The Boston Celtics had been a franchise mired in mediocrity after their glory days in the 1980s but all that changed in 2007 with two blockbuster moves. The Celtics, in what has to go down as one of the greatest offseasons ever, managed to trade for All-Stars Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, to instantly transform them into title favorites.
They teamed up with Paul Pierce to form a Big 3 that would dominate the NBA in the 2007-08 season, but things could have turned out quite differently. Garnett, who recently revealed his top 5 power forwards of all time, was a sought-after commodity during that offseason as teams lined up in the hope of acquiring arguably the best power forward in the game and one of those teams was the Lakers.
Kevin Garnett Reveals Kobe Bryant’s Reaction After He Decided To Join The Boston Celtics
The Lakers were even one of the teams that Garnett ended up shortlisting, and he was keen on making the move. He wanted to play with Kobe Bryant, but Garnett revealed on the BetMGM Unleashed podcast that Bryant’s unresponsiveness led to him making the decision to join the Celtics.
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“Then it was down to Boston and L.A. and I wanted to talk to Kobe and I think he was in China at the time, doing for something like Nike or on his tour or something. I had to make some decisions, so I just put a couple of calls into him. I just gave him my respects, he was on his schedule. So then when I couldn’t actually get in contact with him and it was just taking so long to be able to have a conversation with him, I had to make a decision. So I looked at it like it was a bigger and probably longevity play with Boston and I had to make the decision. But yeah, I wanted to play with Kobe.”
“The first time we played each other after I had got to Boston, I think it was either Christmas or something, and he’s like, ‘Man, why you ain’t call me?’. And I was like, ‘Man, I don’t wanna hear that sh**.’ He kinda see my face, I’m like this on the free-throw line, I don’t wanna hear that sh**, man. He’s like, “man, what number you called?” I was like, “Man, stop. You got me. You saw my messages, your bodyguard, your security, they told you. I know they did it.'” Kobe then replied, “‘Man, I was in China man. Man, hold on.’ He wanted to have the conversation right there and I was like, ‘Hey, it’s over.'” Kobe then added, “‘Man! You didn’t want to come to L.A.’ Yes I did. How you gonna tell me what I wanted, man? I tried, I chased you dog. What do you want me to do man? Want me to come to China?”
If only he had responded! You can only wonder how differently things would have panned out if Garnett had ended up on the Lakers. They would have been the favorites over Boston for the title that season and potentially could have three-peated, as Kobe ended up winning back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010 with Pau Gasol.
Garnett was obviously better than Pau, and it has to go down as one of the bigger what-ifs in NBA history. KG also once recounted his first meeting with Kobe in his locker room, and it would have been a sight to behold if these two had teamed up.
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