One of the biggest ‘what-ifs?’ in NBA history is about the 2011 trade that would have sent Chris Paul to become Kobe Bryant’s co-star on the Lakers.
David Stern ended up vetoing the trade as the league controlled Paul’s New Orleans Hornets, dealing CP3 to the Clippers instead. Gilbert Arenas revealed the Lakers’ grand plan at the time and how he could’ve also been a part of that infamous trade.
“Chris Paul is being traded for Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, on the back end you have Dwight Howard being negotiated for Bynum. They’re trying to figure out whether to amnesty me or force the Lakers to take my contract with Dwight Howard. We (Magic) cleared out the whole cap space. What ends up happening is when they made the first part of the deal, Mark Cuban saw this and saw that if they have Chris Paul going and you made the Dwight trade, they amnesty me, what is left over is $24 million. So you have, Kobe, Chris Paul, and Dwight, with an extra $24 million. At that time, you could have signed two max players starting them off at 12. We are talking about LeBron James and Bosh, we’re talking about Dwyane Wade and Amare.”
Gilbert Arenas goes deeper into the Cp3 Lakers trade, and how nasty the Lakers were REALLY trying to get pic.twitter.com/rS2waDtkLE
— Dom2K 🎅🎇 (@Dom_2k) March 15, 2023
The max contract for players in 2011-12 was $16.4 million, so two motivated superstars could have easily taken a pay cut to join the Lakers and play on one of the greatest starting fives ever assembled.
LeBron, Wade, and Bosh hadn’t even won their first championship as a group in Miami just yet, but there were plenty of other stars that would’ve salivated at the chance of playing on a team like this.
How Would Kobe Bryant’s Legacy Be Affected By These Moves?
By the time these trades are being discussed, Bryant’s championship prime was over. His Lakers’ couldn’t compete with the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 Playoffs, prompting the front office to bring in reinforcements. The Lakers surely would’ve continued competing at a high level.
If the Howard trade went through, it’d be optimistic to envision a different outcome from what we saw when Dwight eventually joined LA. Injuries would be hard to predict, but on paper, this team would’ve been in perennial contention based on CP3’s productivity in that era alone.
Kobe having the same amount of rings as Michael Jordan would have been a great story. Sadly, it didn’t end up happening. Bryant still retired as arguably a top-5 player in league history, so there is no point in lamenting what didn’t happen. Instead, we should appreciate the 20-year body of work that Kobe left behind on the Lakers.
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