media and said,
"I want to be traded" instead of going to my dad.
Did you call him? No.
It was more about putting out the fires that he started.
Laker nation still reeling this morning
after Magic Johnson announced
he's stepping down as president.
The front office needs to get their ish together.
I don't have anything against Jeanie,
but she needs to put the right people in management.
She has the power to make decisions.
She has the power to fix it.
So I have to- I have to lay accountability
with Jeanie Buss right now.
It made the Lakers look bad.
It made me look bad.
And I had to make sure that LeBron
had two feet on the ground.
Like, it was literally 70 minutes on the clock
before, you know, I'm not playing,
but my team is still playing.
I'm kind of still caught off guard.
It was like a punch in the gut, for sure.
You know, during that time, I was like holy-
holy shit, Magic's gone.
This is-this is like turmoil.
I was just thinking about the conversations
that me and Magic had, you know,
how we was gonna put a trophy back here,
and didn't quite understand.
Still don't understand.
- What the hell happened?
Why did you resign from the Los Angeles Lakers?
I told them, when it's not fun for me,
when I think that I don't have the decision making power
that I thought I had, then I gotta step aside.
The straw that broke the camel's back
was I wanted to fire Luke Walton.
LeBron and his team of people didn't feel like
Luke was the right coach for him.
I said, "Jeanie, your man don't have it."
He don't make adjustments within the game.
And she was like... "Earvin."
I said, "I hate to tell you that,
'cause I know you love him."
But can he get better?
I said, "I'm hoping that he can,
but I don't think he can."
Then the next day, no, we should try to work it out.
One of the things that Jeanie was strong on
is like, you can't just keep changing coaches all the time.
Jim and Mitch used to fire coaches like that.
And I think she wanted to take their time with it.
Other people in the Lakers,
non-basketball people are trying to tell me
that I can't make those calls.
And so, uh, okay.
There were a lot of voices
that were speculating about who was pulling the strings.
And that, I could see, would bother him.
We are family, and sometimes we step on each other's toes.
To preserve the love and my friendship with Jeanie,
I felt it was best to step down.
I wasn't surprised at all.
Mitch and I were talking about it.
I said, "I don't think he's gonna last."
You know, he doesn't know what this is all about.
He's never run a team.
And he's never-nobody's- nobody understands that,
you know, it looks like a glamour job.
Nobody understands the ups and downs,
the pressures behind it all.
You're disappointed when stuff like that happens
because you hold the franchise
in such high regards as far as just, you know,
basketball royalty.
Like, that type of stuff can't be happening.
- It's a mess.
And it's a mess that has to be cleaned up by Jeanie Buss
quick, fast, and in a hurry.
And I really wanted Luke to be our coach.
But things had to be different.
Between the change in the front office
and all the trade rumors,
it was just like, you know what?
I think-we kind of both decided what's best for-
for both parties is just to kind of-
to kind of go our separate ways.
Magic had left.
Luke was gone.
The team was going through so much upheaval.
I'm in a position where I'm trying to do
what my dad asked me to do,
and I'm beginning to doubt that I'm able to do it.
I spent many nights really soul searching.
What could make things make sense?
The North Star had always been my dad
and how my dad operated.
And then my mom took a fall and wasn't doing well.
Every day that's going by, all I can think of
is, like, I don't want anything to happen to my mom
without meeting Lee.
Linda, she goes, "Let's just go."
Let's just take three days, you know, and disappear.
When I knew I was gonna get a chance to meet
my birth mother, it was surreal.
Got on the plane next day.
We each fly in to the airport in Las Vegas,
and I'm waiting at the gate.
People come off, and I'm like, is that her?
Is that her?
And then the second I see her, I know that's my sister.
- Hi, everybody.
Obviously, recognized Jeanie right away.
She took my hands and said,
"Gosh, even your hands look like Mom's."
We went straight to see my mom.
She wasn't articulate, but she was very alert.
And I think I was a little nervous.
I didn't want to scare her.
But I moved down toward the end of the bed,
and Jeannie was standing there with me.
And we were looking at her, and-and, uh...
And...
so JoAnn sat straight up.
And she had been basically, um, just muttering before,
no clear words.
And she sat up...
