The Los Angeles Lakers had arguably the greatest offseason in NBA history in 1996, as they signed Shaquille O’Neal in free agency and acquired the draft rights to Kobe Bryant. Jerry West was the one who pulled off those moves but the then-Lakers GM admits he didn’t think it was possible to land both Hall of Famers.
“I didn’t think there was any way that we could get Kobe Bryant along with Shaquille O’Neal,” West said on the JAXXON podcast. “But you have to have a wishlist in life, and if you’re competitive, you’re going to try to go out there and achieve that. And so all of a sudden, I was talking to Jerry Buss all that time, who was the owner of the Lakers, and I said, ‘Jerry, we have to make this trade.'”
The Lakers had to trade their starting center in Vlade Divac to free up cap space to give O’Neal, who was the big prize, the kind of deal he wanted. It was a risk, as the star big man could have still rejected them later, but West had a backup in mind in case that happened.
“And I said starting center and I said if we don’t get Shaquille O’Neal, Mutombo was out there who is a very good defensive player and so he was our fallback guy,” West continued.
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Lakers owner Jerry Buss gave West the green light to make the trade and he sent Divac to the Hornets to get the draft rights to Bryant. West revealed he tried to trade the big man for the first pick of the draft and kept going down until he got the Hornets to agree to trade the 13th pick for him.
Freeing up that cap space allowed the Lakers to offer O’Neal a massive seven-year, $120 million deal. He accepted and in the span of a couple of weeks. West had landed two of the greatest players in NBA history.
O’Neal and Bryant would go on to lead the Lakers to a historic three-peat from 2000 to 2002. LA dominated the NBA and it was all thanks to West just going out there and getting it done.
You wonder how different NBA history would have been had he not pulled it off. I think the San Antonio Spurs might have gone down as the greatest dynasty in NBA history, as those Lakers eliminated them from the playoffs thrice in a four-year span from 2001 to 2004.
Shaquille O’Neal Shared Jerry West’s Recruiting Pitch In 1996
While West pulled off that trade for Bryant, he still had to convince O’Neal to join the team. As for how he did it, O’Neal himself revealed what West told him when recruiting him to the Lakers in 1996.
“When I was leaving Orlando, he brought me here and told me the truth. I would have a young team and a guy named Kobe. That guy’s going to be good but in a couple of years you’re going to have championships.”
No one could have imagined at the time that Bryant would go on to be an all-time great, but O’Neal trusted West’s words. It proved to be the right decision, and in a few years, he got the championships that West had told him.
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