On Friday, ESPN announced a new partnership with former Los Angeles Lakers’ star Kobe Bryant on a new content initiative named “Canvas.”
Details from Ben Cafardo of ESPN:
ESPN today announced it is teaming up with sports icon Kobe Bryant to present Canvas – a special new content initiative, which will debut on Christmas, Sunday, Dec. 25, during the 2 p.m. ET edition of NBA Countdown on ABC, which precedes the Warriors-Cavaliers NBA Finals rematch at 2:30 p.m. Bryant, the five-time NBA Champion and legendary Los Angeles Laker, will serve as the creator, director and writer for six short video presentations, each focused on an NBA on-court topic, through the eyes of Bryant.
The first short piece, titled “Guarding the Greats,” was presented on ABC during the Christmas Day slate of games. In it, Bryant detailed his own experiences of guarding great players and shared the knowledge he accumulated through the lens of defending LeBron James.
(The ESPN embed tool doesn’t allow us to post the video at an optimal size. You can either click on the bottom right to make it full screen or click on this link to watch from ESPN’s site)
Bryant’s post-basketball career has been an interesting topic of conversation since before he retired. Now, we’re catching a glimpse of what he wants to do for the next stage of his life.
Bryant has always raved about story-telling and it appears like he’s getting his feet wet in that industry. For now, it’s in the realm of basketball, something he is very comfortable in. But it’s easy to see that he may eventually branch out into different topics.
For now, we will wait and see what the other parts of the latest Kobe Bryant project will be.