And she pointed at Jeanie,
and she said "mother," clear as a bell.
And then she pointed at me,
and she went, "Mother."
And Jeanie said, "Yes, Mom.
This is Marie, and we are sisters."
And then Jeanie looked at me, and she said,
"She knows who you are."
I think that my mom longed for Marie her whole life.
In the adoption papers, my mom had stated
that she was abiding by her husband's wishes.
She wanted to be a mother.
But my birth father wrote
he had neither the time nor the finances
to think of raising a child.
I looked at that, and I went,
"You were educated. You were married.
Why did you give me away?"
In 1953, they were extremely broke.
And I just don't think they had the wherewithal
or the means to raise a child at that time.
It was important to my dad
that he did not bring a child
into a circumstance that he grew up with.
When my father was in the hospital,
he kept saying he had something to tell me.
But it was never the right time.
I think it was a weight that he bore on his heart.
And so to articulate it was-
was really tough for him.
One decision in a person's life
affects so many people's lives.
And I realized
you need to forgive your parents.
The way they felt
at that moment they gave you away
might not have been the way they felt later on.
Once I understood it, it was a decision made in a moment,
I could let go.
Being able to take Lee to meet our mother,
I felt like I accomplished something, you know?
I can't fix everything.
But I did that, and that was important.
To me, Lee brought great relief to me.
But at the end of the day,
I had to get back to work
and get done what needed to get done.
- All right, * it,
let's make something happen, you know?
There's-there's still work needs to be done.
How important is it to you that whether it's
this season or this summer,
this team gets another elite player?
- That would be ideal.
Anthony Davis was a name
that my father talked about from the day he was drafted.
When he came into the league,
he was the number one draft pick.
He's an incredibly skilled big man.
He can play with anyone.
He's that talented.
Being able to have a relationship with AD
beforehand on the 2012 Olympic team,
you know, I was like,
"Oh, this kid is the next one."
Kobe and LeBron, you know,
really took me under their wing.
And it was great to be around those guys
and just for them to show me the ropes.
And I'd known LeBron, you know,
since I was in high school.
Me and Bron go way back to '15, '16.
I was going to LeBron's camps.
And Kobe, you know, we just- when I first talked to him,
we just connected immediately.
So-
As soon as we get to London, Kobe tells my dad, like,
I got your son, like he's-
he's in good hands.
You know, wherever we see Kobe, AD was with him.
- Your man AD in the building.
Chilling with my man Kobe.
You don't want to hide the unibrow, though.
- All right.
I was like, if we can get this guy,
we can get there faster than what people actually think.
- It was a moment of truth.
In order to get a great talent
like Anthony Davis,
you have to give up great talent.
And ultimately,
it was my decision to push the button.
It's become the biggest story,
obviously, in the sports world.
The Pelicans have agreed to finally
trade Anthony Davis to the Lakers.
- AD 3 and LJ 23.
We've been waiting for you to get here
for what seems like months and months and months.
Yeah, forever. But I'm happy to be here.
I'm excited for the season,
excited for the opportunity to win a championship.
And when we got Anthony Davis,
that's when I knew, okay, here we go.
The Lakers get off to this great start.
Anthony Davis seems like he was born to play
alongside LeBron James.
LeBron seems reinvigorated
by playing alongside another superstar.
That kind of gave him, I think, new life.
We had what you would call a big two,
a Kobe and Shaq,
a Kareem and Magic.
And we had a new coach.
There's gonna be a lot of talk of getting our team back
into the playoffs.
We are gonna be focused on the work.
We came out of the gates really strong.
You know, I felt like we had a chance
to do something special to win the championship.
It's like last year never happened.
- We all just like, clicked.
And every guy on the team had a chip on their shoulder
and wanted to win.
But, you know, just because you're doing well
doesn't mean you take your foot off the gas.
You gotta keep pushing.
We were in Philly to play the 76ers.
All he needs is 18 points
and LeBron James will pass Kobe Bryant
as the third all-time leading scorer in NBA history.
James and the Lakers finishing up
this five-game winning streak.
I actually have the assist to Bron.
You know, he get the layup.
James goes across the lane,
lays it up and lays it in, and there it is.
