During the Celebration of Life ceremony at the Staples Center on Monday remembering the life of Kobe Bryant, many speakers, including Vanessa Bryant who delivered an gut-wrenching eulogy, shared emotional, heartfelt stories they had with the former Los Angeles Lakers star. Among those was Scott Pelinka, the Lakers general manager. Pelinka revealed Bryant’s last wish to him, which was a text he received from Bryant while on the helicopter on the morning of the fatal crash.
Pelinka explained how Bryant asked him to reach out to MLB agent, Scott Boras, about the possibility of setting up an internship with the mega-agent for the daughter of John Altobelli, who was also lost in the tragedy.
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“My phone was deep in the pocket of my jeans. I felt the familiar text buzz. For a second, I ignored the notification because I was in church. But for some reason with this text I felt a sudden urge to check my phone. I slipped it out of my jeans and discovered the text was from Kobe,” Pelinka said during his eulogy. “There was nothing uncharacteristic or unfamiliar about this for the last two decades Kobe and I talked or texted every single day ’cause that’s what best friends do,” he continued. “In that moment, my instincts were to put the phone down and get back to the preacher’s sermon but a gentle otherworldly nudge compelled me to open the text, so I did. I quickly saw that Kobe was asking me if I happened to know a certain baseball agent based in Southern California.
“I grabbed my phone and texted Kobe back that I had seen the baseball agent at a Lakers game just the other night and was happy to help him,” Pelinka said on stage. “He clearly wanted to champion a bright future for her. I texted Kobe right back and said I would put a plan in motion to help him get that done.”
Kobe was texting Rob Pelinka from the helicopter that morning.
He was vouching to get a young girl a scholarship.💔 pic.twitter.com/laJp861zYG
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) February 24, 2020
It turns out everything was true that Pelinka recounted. Boras has already reportedly offered Altobelli’s daughter, Lexi, an internship.
Boras apparently created a separate position for her, which will allow to rotate among multiple areas to get a better feel for the career. Her oldest brother, J.J., is a scout in the Boston Red Sox organization.
