There's a report going viral right now suggesting Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant will be joining the Big3 next season, but we have to pump the breaks on all the speculation. It all started when Brandon Robinson tweeted, "Kobe Bryant will play in @thebig3 next season according to Big 3 co-founder Jeff Kwatinetz while speaking on the league's weekly conference call."
However, the BIG3’s PR firm provided audio of the conference call to Yahoo Sports, which clarified that Kwatinetz “didn’t say it was happening,” he said “he heard it from a credible source." According to Yahoo Sports' Ben Rohrbach, the actual responses from Ice Cube and co-founder Jeff Kwatinetz to a question regarding Kobe's interest in the BIG3 interest, are as follows:
Cube: “We have a list of people that we would love to see, I think the fans would love to see. The fans would love to see Kobe, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce. Anybody who still has the passion to play. We don’t want you if you don’t have the passion to play. If Kobe doesn’t have the passion to play at this level, then it’s better for him to watch on tv. If he has the passion, then here we are.”
Kwatinetz: “I did hear from a credible source that Kobe is going to be playing next year. That’s something, but it may be nothing.”
Cube: “That would be amazing.”
Furthermore, Brian Mahoney, an NBA writer for The Associated Press, says that Molly Carter, chief marketing officer of Kobe Inc., says the Black Mamba "definitely is not playing next year."