I also don't put much stock in this narrative that the Lakers are "going to win one for Kobe."
You know how many of the current Laker players actually played with Kobe?
ZERO. He was a guy that occasionally went to games and hung around the Staples Center.
Most of these Laker players are just basketball mercenaries. LeBron and AD aren't playing for the Lakers as much as they are for a grown-up AAU team they put together that allows LeBron to do Hollywood stuff. The "real" Lakers are Kobe, Magic Johnson, James Worthy, and to a lesser extent Kareem. Not the guys that parachute in to win rings (Shaq).
The upper management is obviously very close to him, but it's not like he was best buddies with LeBron, Anthony Davis, etc. He wasn't particular close to his teammates when he played either. Obviously, Shaq and him couldn't stand each other. If they could have gotten along, they'd have probably approached Bill Russell type title numbers as they were probably two of the top 5 players in the league for the better part of a decade. Kobe throwing Shaq under the bus when he was arrested was a typical move for him.
Complicated guy to say the least. Michael Jordan was the same way.