Kobe Bryant will retire after this season having played his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers, but a report from ESPN’s Brian Windhorst suggests that in an alternate universe he could be winding down his career as a Bull or a Piston or even a Cavalier.
Windhorst reports that the Lakers agreed to a deal with the Pistons that would have sent Tayshaun Prince, Richard Hamilton, and others to Los Angeles, but Kobe vetoed the trade, saying he would only go to Phoenix, San Antonio or Chicago. But when general manager Mitch Kupchak worked out a deal with the Bulls that included Luol Deng, Kobe again balked because he feared losing Deng would deplete the Bulls.
Kupchak also reportedly placed a call to the Cavaliers, asking for the one player whom no one would exchange even for Bryant, who was then the best player in the league: LeBron James.
Via ESPN:
According to multiple sources, as the Lakers went through their options, a call was placed to the Cavs. The intent of the call, sources said, was clear: Would the Cavs make James available in a potential deal for Bryant?
Those who worked in Cleveland’s front office remember it for one reason: It was the only time a team ever called to make an offer for James. He was considered the ultimate untouchable. Frankly, until that time, so was Bryant.
[…]
The Cavs said that James, indeed, was untouchable, sources said. Then they attempted to make the Lakers a different offer for Bryant, offering anyone else on their team in a package for him. The Lakers had no interest.
It makes sense the Lakers would kick the tires on LeBron because why not? The most interesting aspect of this is that was apparently the only time anyone ever asked for LeBron in a trade.
As it turns out, even if the Cavs had agreed to trade LeBron for Kobe, Kobe would have said no.
For Bryant, who had a no-trade clause in his contract, the answer was simple.
“I never would’ve approved it. Never. The trade to go to Cleveland? Never,” Bryant told [ESPN’s Baxter] Holmes. “That wasn’t one of the teams that was on my list. It was Chicago, San Antonio [or] Phoenix.”
All this drama came back when Kobe was at his peak but the Lakers were middling at best, having missed the playoffs in 2005 and losing in the first round in both ’06 and ’07. L.A. was trotting out Smush Parker and Chris Mihm, and Bryant, 28 years old at the time, was not happy with it.
Bryant was under contract for two more seasons, but he was frustrated with the Lakers after three consecutive subpar seasons following the Shaquille O’Neal trade.
“At that time, the Lakers had to do something. I was just losing faith in what they were trying to do. It was like I was a meal ticket,” Bryant told ESPN’s Baxter Holmes this week. “You come out and score 40, 50 points, fill the seats, we’re going to keep the payroll at a minimum, generate revenue. It’s like, look, listen, I am not with that, dude. I have to win without Shaq. I’ve got to do it. We’ve got to do something.”
After the Lakers failed to trade Kobe, they instead traded for Pau Gasol and proceeded to win back-to-back championships with a core of Kobe, Gasol, Lamar Odom, and Andrew Bynum. So yeah, it worked out a little bit better than Rip Hamilton or Luol Deng probably would have.
Windhorst’s article comes on the occasion of LeBron and Kobe’s penultimate game against each other. These two are arguably the two best players of the 21st century (though Tim Duncan might object), but their rivalry never really took off like it could have. Bryant and James never faced each other in the NBA Finals, and the only sense in which they were really rivals was that for a few years, people argued over which of them was better.
[ESPN]
