Had the Los Angeles Lakers followed the script, Kobe Bryant and Jahlil Okafor would have been teammates this season.
Okafor was, of course, widely believed to be landing in the Hollywood but the Lakers opted to address their backcourt needs by going instead with D'Angelo Russell.
There were a lot of debate on that choice, particularly these days were Russell has been spending most of the time on the bench rather than on the court. One has to wonder if the case would have been the same had the Lakers picked up the 19-year-old to beef up their frontline.
Okafor has, of course, been doing great in Philly but his off-court run-ins have overshadowed that lately. But who knows if Bryant would have been there to guide him and teach him the ropes?
Bryant had his share of issues during his young career and yet somehow he managed to overcome them and stay the course. And when the two crossed paths, Bryant did give Okafor some advice on his situation.
"Just to stay focused on what you're doing playing the game of basketball," says Bryant when the Lakers faced the Sixers recently via NJ.com.
Bryant further tells Okafor to just learn from his mistakes and maintain focus. It was short of telling Okafor to use his weaknesses as something to build upon. Should Okafor do that, he believes that the rookie will eventually grow from his recent juvenile episodes and eventually follow the right path to stardom.
Okafor has indeed seen his off-court issues pile up since that Boston brawl. That incident somehow dug up another incident in Philadelphia which reportedly had a gun-toting incident back in October as well as being pulled over for driving over 108 miles per hour sometime in November.
Okafor was suspended for that Boston incident and hopefully he charges it all to experience and use it to his advantage moving forward.
