The last two seasons for the Los Angeles Lakers have been, well, weird.
A new ESPN report details how the franchise's former icon, Magic Johnson, who recently resigned as the team's president of basketball operations, and its current general manager, Rob Pelinka, oversaw two seasons worth of drama, betrayal, and miscommunication, which ultimately led to the duo failing to put together a contending team, despite signing LeBron James last offseason. But amid all the insider drama, one of the strangest moments in ESPN's story has to do with The Dark Knight, released in 2008.
During the 2017-18 NBA season, the Lakers reportedly put on a series called "Genius Talks," which consisted of celebrities speaking before the team in an attempt to re-instill a winning culture for the struggling franchise that once dominated the NBA landscape. At one of these events, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, was the guest speaker. Pelinka, standing next to Johnson, told a story about Kobe Bryant, an all-time Laker great and Pelinka's former client when he worked as an agent, who really wanted to meet with actor Heath Ledger after he watched The Dark Knight. Ledger was widely lauded for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight, even garnering an Academy Award, and Pelinka said Bryant wanted to have dinner with him to understand how he "got so locked into that role." So, Pelinka said, he arranged a dinner for the two and added that Bryant used Ledger's advice in a game against the New York Knicks shortly after.
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But, as ESPN points out, Ledger died during six months before The Dark Knight was released in theaters, making it seem quite unlikely that the two had a chance to meet, unless Bryant used his celebrity clout to view a super advanced screening. A source with direct knowledge of the situation said no such meeting between the two ever occurred. Read more at ESPN.
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