Roland Lazenby: He maintained that fierceness and put a lot of pressure on those Lakers veterans as a rookie. He was a nightmare in practice and wouldn’t make things easy for any of them. They viewed him as a kid and they knew he had the big adidas contract, so he was in a different standard. Rick Fox explained to me that the way they viewed him was like the kid who cut in line at the cafeteria. But he won them over. When he was young and frustrated in the ‘90s, I had the password to his hotel room, so I could call him or visit with him and we’d have these long talks. Or I’d see him at the Lakers game and we’d talk. Kobe was a lost guy in those early years with the Lakers. It was sad, and that was when we really talked a lot. That’s why I introduced him to George Mumford. I had George fly down to Houston, so I could introduce him to Kobe courtside. We’re mourning Kobe right now, but I don’t have a tightly packaged narrative about his life.