Dear Basketball is a 2017 animated short film (6 minutes) directed by Glen Keane, written and narrated by Kobe Bryant
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Yes, that Kobe Bryant, the all-time basketball great, the 20-year NBA veteran. The origin of the short was a 2015 poem that Bryant wrote at the start of his 20th and last season with the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant's poem was essentially a love letter to the sport, describing his love for basketball since he was a little boy shooting balled-up socks into trash cans, and his melancholy as he faced his last season as a professional athlete.
And if Kobe Bryant wasn't famous enough, John Williams composed the music.
Tropes:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Most of the short is in the style of pencil-drawn 2-D animation, but the shot of Kobe's skeleton, as he discusses the injury and aging leading to his retirement, is CGI.
- Animated Adaptation: Of a poem.
- Bittersweet Ending: Kobe's poem is a farewell to his love of basketball.
- Book-Ends: The beginning and end has Kobe making a winning shot with the net rising upwards.
- Fade to White: The cartoon fades out into white as Kobe walks off the court for the (symbolic) last time.
- Narrator: Kobe Bryant reads his poem.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: Kobe walking down the tunnel to the locker room.
- Orbital Shot: Around Kobe as a small boy on his bed, as he discovers the joys of basketball.
- Sports Stories: A pretty uncommon animated short version of a sports story.
- Stock Footage: Stock audio footage consisting of audio clips from Lakers games.
