The inside story of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant's secret rift, and how the Olympics saved their relationship

The late Kobe Bryant was 'an a**hole' and LeBron James 'wants everybody to like him,' Basketball Hall of Famer Dwight Howard told the Club 520 Podcast last summer.

To award-winning NBA reporter and author Yaron Weitzman, the quote was 'just perfect.' 

So even though he'd already completed a final draft of his newly released book, 'A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers,' Weitzman did a rewrite to ensure Howard's insights were shared with his readers.

'LeBron is just different, very different than Kobe,' Weitzman told the Daily Mail ahead of Tuesday's release of the book. 'Honestly, LeBron is probably more well-adjusted, right?... [James would] pass the ball late in games. Kobe would never do that. [James] being friends with opponents, all of it just, completely different approaches.'

The book offers a riveting behind-the-scenes look at James' turbulent, title-winning tenure in LA. But the book also provides a window into an unlikely friendship — delayed by jealousy and cut short by a 2020 helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others.

'They were pitted against each other for so long, and everyone was always saying that LeBron was going to be better,' a person who worked with Bryant told Weitzman. 'Kobe heard it all, and it p***ed him off.' 

Bryant wasn't in the habit of making friends when James arrived in the NBA in 2003. That would later change after Bryant's 2016 retirement, but back then, he was a 25-year-old three-time league champion who saw himself as the face of the NBA. 

And yet, it was James who Sports Illustrated dubbed 'The Chosen One' a full year before he was drafted first overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

As Weitzman wrote, the 'way LeBron carried himself bothered Kobe too.'

Then there were James' friendships with rivals like Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade, the latter of whom he'd ultimately join in Miami alongside Chris Bosh. 

Of course, that didn't come until 2010, by which time the James-Bryant tension had begun to thaw thanks to the 2008 Olympic 'Redeem Team.'

Like so many relationships among elite NBA stars over the last three decades, James and Bryant were brought together by Team USA. It was four years after the former had failed to win gold in Athens, infamously setting the stage for a foundational shift within US basketball. 

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was brought in to lead a group that now included Bryant as well as James, Anthony and Chris Paul, among others.

Talent wasn't going to be an issue for the 2008 squad, but sharing the basketball was an obvious challenge for a group of All-Stars unaccustomed to playing together. And of course, Bryant's mentality had always been to shoot first and ask questions later, if ever.

A natural pass-first player, James sought to get ahead of the problem during an exhibition against Australia by asking Krzyzewski to rein in Bryant's shot selection. 

'Yo, Coach, you better fix that motherf***er,' James told Krzyzewski at the time, as quoted by Weitzman.

On another occasion, James and teammates wrapped up a team breakfast only to realize Bryant had missed it because he was working out by himself. 

In that moment, James pulled his Olympic teammate aside. 

'He was like, "We all know what you're about, but if we're trying to get this gold back to the United States, we need to do things together,"' Olympic teammate Tayshaun Prince said, as quoted by Weitzman.

'Kobe didn't have people talk to him like that,' Prince added. 'But he saw what LeBron was doing and recognized his leadership and what he was trying to accomplish.'

James' efforts with Bryant extended well into their downtime as he tried relentlessly to get the introverted second-generation NBA star to enjoy himself.

'I understand Kobe is serious as hell when it comes to work, but he wanna smile too,' James told reporters at the time. 'He wanna feel accepted, too.'

So, when Bryant turned 30 in Beijing that summer, James and teammates ensured everyone, including restaurant staff, serenaded the birthday boy against his clearly articulated wishes.

He also mimicked Bryant's on-court hand signals, all of which held the same purpose in James' eyes.

'All this means is get the hell out of the way,' James said, as quoted by Weitzman.

Team USA would breeze to a gold medal before James and Bryant returned to being NBA rivals. They'd never cross paths in the Finals, but the two Nike spokesmen did voice a pair of puppets for one sneaker commercial.

It wasn't until after Bryant's 2016 retirement and James' 2018 arrival in Los Angeles that the two finally seemed to truly connect, albeit over the objections of Lakers fans.

It's not that they were unhappy to have James. Rather, they were still hopelessly in love with Bryant, whose singular focus led them to paint murals in his honor long before his untimely death. 

James, as Lakers fans were all too aware, was in LA for other endeavors, like Hollywood films, his own production company, and his three kids' budding athletic careers.  

'When LeBron first gets here and you have these [Kobe] murals to face,' Weitzman said. 'You would think LeBron would be welcomed universally, and something about him, LA, especially initially, didn't accept him the same way. There's a mystique to Kobe that LeBron doesn't have and I don't think that's through any fault of his own.'

But if there was some resistance to James in LA, it wasn't coming from Bryant, who suddenly found a reason to return to Staples Center after a brief hiatus.

As James was surpassing him on the NBA's all-time scoring list in January of 2020, Bryant told the LA Times' Bill Plaschke that fans should embrace their new star: 'Appreciate this guy, celebrate what he's done, because it's truly remarkable.'

And when James did ultimately pass Bryant on the all-time scoring list, the Lakers' new star would write 'Mamba 4 Life' on his sneakers in a nod to his former rival's nickname.

Afterwards, James told reporters it was 'humbling' and to wear the same jersey as his friend, Bryant.

This kinship continued away from the spotlight, too. As a person close to James told Weitzman, 'the two were really starting to build a relationship.'

Weeks later, with the Lakers aboard a return flight to LA, the players learned the news: Bryant, Gianna and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas.

Although he initially refused to believe what he was hearing, James quickly gathered teammates in prayer and asked for God to watch over Bryant's widow Vanessa and their surviving three daughters.

Some, like ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, later reported that James missed Bryant's memorial service. However, Smith and others have since corrected the record, stating he was in attendance but off camera.

In any case, James and the Lakers would rally around Bryant's memory to win an NBA title in the league's coronavirus bubble later that season. The lingering pandemic prevented any victory parade, thereby denying James the chance to be feted in LA the way Bryant was before him.

But the real tragedy was celebrating anything without Bryant.

'Their relationship was just beginning,' Weitzman said. 'Kobe would have been a good sounding board, or just a friend of LeBron. How many people can know what that's like?

'I think it robbed [James] of something.'