How do i watch dear basketball

Is Kobe Bryant’s Doc ‘Dear Basketball’ on Netflix? Where to Stream the Oscar-Winning Short

By Meghan O'Keefe

Jan 27, 2020 at 10:37am

Photos: Kobe Productions & Getty Images

Where to Stream:

Dear Basketball

Powered by Reelgood

When Kobe Bryant passed away yesterday at the age of 41, he left behind a loving family, an epic sports legacy, and an Oscar-winning career as a filmmaker. Yep, Bryant won the 2018 Academy Award for Best Animated Short, for his personal film, Dear Basketball. In just a few minutes, Bryant narrates a love letter to the sport that made him famous. It’s lovely, searing, and will leave you more than a little verklempt.

As Decider’s own Editor-in-Chief Mark Graham put it, Dear Basketball “hinted at his promise beyond basketball. ” Indeed, Bryant had begun experimenting with short-form storytelling with ESPN in 2017. It seemed that the next phase in Bryant’s journey would be that of the storyteller and mentor, using his experience to guide the next generation of athletes joining the sport.

The good news is that you can stream Kobe Bryant’s Oscar-winning animated short Dear Basketball for free. The bad news is you might not be able to find it on Netflix. Here’s your guide to where to stream Kobe Bryant’s Dear Basketball and various Kobe Bryant docs on Netflix, Hulu, and HBO.

WHERE CAN I STREAM

You can stream Kobe Bryant’s Oscar-winning film Dear Basketball for free on Vimeo. In fact, that is the sole location to stream the short animated film, produced and narrated by Kobe Bryant.

CAN I STREAM THE KOBE BRYANT DOC ON NETFLIX? IS KOBE BRYANT’S

Kobe Bryant’s Dear Basketball is not on Netflix. Also, sadly, there are no Kobe Bryant documentaries available to stream on Netflix. You can’t stream any Kobe Bryant docs on Netflix, including Kobe Bryant’s Muse or Kobe Bryant: The Death of a Legend.

CAN I STREAM THE KOBE BRYANT DOCUMENTARY ON HULU? WHER CAN I STREAM

Last night, ABC News aired a special hour-long tribute to Kobe Bryant called Kobe Bryant: The Death of a Legend. If you missed it, you can stream Kobe Bryant: The Death of a Legend on Hulu today. The special is available for all Hulu subscribers.

You can also stream Kobe Bryant’s Muse, a documentary produced by the athlete about his career, on Hulu if you have the Showtime add-on. Kobe Bryant’s Muse is available to stream on Showtime right now. You can also purchase Kobe Bryant’s Muse on a variety of VOD platforms including Google Play, YouTube, and Vudu.

IS THERE A KOBE BRYANT DOC ON HBO? CAN I STREAM KOBE BRYANT ON HBO GO OR HBO NOW?

If you’re looking for a Kobe Bryant documentary on HBO Go or HBO Now, you’re not going to be in luck. Right now, it looks like Hulu and Showtime are the only places to stream docs on the Mamba.

However, HBO subscribers can pay homage to Bryant in a surprising way. You can catch a 17-year-old Bryant playing himself in a 1996 episode of the HBO original Arliss. Bryant appears about halfway in Arliss, Season 1, Episode 5, “What About the Fans,” helping Arliss Michaels (Robert Wuhl) brush up on his Italian. He’s described as the youngest player in the NBA and richest 17-year-old in Los Angeles. What happier, simpler times for the legend…

Watch Dear Basketball on Vimeo

Where to stream Kobe Bryant's Muse

Where to stream Kobe Bryant: The Death of a Legend

How to Watch Kobe Bryant's Oscar-Winning 'Dear Basketball' Online

News

Make sure you bring some tissues.

Updated: Jan. 28, 2020

Originally Published: Jan. 28, 2020

Granity Studios

Editor’s note: This story has been updated. A previous version of this story claimed that “Dear Basketball” was streaming free online. That is no longer the case.

The most notable achievement of Kobe Bryant’s tragically brief post-basketball life was Dear Basketball, 2017 animated short that won him an Oscar. Here’s how to watch it online

You can watch the trailer for Dear Basketball here on the website of the production company that made it, Granity Studios.

You can buy a digital streaming version Dear Basketball as part of the 2018 Oscar Nominated Shorts for $7.99 on Amazon Prime.

The short is based on a poem Bryant published in The Players’ Tribune in November of 2015 that doubled as an announcement that he was playing his final NBA season.

It starts with a six-year-old Kobe, already in love with the game, wearing his dad’s tube socks. It ends with the 20-season veteran acknowledging that he’s given everything he has and eager to “savor every moment” of the time he has left.

Bryant served as a producer on the project, and he narrates it himself. Glen Keane, a legendary animator on Disney classics like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, directed the film. Keane led a team of animators who hand-drew every frame, resulting in a distinct, pencil-heavy, mostly monochrome look that suits the film’s dreamy atmosphere, moving as it does effortlessly between child Kobe and adult Kobe. John Williams found time between Star Wars projects to compose the score, which swells at just the right moments.

