A phone conversation we shared on Oct. 1, 2018 — snippets of which appeared in my “Landing LeBron” story but were not as detailed as what I’m about to share below — brought me to this view. There are some people within the league who disagree, and that’s fine, but Kobe’s influence on both Lakers owner Jeanie Buss and general manager/Kobe confidante Rob Pelinka was absolutely essential to the creation of this current team.