He just became the third leading scorer in NBA history,
passing Kobe Bryant, another milestone.
So it was cool, like, to see Bron move up.
It felt incredible, man,
just knowing how I looked up to the guy so much
from when I was in high school.
I don't want to be like Kobe Bryant.
I just want to accomplish the things
that he accomplished,
like winning the championship, you know, all-star.
To the moment where, you know, in 2002
at the All-Star game in Philly...
He gave me a pair of his shoes, which I ended up wearing
that following night.
It was the red, white, and blue Kobe's.
To, you know, coming into the league
and just watching him.
We take it down to 2008
where we become the redeem team.
And it was a dream come true for me to be able
to line up alongside of him.
Like I said, today is Kobe Bryant's 30th birthday.
And we're gonna sing Happy Birthday on three.
Now I'm here in the Lakers uniform in Philadelphia
where he's from where I-one of first times I ever met him.
It-it was just, like, mind-blowing.
And I get to my locker after the game,
and there's a tweet from Kobe to me
about, you know, keep moving forward,
keep pushing forward, congratulations.
And one thing a lot of people don't know-
this is the first time I ever told anybody-
he sent me a bottle of wine,
a 1984 La Tأ¢che with a handwritten note.
And it's in my wine cellar hung up.
It's the only bottle that won't be drank in my cellar.
You know, it's a long flight from Philly to LA.
We tired. Everybody's, like, asleep.
And I started getting calls.
And I'm like, pressing "end,"
'cause I'm trying to sleep.
And people kept calling my phone.
So I open up the phone, look at the messages.
- He like...
"Kobe just died."
And so I go on Instagram, and I see all this stuff,
like he was with Robert Horry, he was-
and there's like, so many reports,
so many reports.
Bron's knocked out.
And I'm, "Bron! Bron!"
Bron wakes up.
I said-I said, "Bro, Kobe died."
And he said, same as I said, "Kobe who?"
I'm like, "Kobe Bryant." Him, Gigi."
And...
he was like, "Man, stop playing."
I'm like, "Bro, I'm not playing."
I'm like, "They saying it's true."
- Anthony looked like, um,
somebody pulled, like, his soul from him.
Nobody had their color.
And we all-all of us just kind of just broke down.
We just all broke down in tears.
That was one of the longest flights
I ever been on,
one of the longest flights I've ever been on.
That shit hit us, like, hard.
Hard.
The LA Lakers legend
and 13-year-old Gianna
were among nine people on board a private helicopter
when it crashed into a Los Angeles hill.
- I was at home.
At home.
Wife and I were getting ready for church.
And she's in the bathroom getting ready
and she screams, "Oh, my God."
I turned the phone off.
I didn't talk to anybody that day.
I didn't talk to anybody the next day.
I was just heartbroken.
I was supposed to be traveling that day.
I was on- I was on the way to LAX.
My kids called,
and they were just freaking out.
And yeah, just got back home, and...
I couldn't take my eyes off the TV.
Because it still- it just wasn't
registering that it was real.
It was-no, I mean, it was the toughest
hit that I've ever taken.
My heart sank.
I sank.
Only thing I can say is I wish
I would've told him I loved him.
So that's just something guys always regret.
And we didn't ever really think that, um...
he was gonna pass, you know?
It was just something that-
that happened.
We're not gonna be able...
to joke at his Hall of Fame ceremony.
We're not gonna be able to say,
"Ha, I got five. You got four."
The fact that we're not gonna be able
to say if we would have stayed together,
we could have got 10.
Those are the things that you can't get back.
You know, I didn't even have his number.
I don't-I don't call nobody.
It's not the right attitude to have.
But it's the attitude I always have.
But if you have to say that after the fact,
it's something that you always live with.
But the fact that I couldn't say what's up
or I'll never be able to do that again,
that'll haunt me.
I mean, to lose him, but even more so,
his daughter that we had seen.
She used to come to the hotel and sell Girl Scout cookies.
We all thought Kobe was invincible.
And in the blink of an eye, he's gone.
Shortly after my mom passed away,
he called me and left me a message,
which was so like Kobe.
Like, and then after he passed away, hearing all the people
that Kobe reached out to.