On its official website, the film is billed as “a passion project” from the three men, but as its writer, subject, and sole cast member, it’s Kobe’s passion that comes through most clearly both in the film and while talking about it.

“I feel better than winning the championship, to be honest with you. I swear I do,” he said to reporters after winning the Oscar. “The hardest thing for athletes to do is when you start over, you really have to quiet the ego and you have to — you have to begin again. You have to be a learner all over again. You have to learn the basics of things. And, you know, that’s really the hardest part.”

Bryant learned exceptionally quickly, and one of the tragedies of his death are the unrealized projects he might have made had he lived longer. Of course, that makes what he did accomplish all the more precious, and Dear Basketball all the more poignant.

This article was originally published on Jan. 28, 2020

Kobe Bryant is a basketball legend. How the world will remember him

On January 26, 2020, basketball legend Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in California. Also on board were his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other people whose names the state authorities decided not to disclose until the completion of official procedures. Bryant was 41 years old. In addition to five NBA championship rings, he also had, for example, an Oscar for a short cartoon about basketball. At the request of Rules of Life, journalist Ekaterina Kulinicheva recalls Bryant's outstanding sports career and tells why what he did after it was no less important. This article was first published in 2020.

Ekaterina Kulinicheva

Rob Carr/Getty Images

Kobe Bryant made it to the NBA straight out of high school, bypassing college basketball, which in itself is a rarity even now, especially in the mid-1990s. He spent 20 seasons in the same team, where, by his own admission, he dreamed of playing since childhood - the Los Angeles Lakers. This is even rarer. Especially since the Lakers are a very demanding team from a very demanding city - the world capital of those who yearn for success in the entertainment industry. Being the top sports star in a place like this isn't easy. But Kobe ended up with such a career, where outstanding figures alone are enough for an entire article. 5 league titles, 18 NBA All-Star Games, 2008 Regular Season Most Valuable Player, 2 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, 4 Most Valuable Player (9)0017 Rules of Life ) All-Star Games, 30,000 points by age 35, 2 Olympic Gold with Team USA. The NBA world is obsessed with statistics, where these numbers mean a lot. To knock out all of Bryant's achievements on the basis of, for example, some kind of figurine or cup, you need a pedestal the size of a good multi-chamber refrigerator.

Although basketball is a team sport, the NBA as a league today is inseparable from the institution of superstars like Michael Jordan, Kobe or LeBron James, who compete in greatness not only with their contemporaries, but with all historical predecessors. It’s not for nothing that the league is so obsessed with statistics that allow you to compare people who never had a chance to meet on the same site. Once, an adult Kobe was asked: “On the court, did you achieve everything that you once wanted in childhood?” The answer was: “No, when I was a child, I wanted eight championship titles. Why just eight? Because Magic (Johnson, Bryant's childhood idol. - Rules of life ) five. And Michael (Jordan) has six.” Sports historian Alain Guttmann wrote for good reason that sports records are the equivalent of immortality available to us. The NBA is well versed in this. And new generations of basketball players will compete in absentia with Kobe for many more years.

But sporting achievements are not the only reason why, the day after the Grammy Awards, most of the world's media had a portrait of Kobe Bryant and texts dedicated to him on the main page. Changes were made to the ceremony program itself: it began with a tribute to the basketball player from Alisha Keys and Boyz II Men. And the words of support for his family — Kobe is survived by his wife and three daughters, the eldest of whom is 17 years old, and the youngest is not even a year old — they consider it necessary to express everything: simple and not very fans, singers, actors, former US President Barack Obama, former opponents in sports, people who crossed paths with him only briefly, but remembered it for the rest of their lives.

Lakers fitness coach Gary Witty recalled that when Bryant was injured in 2013 and Witty told him that the tendon was torn and the game was over, Kobe replied, "Can't you just bandage my leg tighter?" . In addition to the ability to plow like hell in training, which even those who did not like Bryant never denied, and the ability to send the ball into the ring more accurately than others, Kobe had undoubtedly outstanding charisma. And this is an obligatory component of a cocktail called "superstar". It is she who brings fans to the stands and screens, she sells equipment and sneakers.

Bryant, of course, had his signature sneakers, and with two major brands at once. Early in his career, Bryant had a contract with adidas that included a small KB line, which was renamed Kobe in the process. And in 2003, Bryant signed a contract with Nike. This cooperation was fruitful, among other things, low models unusual for big basketball came out. Kobe's name line is not as well known to a wide range of fashionistas as Jordans or Yeezy. But Bryant's shoes are traditionally highly rated among NBA basketball players themselves. Many people still play them today, and after the death of Bryant, many players in Sunday matches changed into his sneakers or added tribute inscriptions to their own shoes.

American basketball megastars of this caliber tend to be peculiar guys. This applied to Bryant in full measure. Real success in big-time sports, even team sports, is rarely achieved by people without a crushing sense of their own exclusivity. With crushing exclusivity and self-confidence, he always had complete order. At the very beginning of his career, Kobe, apparently, on this basis, did not get along with Lakers partner Shaquille O'Neal. So much so that this conflict deserved a separate article on Wikipedia. The story went on for more than one year, and it all ended with Shaq leaving for another team (although then the two stars publicly reconciled).

