Chadwick Boseman and Kobe Bryant’s last conversation is haunting

From the United States’ unprecedented number of coronavirus deaths to the unjust police killings of unarmed Black people, 2020 has certainly been a tough year all around. And, with numerous unexpected deaths throughout the entertainment industry, Hollywood hasn’t emerged unscathed. In February, Love Island star Caroline Flack took her own life, and in July, former Glee star Naya Rivera drowned while boating with her 4-year-old son. Unfortunately, the list goes on and on.

But it was the death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant in January 2020 that first shook the public to its core. Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven other passengers were killed when their helicopter crashed in the hills of Calabasas, Calif. Now, months later, the Black community has lost another icon, Black Panther‘s Chadwick Boseman. Boseman succumbed to his years-long battle with colon cancer on Aug. 28, 2020, but the awarding-winning actor never spoke of his illness publicly and continued to work despite the pain, making the loss especially shocking and painful for movie-goers across the globe.

In the wake of his death, fans began to revisit Boseman’s old interviews. One particularly haunting story that came to light was an exchange between Boseman and Bryant, who seemed to have little in common besides their celebrity. However, their final conversation paints a haunting picture of two irreplaceable talents gone too soon.

Chadwick Boseman and Kobe Bryant wanted to work together

While he’s best known for his time with the L.A. Lakers, basketball player Kobe Bryant was also a gifted artist. Bryant was so talented, in fact, that his film Dear Basketball earned the 2018 Oscar for Best Animated Short. It was at an after-party that night that Bryant and actor Chadwick Boseman got to talking. 

On HBO’s The Shop: Uninterrupted, a talk show executive-produced by LeBron James, Boseman opened up about his final conversation with Bryant. “He’s not somebody that I was best friends with or that I knew really well. But the crazy thing is that, in those four conversations, it felt like somebody that I knew really well,” the Black Panther star explained (via BET).

“It was crazy because we were sitting in the party talking about philosophy and poetry,” Boseman continued. “He was like, ‘This is what I’m into right now as an artist, not as a basketball player.’ We started talking about it, I’m like ‘Yo, we should do something together.'”

Boseman added that when he asked Bryant when he’d like to start working on a project together, Bryant said in two years. Sadly, they never got the chance, as both men passed away in 2020, the proposed year of their collaboration. Now we’re left to guess what they might have made together. But, if their track records are any indication, it’s safe to say it would have been something great.

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