He was a Laker,
and he cared about the Laker family.
- Myself and everybody else
that was Kobe fans,
we were fortunate and blessed to have,
you know, experienced championships
and the joy that came from all of that.
Remember those walls I built?
Well, baby, they're tumbling down
They didn't even put up a fight
They didn't even make a sound
I found a way to let you in
But I never really had a doubt
Standing in the light of your halo
I've had this poster on my wall
everywhere I've lived since I was a kid.
I'm 30 years old now.
Had this poster in my room everywhere I moved to.
He was my hero.
He wasn't just a Laker.
He was LA.
It's like I've been awakened
Every rule I had you breaking
It's the risk that I'm takin'
Everywhere I'm lookin' now
I'm surrounded by your embrace
Baby, I can see your halo
Pray it won't fade away
Halo, don't fade away
To go back in the arena and play,
it was just, like, impossible.
Halo, don't fade away
And we see the crowd.
Everybody's wearing Kobe shirts.
And the tears come back, the emotions come back.
And as I look around this arena,
we're all grieving.
We're all hurt.
We're all heartbroken.
And when we're going through things like this,
the best thing you can do is lean on the shoulders
of your family.
I want to continue along with my teammates
to continue his legacy, not only for this year.
For as long as we can play
the game of basketball that we love.
Because that's what Kobe Bryant would want.
Kobe! Kobe! Kobe! Kobe!
There was a lot of heaviness.
But the best thing you can do when you feel alone
is to be around your community.
And that's what Laker games were.
Everybody felt like the only thing they could do
to make anything feel meaningful
was to come together and play together for Kobe.
We begin, you know, to play some of our best basketball.
We understood right away
what we wanted to do.
We'll do our best, you know, to kind of fulfill
the ultimate goal here
and win one for you and Gigi.
It was like we have a bigger meaning.
I thought it brought us, you know, closer.
The Lakers are officially
back at the playoffs.
I knew we had a chance of winning the championship.
But I knew after that moment,
we were gonna win the championship.
I knew we were.
And then all of a sudden, boom.
Everything stops.
Two players on the Los Angeles Lakers
have tested positive for coronavirus.
All major professional sports leagues
have suspended games, the NBA now saying
it will reassess whether to finish the season
after 30 days.
I went home, and I just had some time
to really grieve, you know, for Kobe and that situation.
All right, Kobe, let me really mourn you,
'cause I-I couldn't.
We just had to play with that anger building inside of us.
You know, we just all had to be at bay...
You know, part of me was thinking, like,
the health and safety of everybody.
But human nature also was thinking,
like, *, our momentum.
Those months where we didn't know,
having to isolate, be away from each other...
this was a very painful time period for me.
I lost my mother in mid-December.
And then we lost Kobe Bryant shortly afterwards.
Some days you just felt like I can't-
like, you know, how am I gonna get out of bed?
I've never felt so isolated as I did during the shutdown.
Like, is this the end?
Is this, you know-
are we ever gonna feel good again?
I thought about the team and how-how they felt.
And I thought about my family.
When you're born into this family,
you're kind of put in this spotlight, right?
How different would my life have been
to be just in a regular family
that doesn't own a sports empire?
You look at a lot of family-owned businesses,
there's always a lot of drama.
That makes for a tough road with your siblings.
I would read things and say,
"Man, I'm really glad that I didn't have to do that
or I didn't have to be in that part of it."
But life is short.
And the most important thing is family.
Lee coming to the family gives us an opportunity
to connect in a different way.
She looks at Johnny and Jimmy
without all the weight of the things
that have happened in this family.
So it made me see them with fresh eyes
and a blank slate.
With Lee, knowing her strength
of forgiving her parents
should be a calling to us
that forgiveness is a good thing.
Now I'm gonna read you something...
- Oh, boy.
That Johnny said in our last interview.
- Oh, boy. Okay.
Jeanie has done an incredible job.
And where she has excelled most
is when she follows my father's plan.
And Jeanie is doing that right now,
and I'm very proud of her for doing that.
Wow, that's great.
That-that means a lot to me.
I don't think I was as sensitive to Jeanie's hurt
as I should have been.
That period of time in 2017 is just-
you know, is over.
