August 28, 2025
‘With the 8th Pick’ tells the story of the New Jersey franchise trying to make moves to draft Bryant in the 1996 NBA Draft
Warner Bros. Pictures has picked up the rights to the script of With the 8th Pick, which tells the story of the New Jersey Nets trying to land Kobe Bryant as their 1996 NBA Draft Pick.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the story, by screenwriters Alex Sohn and Gavin Johannsen, will focus on the process taken by the New Jersey Nets to try to acquire Bryant, who ended up on the Lakers. The team was able to obtain Bryant in a trade after he was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets with the 13th pick of the draft. There had been interest in the project from other studios
before Warner Bros. stepped in to agree to produce it.
With the 8th Pick will be about the efforts by the New Jersey Nets and then-general manager John Nash, who had the eighth pick of the 1996 NBA Draft, in considering picking Bryant from high school. No details have been released about when the film will be completed and/or an expected air date. No director has been assigned to the project yet.
Variety reported that, although Nash was trying his best to draft Bryant, the Nets coach at the time, John Calipari, did not agree with his assessment and nixed the idea of bringing Kobe Bryant to the Nets. Although Bryant was highly sought after, he wasn’t chosen until the Hornets selected him as the 13th pick. The Hornets then traded him to the Lakers for Vlade Divac, setting up the legacy of Bryant’s time in the NBA.
Bryan spent his entire career with the Los Angeles franchise, where he won the NBA championship five times, was a two-time Finals MVP, and was the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player. He made the All-Star team 18 times during his career and became the youngest player to reach 30,000 points. Bryant retired in 2016 and scored an NBA season-high 60 points in his last game. The 41-year-old basketball legend died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, along with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others on Jan. 26, 2020.
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