Back in May, a video of Los Angeles Lakers general manager, Rob Pelinka, made its way around social media. During the video, Pelinka tells a story about Kobe Bryant having dinner with actor Heath Ledger after watching his inspirational portrayal of The Joker in ‘The Dark Night.’ According to the legend told by Pelinka, Bryant watched the 2008 movie and was so impressed by Ledger’s performance that he reached out and set up a dinner with the Hollywood superstar prior to a game in New York.
During this dinner, Kobe then took what he learned from his conversation with the Oscar-winning actor and used those lessons to help him drop 61 points on the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in February of 2009. The only issue with the tale spun by Pelinka, of course, was that Ledger died during the making of the movie rendering such a meeting impossible.
During an appearance on “Knuckleheads” last week–a podcast hosted by former NBA players Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles–Bryant offered some clarity on the story. Kobe said, obviously, that he never met with Ledger. But he was definitely inspired by the way the actor immersed himself in character and approached his role as The Joker. This topic came up as Bryant was describing his team’s deflated mindset that season heading into the game against the Knicks which directly followed an injury to starting center Andrew Bynum.
“I didn’t go out to dinner in New York,” Kobe said during the podcast about that 2009 matchup with the Knicks. “I stayed in my room. This is actually the story Rob told, that he got confused about, the Heath Ledger stuff. Because I stayed up watching Batman and watching Heath Ledger.
“Then I went and started researching about Heath Ledger, and how he got into character and how he just became all-consuming. That inspired me to go into my Garden mode. Where I go in there and I’m like, everybody leave me alone.”
You can watch the full video with Kobe and the “Knuckleheads” below. The Rob Pelinka story begins at the 34-minute mark.