And, uh, it's not worth it.
It's just not worth it to fight.
I'm gonna read something Jimmy said.
Oh, no.
So that's what she's good at, you know.
Jeanie's very good at putting the pieces together.
I mean, she's worked with my dad
for, you know, 25, 30 years or whatever it is.
She knows what she's doing.
That's really nice.
Well, I think about my family all the time.
What I do about it is a different story.
Uh, the regret is that I just don't-
you know, I can't walk in and say hi.
I mean, I feel bad.
It would be nice to be able to do that.
I feel that I'm going to reach out to her fairly soon
to, hey, let's just sit down
and, you know, talk this out,
put it behind us in a positive way,
'cause that's how I view her, is in a positive way.
I was put in a difficult situation.
But I had to follow the directions
that my dad gave me and what he asked me to do.
Knowing that they understand now
why I had to do what I had to do,
that-that now opens the door for the kind of relationship
that I'd like to have with my brothers.
But I have this family that my dad created with the Lakers.
So at that time, I was really focused on our players.
So I was excited and hopeful
that we could finish the season.
There's been so many times
over the last 41/2 months you say to yourself,
is the NBA gonna restart ever?
The NBA will resume the season
at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
For players of the 22 invited teams,
life as they know it is about-
well, let's just say it's gonna be a little different.
When the league shut down, it was like,
is this ever gonna come back?
Are they gonna get to finish what happened?
The end of April, we started this idea
of a bubble, a safe haven where the NBA
could quarantine the players and do daily testing.
Certainly, it wasn't ideal.
But I was very excited that we could finish the season.
After working through a trio
of warm-up games, the Lakers are primed for a playoff run
for the first time in seven years.
But nobody looks more ready for that challenge
than LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
The all-star pair has shown
what a truly dominant duo can do in this league.
I want to see this team fight.
I want to be part of it.
I want to be part of the playoffs, the excitement.
I wanted to see the character that we had built.
They legitimately have one of the best shots
to win yet another title.
But when the league was restarting,
all the players were really affected
by what was going on in the world
after George Floyd was murdered.
Say his name! George Floyd!
Cities across the United States
remain in a state of high tension tonight
as the country braces itself
for another wave of protests
over the death of George Floyd.
The unarmed Mr. Floyd, who was Black,
died in Minneapolis after being pinned to the ground
by a white police officer.
He was the latest in a string of African-American men
to die through police action.
Take your knee off our necks!
- Take your knee off our necks!
The murder of George Floyd
really underlined something to all Americans
that they maybe had tried not to be aware of.
And now all of a sudden they saw it
in a way that they can't deny that it exists.
America was really just starting to see
who America really was, at the end of the day.
Black side's been struggling for a long time.
: No justice! No peace!
No justice! No peace!
Like I said, been angry for a long time.
We've been taking crap for a long time,
been getting disrespected for a long time.
The things that caused those problems
have remained unchanged.
You know, let's keep telling 'em why we're upset.
'Cause if you stop,
everybody's gonna be like, "Ooh, okay, they're done,"
until something else happens.
We've seen this over and over and over...
Or as a Black woman.
We watched someone die on television.
We just wanted to support our players
and what they were standing up for.
We were extremely happy
and proud to be able to highlight a moment
that we felt that was gonna last
longer than just that time.
People look up to all of us.
What can we do together to make a big impact?
In the context of what was happening in the world
that summer, you couldn't just pretend
this was all about basketball.
This was a pretty big move for the NBA.
- They have a bigger presence
that-than young people have ever had.
As a team, we did everything
together in that bubble.
So every information and news that was going on,
we saw together.
And the same thing happened
with the Jacob Blake thing.
Blake, who is Black, was shot multiple times in the back
by police on Sunday in Kenosha, Wisconsin,
as he tried to enter
the driver's side door of his vehicle.
In that moment, I mean, the WNBA stepped up.
Up until about 10 minutes ago,
we thought we were going to have a game.
And subsequently, the NBA stepped up.
30 minutes went by and they saying
that the Bucks are refusing to come out of the locker room.
They're refusing to play.
Breaking news from the NBA, at least one team is protesting
the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin,
by boycotting their playoff game today.
