Kobe Bryant Was Slated To Join NBA On TNT Before Death, According To Charles Barkley

Los Angeles Laker legend Kobe Bryant made a second rather productive career after leaving the NBA in 2016.
Barkley recently made an appearance on The Draymond Green Show with Green, who is now his colleague at Turner. According to the Hall of Famer turned NBA analyst, Kobe Bryant was supposed to join their staff years ago.
“I’m not supposed to tell you this. We actually hired Kobe Bryant at Turner. But he didn’t wanna do all the other B.S. I’m probably going to get in trouble for saying this, but it’s one of the little things we keep under. He actually signed with us.”
Kobe Bryant is one of the most intelligent athletes to have ever played and can speak very eloquently on demand. To hear him give his basketball takes during the national TV games would have been an inescapable comment each time. Not to mention that it would put him alongside a former Lakers teammate, Shaq. However, Kobe was seemingly not interested in meeting all the obligations to join the series.
“When we started I told him I had to do a bunch or radio shows,” Barkley said on his conversation with the Lakers star. “I’d go on this show on Monday, the same thing on Tuesday, same thing on Wednesday, same thing on Thursday. He was like, ‘yeah, I don’t want to do all that stuff.’ I said, ‘you have to promote the show, Kobe.’ There’s probably only 10 people in the world who know that.”
Speaking of Kobe Bryant, ex-NBA Chandler Parsons was a guest on the All Smoke Podcast, and revealed, the Laker great surprised him by picking up a $22,000 post-game bar tab.
“He goes, ‘I’ll set you up. I’ll get your number … if you wanna go out tonight.’
“I’m like, stop, I know what you’re doing. Come on,'” Parsons said.
Parsons said that after the game, he went to dinner with several Rockets veterans when he received a message saying, “You’re all set at Supperclub — Mamba.”
“I’m looking around like, alright, who’s fucking with me?” Parsons said.
Long story short, when the bill was delivered to him, the waitress told Parsons to sign Mr. Bryant.
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