Over the years, we have seen many teams mess up in the NBA Draft and these mistakes have often come back to haunt them in the future. The Golden State Warriors have usually been correct when it comes to making good choices in the NBA Draft.
In fact, they have been helped by other franchises by not drafting the core members of their team. Yes, we are talking about when the Minnesota Timberwolves passed up on Steph Curry twice in the 2009 NBA Draft.
But back during the 1996 NBA Draft, a draft class featuring the likes of Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Ray Allen, and Allen Iverson, the Dubs messed up big time. It goes without saying that Bryant turned out to be the best player in the draft class.
However, NBA teams had their doubts about Bryant because he was just 17 years old at the time. So drafting Kobe at the time was a high-risk, high-reward type of situation.
Anyway, the then-Warriors GM Dave Twardzik did not draft Kobe Bryant because he believed that the future NBA Hall of Famer wasn’t ready to play in the NBA and should try going to college instead. As a result, he decided to draft Todd Fuller ahead of Kobe.
This Day In 1996: Warriors take Todd Fuller 2 picks ahead of Kobe.
Golden State Warriors GM Dave Twardzik on Kobe: “He should go to college. He's not ready."
Fuller’s career: 225 games, 3.7 ppg.
Kobe goes on to become 1 of the greatest.
Twardzik fired before ‘97 Draft. pic.twitter.com/BIqnUU43p2
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) June 26, 2022
This Day In 1996: Warriors take Todd Fuller 2 picks ahead of Kobe.
Golden State Warriors GM Dave Twardzik on Kobe: “He should go to college. He’s not ready.”
Fuller’s career: 225 games, 3.7 ppg.
Kobe goes on to become 1 of the greatest.
Twardzik fired before ‘97 Draft.
The decision by Twardzik ended up costing him his job before next year’s NBA Draft. After all, he chose a player who was out of the league after just five seasons and didn’t even average 5 points per game during any of those seasons.
On the other hand, Kobe spent 20 seasons in the NBA. And during his long career, he won a lot of accolades, including five NBA Championships with the Los Angeles Lakers.
But the Warriors weren’t the only team who passed on Kobe in the 1996 NBA Draft for a ridiculous reason. The Los Angeles Clippers didn’t draft Bryant because the management believed that the city of Angeles wouldn’t take the franchise seriously if they drafted a 17-year-old kid.
Well, after the Charlotte Hornets picked Kobe with the 13th overall pick in the NBA Draft, the Lakers traded for him. And as it turns out the city of Angeles loved the 17-year-old kid and he went on to become one of the best players to ever play in the league.