We are calling for justice for Jacob Blake
and demand the officers be held accountable.
Nobody played a game that day until we figured out
what we was gonna do next.
There was so much intensity.
Because guys is like, "Man, this could have been
anyone's brother or sister."
It could have been one of them.
This keeps happening.
And it's like, what are we gonna do?
We went down here and we have
Black Lives Matter T-shirts.
And how many more?
That's the question they keep asking.
How many more?
real life outside of this fairytale of basketball.
Like what the- what the * are we doing?
Like, what are we doing?
Everything in the bubble is so fragile
to begin with that this may actually burst the bubble.
This morning, the NBA
post-season in doubt, following
the police involved shooting of Jacob Blake.
An all-players meeting was held to discuss
whether the NBA bubble season should move forward at all.
We had this big meeting.
And each team had to decide whether they were gonna leave
or they were gonna stay.
Us being the Lakers, well, what the Lakers gonna do?
As the players were behind closed doors,
we were all waiting to find out what would happen next.
People paid attention because now you have
an entire league put on hold based on
the action of its players.
You just realize, you know, the power that you-you know,
you actually do have.
To be honest, we're ready to leave.
Man, we should just leave the bubble
and go get on the front line.
I was a guy that was split.
I mean, I understood where a lot of people
were coming from.
There was also a part of me was like,
we're not as strong separate
than we are together.
- You know, what do we do?
They basically took a political action
without knowing what to ask for.
And so the next few days were spent
calling politicians all around the country,
saying, "What should we ask for?"
Former President Barack Obama stepping in
to advise a group of players on their protest.
There's myself, CP, Russ, Carmelo, and Jason Kidd
and just listening to the 44th give his insight.
More than anything, he basically told us
we can't come out of this with nothing.
You know, ultimately we decided
if we go away from this stage,
we don't necessarily have that same platform.
When games resume this afternoon,
it will be with a more specific plan
for using the game as a platform
to fight racial inequality.
In response, the NBA's team owners,
some of the richest and most powerful men and women
in the country, have now agreed to do more,
especially in the fight against voter suppression.
They were-they were caring for their community,
even though they weren't there with them physically.
And when she came out and, you know, stood behind
Black Lives Matter and so many other things
that she stood behind, I was like, that's Dr. Buss.
There's 30 owners in this NBA,
and not all of them are like that,
not even close.
Once we all decided that we was gonna stay,
it kind of lit a fire up under us like, man.
With all this going on, let's use this energy that we have.
Let's really just lock in on this basketball
and let our voices be heard by winning this championship.
I knew it was our time.
We knew it was our time.
Guys is just so, like, locked in.
2.1 seconds remaining.
Denver a foul to give.
I wanted the ball.
I saw Do taking the ball out.
And I was like, "Do, give me the ball.
Give me the ball."
- I looked at Bron.
And I looked at other guys on the floor.
And when I locked eyes with AD,
I felt like, you know,
he was gonna find a way to get open.
Do, being the elite passer he is, make a hell of a pass.
Catch it, just let it fly.
And here's Davis for a three and the win.
Oh, it's good!
Anthony Davis has won it for the Lakers!
And the first person I see is Taylen Horton-Tucker.
I just kind of, like, trampled him.
He fell to the floor.
Now he's under, like, 14 of us.
I really didn't even care about that.
It was just-
it was just crazy just being a part of it.
And I was happy, ecstatic.
But I never thought about,
like, if I hit a game winner and do something crazy,
Kobe like- it literally just happened.
Kobe just came out.
And we were wearing the Black Mamba uniforms,
like, which is crazy.
So you knew Kobe was right here, like watching,
looking over us.
This Laker team has dedicated
the post season to Kobe Bryant.
We go out there every night
and play in his honor.
We just want to make him proud.
Every time you put on purple and gold,
you think about his legacy, you think about him
and what he meant to this franchise for 20 plus years.
I'm extremely proud to be a part
of this franchise getting back to where it belongs.
I felt like this is where we bring it home.
We right here on the 10 yard line.
And we can't drop the ball right now.
Welcome to game one of the NBA Finals.
For the Lakers and the Heat,
this is their 85th day in this bubble.
