A new ESPN article is out that deep dives into the dumpster fire that is the Lakers organization and toxic working relationship between former team president Magic Johnson and GM Rob Pelinka.
One unflattering passage from the piece that demonstrates Pelinka’s pension for “stretching” the truth occurred during a 2018 motivational “Ted Talk” type meeting with players and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Pelinka – who represented Kobe Bryant for 18 years – told The Rock and the team that after seeing Heath Ledger’s Academy Winning Performance in the Dark Knight, Bryant asked Pelinka to set up a meeting with Ledger to see how got famously “locked in” for the role:
“There was one time when Kobe, who I worked with for 18 years, was going back to play in Madison Square Garden, and he had just seen ‘The Dark Knight
Obviously, you guys saw that movie, and he’s like, ‘Hey, hook me up with dinner with Heath Ledger, because he got so locked into that role. I want to know how he mentally went there.’ So, he had dinner with Heath, and he talked about how he locks in for a role. And Kobe used some of that in his game against the Knicks.”
Cool story, but the only problem is Ledger tragically died of a drug overdose six months before the films July 2008 release. Unless Pelinka used a spiritual medium to set up the meeting, it’s clearly some B.S.
Now video has emerged of Pelinka spinning the lie during the meeting and it’s something else. He apparently subscribes to the George Costanza theory that it’s not a lie if you believe it.
There’s video of Pelinka telling the Kobe-Ledger story. How come someone blatantly lie like that? pic.twitter.com/hsh1u8wwp7
— John Ledesma (@JohnnyNBA) May 28, 2019