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11 months ago
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The LA Dodgers won over Shohei Ohtani by showing him a six-year-old video of Kobe Bryant urging him to sign for the team, according to reports.
Ohtani was officially unveiled as a Dodgers player on Thursday after putting pen to paper on a record $700million contract last week to move across LA from the Angels.
The Dodgers managed to beat a number of MLB rivals to his signature, including the Toronto Blue Jays and the San Francisco Giants.
Yet while the unprecedented financial package undoubtedly played a part, ESPN claims Ohtani was also swayed by his former LA rivals after being shown an old video of late basketball legend Bryant making a passionate pitch for him to join the Dodgers.
Kobe, who was tragically killed in a helicopter crash back in January 2020, filmed the video back in 2017 when the two-way baseball sensation was still playing in home country Japan with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
The LA Dodgers reportedly won over Shohei Ohtani by showing him a six-year-old video of Kobe Bryant urging him to sign for the team
Ohtani was officially unveiled as a Dodgers player on Thursday after putting pen to paper on a record $700million contract
The two-way sensation was reportedly swayed by an old video of Lakers legend Bryant, who died in 2020, making a passionate pitch for him to join the Dodgers back in 2017
The former LA Lakers player is believed to have addressed him directly and told him 'there's no better team in baseball to win with' as he weighed up which MLB organization to join.
Ohtani is quoted as saying by ESPN that the 'strong and touching message' was 'the highlight of the whole meeting' - convincing him to pen the lucrative contract with the Dodgers.
After pulling on Dodger blue for the first time on Thursday, Ohtani shared his reasons for picking them out of a long list of suitors, detailing that their desire to win was a huge contributing factor.
'I think the most important thing is we all have to be on the same page, we all want to win,' he said. 'And I think this team has that.'
It was revealed earlier this week that the 29-year-old will defer $680m of his $700m contract only picking up the majority of his money a decade from now.
'I was aware of the deferral structure and usually when there's a big contract in MLB, I've hear they're involved,' Ohtani said. 'I looked into it and did some calculations.'
Ohtani spoke through his friend and interpreter during his first press conference as a Dodger
'If I can defer as much money as a I can to help the Dodgers sign better players and make a better team, that’s why I made that choice,' Ohtani added.
At the press conference, Ohtani confirmed that he had undergone a second procedure on his elbow, but insisted it was 'different' to the first Tommy John surgery he had.
'I saw the doctor first and we had to go through a lot of steps and decide what surgery I was going to get,' Ohtani said. 'At the time of the announcement we didn’t know. That’s why I didn’t announce it.'
English (US)