Report: Kobe Bryant Allowed Camera Crews to Document His Final Lakers Season

Kobe Bryant gave camera crews from NBA entertainment "unparalleled access," to his final season with the Lakers in 2015-16, according to ESPN's Baxter Holmes. 

Bryant was filmed, "in locker rooms both at home and on the road, in the training room, throughout the team's practice facility and even on the team charter's plane," per Holmes. As many as six camera crews were present for Bryant's 60-point game in his career finale, capturing one of the greatest moments of the five-time champion's career. 

"They had unprecedented and, by far, greater access than anyone else ever," former Lakers public relations vice president John Black told Holmes. "We certainly allowed them to do everything we could within what the league would allow, and sometimes, with a wink and look-the-other-way, allowed them even more." 

The footage from Bryant's final season is currently in the editing stages for a "potential documentary to be released years from now," per Holmes. Bryant reportedly watched the edited material and provided feedback before he tragically died in a plane crash on Jan. 26.

The videos of Bryant echoes the footage of Michael Jordan in ESPN's The Last Dance, though the two legends certainly had disparate final seasons with their respective franchises. Jordan and the Bulls won their sixth championship in 1998, while Bryant and the Lakers finished 17–65. 

"Just watching them and being able to view what the cameras were doing to [capture] Jordan's pregame-routine, I mean, it's the same thing," former Lakers' athletic trainer Marco Nunez said. "Just flash forward...take out No. 23 with the Bulls and insert No. 24 with the Lakers. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty much identical."