One of the reasons this story is so popular is its paradoxical nature - despite extremely strained relationships off the court, Shaq and Kobe and the team managed to win three championship titles. Although history knows much more examples when the quarrelsomeness of the stars eventually broke the whole thing.

Perhaps this is also why Kobe was so convincing in the role of inspiration, the role that became his main job after retiring from basketball. His career and life were by no means cloudless, problem-free and ideal (just remember the difficult relationship with his parents or the accusation of sexual harassment, which he was recalled many years later and which, according to rumors, in 2018 cost Bryant an invitation to the American Film Academy) . Of course, he was perceived as a celestial, but his stories that patience and work will grind everything, nevertheless, I want to believe. And Kobe was respected by his colleagues, even those with whom he had something to share. And this, whatever one may say, is an indicator. Shaquille was one of the first to react to the news of Bryant's death with several touching tweets where he calls Kobe "brother".

There have been many outstanding basketball players in the history of the NBA. But Kobe was also an outstanding superstar. And this is a completely independent separate profession, in which he was very good even after the end of his sports career in 2016. You can never say for sure how comfortable a public figure really is to exist in a mode where everyone has an opinion on you, any sneeze is a potential headline, and any transgression of many years ago can put an end to all current undertakings. But Bryant, in every interview, looked like he was born for the job, and he was going to use his cult status in some rather unorthodox ways. For example, he published children's books.

The script is based on a letter or prose poem that Kobe wrote in 2015 as he was about to retire. This is the message of a man who is forced to leave what he loves, perhaps the main passion of his life, because his body can no longer withstand the pressures of big sport. And he must let go of this love, to which, it seems, he has not cooled down at all. And it is also a conversation of an adult successful guy with a child, with a six-year-old himself - and at the same time with all the children who look at Kobe and similar athletes as idols.

youtube

Watch

American athletes of this magnitude often become motivational speakers after their careers—that is, they become people who professionally tell inspiring stories about how to achieve success, mainly to those who are involved in business. Bryant excelled here too.

The career that Kobe chose after retiring from basketball can be more specifically defined as a producer of children's and teen projects, a children's and teen's multi-instrumentalist. In recent years, he has repeatedly emphasized that he sees his main task in talking specifically with children in an attractive and understandable way for them.

youtube

Watch

“I love telling stories. I love inspiring kids, giving them the tools to succeed. There are two main things I can give: information and inspiration. Sharing insider information that I learned from playing at a high level for many years is my way of giving back to basketball and the sport in general. Pass this information on to the next generation."

To tell his stories, Kobe chose the entertainment industry in all the variety of formats it can provide today. In addition to an Oscar-winning short film, he created and released, for example, a fiction podcast about teenage athletes (The Punies) and a series of books. Last fall, the last of them (at the moment) was released under the name "Legacy and the Queen" (Legacy is the name of the main character, a young tennis player): a mix of "Harry Potter" with magic and a school for gifted children, a romance of growing up and a motivational story for young athletes .

"You can sit here and say all kinds of right things like 'you need to be dedicated and work hard.' But if you reveal the same idea through stories, then it goes much deeper,” Bryant explained his interest in modern storytelling practices.

In another interview, he clarified: “The stories that are created at our studio (founded by Bryant Granity Studios. - Rules of Life ) also contain our own parental experience,” Kobe explained in an interview last fall. - In particular, my experience, because young girls are growing up with me and I need to figure out how to convey positive messages to them. After all, they are tired of listening to how Vanessa and I (Bryant's wife. - Rules of life ) we talk about it all the time. Therefore, it is important to put it in a different media form, so that it looks like it does not come from us. This thought is behind most of the ideas of our studio.”

His lessons are, of course, correctly didactic and carry "positive messages", but you cannot call them snotty and overly idealistic. Here is an example that Kobe once shared on Instagram (a social network recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation): “A few years ago, my little mambas (a team of girls that Bryant helped) lost several times. I asked what they plan to do with their trophy they "won" for fourth place in that tournament? They replied, "We'll throw it in the trash can." But I suggested that instead, put this prize in the most prominent place in the room, where it would be the first thing they see in the morning. As a reminder that they will not have such "victories" again. We will win something and lose something, but we will continue to do our job right. Cry about it or be about it0017 Rules of life ). They chose the latter."

“Sport is a very emotional thing. In our world, emotions are how we create our magic." Kobe Bryant knew what he was talking about and knew how to create this magic of emotions not only on the court. The texts dedicated to him, the avalanche of which has now covered the Internet, are also largely about emotions. One of the main things behind most of these texts is not only the bitterness of loss. But also sadness that his current career as a public figure and a father who talks about his own experience of raising daughters and releases stories to help other children and parents ended so early. And we won't see everything he wanted to tell.

"Heroes come and go, but legends live forever." Kobe Bryant's Rules of Life

I love basketball too much. This is a part of me. I have been doing it since two years. This is I

Kobi Bryant

Photo © 24smi.org

Heroes come and go, and legends live forever

Kobi Brian