Lakers fans uncover 'proof' that Austin Reaves is Kobe Bryant reincarnated originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Los Angeles Lakers keep on winning -- and it is in large part due to the efforts of their dynamic scoring duo.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNo, not Luka Doncic and LeBron James.
Doncic and Austin Reaves combined for 67 points on Sunday night as the Lakers defeated the New Orleans Pelicans to improve to 15-4 on the season. The Lakers' 133-121 victory at Crypto.com Arena pushed their win streak to seven games -- and though Los Angeles remains four games behind the top-seededOklahoma City Thunder, the lethal Reaves-Doncic duo is taking the NBA by storm.
Bryant and Reaves have had similar progressions
Reaves' evolution in his fifth NBA season has been a major win for the Lakers and head coach JJ Redick's player development program.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementReaves scored 33 points on only 15 shots against the Pelicans. The former undrafted free agent took his season average to 28.8 points per game -- and prompted fan comparisons to the trajectory on which the late Kobe Bryant once found himself.
In his fifth season, back in 2000-01, Bryant averaged 28.5 points per game as the Lakers finished with the NBA's best record and won a second successive championship. It came after Bryant averaged 22.5 points in his fourth season, 19.9 points in his third season, 15.4 points in his second year and 7.6 points as a rookie primarily coming off the bench.
Reaves' progression -- from 7.3 points per game in 2021/22 to nearly quadrupling that figure four years later -- has been eerily similar, as a Lakers fan pointed out on X.
"Kobe had his 81 point game at (Reaves') age," one fan wrote, deepening the connection between the guards.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"(LeBron James) is so good he turned an undrafted player from Whoville into Kobe," another fan wrote.
"Lakers gotta sign him to the max," said another. "They can't lose him unless they can get another Luka level player."
Reaves' pending free agency is a major story in Lakerland. But if the 27-year-old keeps playing like Kobe, the Lakers won't have a choice but to offer him the big bucks next summer.
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