Kobe Bryant is the greatest Los Angeles Laker of all time. Kobe entered the league in 1996 when the Lakers traded for his draft rights. The idea was to combine the young 17-year-old with Shaquille O’Neal and hope for championship success. Kobe was initially going to go to the Charlotte Hornets, but the Lakers pulled off a trade to bring him into their team. The move paid off within two years, as Kobe elevated to All-Star level. And by 2000, the Lakers won the NBA championship – the first of their three consecutive titles till 2002. It was clear that the Kobe-Shaq duo was a success.
But personal issues between the two led to them falling out and Shaq eventually demanding a trade and joining the Miami Heat. Between 2004 to 2007, Kobe was the best player on an underperforming Lakers team. He publically demanded a trade, but the Lakers provided him yet another All-Star in Pau Gasol as they pursued another championship.
After Gasol’s arrival, the Lakers went to three consecutive NBA Finals, winning two consecutive titles in 2009 and 2010. Kobe was named Finals MVP in both those series to go along with a regular-season MVP title he won in 2008. Bryant’s later career was stunted because of injuries. He eventually retired in 2016, going down as the greatest player to don the purple and gold of the Lakers.
But Kobe was close to being part of the Lakers’ cross-town rivals, the LA Clippers. The Clippers invited Kobe Bryant for a workout before the NBA Draft. Bryant was a 17-year-old high school standout at the time, who was making the jump directly to the NBA. Kobe recalled the story in an interview years later and revealed that his workout with the Clippers went very well.
“I actually had a really good and fun workout with the Clippers. I did. I had a really good workout with the Clippers. And then they told me, ‘this is the best workout we’ve ever seen. So I’m excited, let me come to LA. So I said ‘alright, you’re going to draft me?’ – No…So I asked them why wouldn’t they draft me? They said ‘well, we want to turn things around with our organization. And we felt like if we drafted a 17 -year-old kid, then the city of Los Angeles wouldn’t take it seriously. So they said we can’t draft you.”
The Clippers also told him that he had the best workout with them in franchise history. When Kobe asked the Clippers whether they would draft him, they said they couldn’t do that because the Clippers were looking to immediately improve their team, and their fans would not accept Kobe as their draft pick.
It all worked out in the end for Kobe, as he played his entire career in LA, but for the Lakers. To play for such a historically successful franchise, and become their greatest player ever, Kobe found the greatest success possible. As for the Clippers, this became yet another story where they made the wrong decision with regards to building a team. The combination of these poor decisions has led to their continued lack of success, as they have never even reached an NBA Finals. One can’t help but wonder what the Clippers would have been like if they had drafted Kobe with their pick.