The Lakers were going head-to-head
against Pat Riley.
It made it a little bittersweet.
I felt gratitude of what Pat taught me
and the experience that I had
while he was the coach of the Lakers.
I already knew how hard it was gonna be.
If it was gonna be two teams that was gonna be locked in
in the bubble, it was gonna be my team
and it was gonna be Riles'.
Once we got to Miami and the finals, we had to win.
It was all or nothing.
The Lakers just turned it on.
Lakers by 24.
Lakers by 26.
An avalanche here from the Lakers
in game one, dominating.
We were able to win the first two games
of the finals, built ourselves a 2-0 lead.
We'd been waiting this long.
And it looks like this is the year.
But Miami came out with incredible urgency
and was able to take game three.
So we were faced with, you know, possibly an even series.
Davis for 3. Nice!
Anthony Davis from downtown.
We were able to secure a game four.
So now we're up 3-1.
And I remember we wanted to go
with the Kobe uniforms in game five.
Let's do it in the Mamba jerseys.
Let's close out in Mamba jerseys.
We're one game away. Let's do it.
I had these Kobe's.
I get 'em spray painted like championship gold.
Right now, for the Lakers,
they have not found a way to stop Jimmy Butler.
I think Jimmy goes for like 40 in that game.
3-2.
I'm like, damn, I just wasted these shoes.
I was on the edge of my seat.
LeBron was on a mission.
You could see it.
For LeBron, this is why
he came to Los Angeles.
And he's one game from accomplishing that goal.
And we're like, we have to win this game
'cause if it go game seven, it was up in the air.
The Lakers have been dominant.
And as LeBron James ready to celebrate,
and they'll vanquish Miami here in six games
as we approach three minutes remaining.
We end up finishing it off in game six.
And that's it. It's over.
This historic 2020 NBA Championship
belongs to the Los Angeles Lakers.
And banner number 17 will soon hang in the rafters.
I was crying.
There's so many emotions going through my head.
And I just started getting emotional-
everything we've been through this season.
And it's like we overcame it.
Bron comes up to me, he hugs me,
said, "Told you it'd be all worth it.
Now come tell me how this trophy feels."
We're thinking of Kobe and, you know, how much
he treasured winning a championship.
We was there celebrating his life
and doing what we know that Kobe would want.
- We got another one for you.
You know, ever since the tragedy, you know,
all we wanted to do is do it for him.
And we didn't let him down.
LeBron came up to me
and, you know, gave him a hug.
He's very tall.
And he said, "We accomplished what we set out to do.
Enjoy this moment."
You guys, come take the trophy!
You know, in that moment,
I want to represent my dad and all he stood for.
Accepting it on behalf of the fans.
And to Laker nation, we have been through
a heartbreaking tragedy with the loss
of our beloved Kobe Bryant and Gianna.
Let this trophy serve as a reminder
of when we come together, incredible things can happen.
I look forward to celebrating with you.
Until then, I will bring back the trophy
to Los Angeles, where it belongs.
Our life has been like
a surfer riding that big wave.
It was the wave my dad created.
And we all got to surf it with him.
He was one of the last of the mavericks.
I don't think my dad ever intended
to build a kingdom,
but that's what he did.
It's bigger than any one person, any one owner,
any one coach, any one player.
He wanted the Lakers to be great
for the city of Los Angeles
that took him in and gave him the family
that he had wanted so much.
This is the greatest franchise in NBA history,
point blank.
You gotta start with great leadership.
Dr. Buss and Jeanie Buss and superstars on that court.
If you look at those retired jerseys up there,
I don't think another franchise in all of basketball
has had numbers up there like those numbers, not any team,
not the Celtics, no one.
You start off with the Elgin Baylors,
the Jerry Wests, the Kareems, the Magics,
keep going to Kobes, the Shaqs.
You have great players like that
and you put dynasties together,
because the organization
doesn't settle for nothing less.
The legacy here is winning 17 championships.
LA comes to Boston
and wins the world title.
Bryant to Shaq!
That's a 3. Bang!
It's important to me to finish what he started,
which was to have the most championships in the NBA.
We are now tied with the Celtics.
I gotta-I gotta get number 18 before they do.