The Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics have arguably the greatest rivalry in sports history. This new era involves Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, but plenty of legends have dawned either jersey in the past.

Notably, Kobe Bryant was a player who embraced that dislike for Boston and shared historic NBA Finals matchups against them in 2008 and 2010. As a once-in-a-lifetime scoring talent, this new generation of NBA stars grew up watching Bryant win five championships and solidify his standing as an all-time great.

Particularly for Brown, he never got a chance to meet the Lakers legend before his untimely passing in 2020. Looking back at his 28 years of life, the Celtics star went as far to call not meeting Bryant as one of his biggest regrets, via Kyrie LIVE:

“That’s one of my biggest regrets in life. I never got to meet Kobe… He did a ‘Detail’ on me in like 2018… It [surprised me that he did it]. I was so hyped. I was so hyped… Somebody that’s so influential, it would’ve been great to be able to [meet him].”

All the rivalry stuff aside, Bryant’s passing hurt everyone in the NBA community as his impact on basketball and sports in general was special. When he retired, the 20-year veteran began to venture into other interests, like writing bestselling books.

As Brown mentioned, Bryant did a mini-series called ‘Detail,’ where he broke down film of up-and-coming players in the NBA. Obviously, when a player like Bryant gives you time and embraces the skills of Brown, that is an incredible opportunity.

Life is short at the end of the day, and the NBA is turning into an encompassing family. Retired players are beginning to become involved in covering basketball and forming mentorships with younger players. With Bryant seeing a lot through his career, his knowledge could have helped not just Brown, but countless others as well.

When Luka Doncic was traded to the Lakers last season, it flipped the entire league upside down. With a player of his caliber moving to a market like L.A., he is now presumably ushering a new era of Lakers basketball.

During his first few months as a Laker, Doncic got his first experience being a part of the historic rivalry with the Celtics. Jaylen Brown matched up with Doncic plenty through the past few years and he had nothing but high praise for the Slovenian star after their most recent matchup.

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