It comes as no surprise but Kobe Bryant, who was killed in a helicopter crash in January of 2020, could have had a career on television.
According to TNT analyst Charles Barkley, who recently appeared on “The Draymond Green Show” podcast, Kobe once signed a deal to join the “NBA on TNT” crew following his retirement.
Unfortunately for us, Bryant backed out of that deal before ever joining the show.
“We actually hired Kobe Bryant…but he didn’t want to do all the bulls—t,” Barkley said. “…He actually signed with us. But we started telling him, we have to do a bunch of radio shows…He’s like, ‘Yeah, I don’t want to do all that stuff.’ We tell him you have to promote the show, Kobe.”
“We were excited, then [former president of Turner David Levy] called me back 10 days later like, ‘Kobe’s not gonna come.’ And we were like, ’why?’ Because he don’t wanna do all the PR stuff. He don’t. wann go on radio shows and talk about basketball. I’m like, ‘well that’s part of the gig. … that’s part of promoting the show.’ It’s funny, though, he didn’t want to do all that and he never came work for us.”
It’s a bummer that we never had the opportunity to see Bryan on the ‘NBA on TNT’ show as he was one of the smartest, well-spoken NBA players of all-time.
“Kobe Bryant signed a contract to join the NBA on TNT crew after his retirement.” – Charles Barkley pic.twitter.com/EOsBwQMP8f
— 𝘾𝙤𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙎𝙝𝙪𝙗𝙝 ⁶𓅓 (@OVOLakeShow) March 2, 2022
