This is Rob Pelinka’s dream job.



Let’s just start there.



Long before Kobe Bryant’s former-agent-turned-Lakers-general-manager was hired by owner Jeanie Buss in February 2017, and even longer before Magic Johnson’s stunning Staples Center exit on April 9 that inspired the latest round of disarray and yet another coaching search, Pelinka was playing a familiar what-if game with Bryant in his Newport Beach backyard.



This was just seven seasons into Kobe’s career, with three titles already won and two more to come in the post-Shaquille O’Neal era, which would begin soon thereafter. And Pelinka, who was still working under then-super agent Arn Tellem and would later take Bryant with him after founding his agency, already had his eyes on this purple-and-gold prize.



“We had a pipe dream in 2003,” Bryant told The Athletic back in October. “We sat back, and we used to do these exercises where you’d...