The retirement of Kobe Bryant has left a vacancy in the Los Angeles Lakers’ locker room. That vacancy will be filled — literally — by the team’s first-round pick, Brandon Ingram, who now sits where Bryant sat for the past two decades.
While taking Kobe’s locker may bring a good deal of pressure, it’s something that Ingram is wholeheartedly embracing.
Brandon Ingram is taking Kobe's former locker: "I like the pressure of that."
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) July 5, 2016
While Ingram should certainly be careful what he wishes for, this kind of confidence is what the Lakers should be looking for.
Anyone drafted No. 2 overall needs to be a franchise player. Try as hard as you want, you will not find a single franchise player in NBA history that wasn’t confident, or even cocky.
Additionally, the pressure of taking Bryant’s spot in the locker room pales in comparison to being the No. 2 pick, going to one of the NBA’s glamour franchises. If Ingram can handle that pressure, the pressure of literally taking Kobe’s spot shouldn’t be that big of a problem.