John Kallipari met Bryant in the Lakers' locker room, and the veteran, who has entered the final year of his career, is doing a recovery at the training table. Kalipari, a famous coach at the University of Kentucky, became the nets' head coach in 1996, and coincidentally, Bryant also entered the league directly as a high school graduate that same year.
In the 1996 draft, the Nets had the eighth pick, and there was news that they might choose Kobe Bryant, and if this was true, then Kobe would be the second player to be selected as a high school student since 1975, but we all know what happened in the end, under the planning of then Lakers general manager Jerry West, Kobe Became a member of the Lakers, and the Nets chose Kyrie Kitters.
Kallipari said: "Kobe was in the dressing room and I saw him. Bryant and I joked, 'Dude, if you had chosen me, you'd still be working in the league.' ’”
In fact, at that time, Calipali wanted to choose Kobe, they tried Kobe Bryant three times, Kalipari knew that the 18-year-old boy would become the league's rising star, but the draft was not so simple, not that they wrote Kobe's name on the card and handed it to the commissioner to announce that it was over.
In the end, they gave up on Kobe Bryant, and 11 teams made the same choice as the Nets, and West made a trade, sending away the team's important center Vlad Divac in exchange for the Hornets to sign Kobe Bryant with the No. 13, and the later events also proved that this is one of the most successful trades in Lakers history, perhaps not one.
Recalling the scene, West said: "To be honest, I don't think he could have dropped the 13th pick. But that's what happened, and when we learned that none of the first 12 teams had chosen him, we went crazy with joy. ”
The Nets originally wanted to take down Kobe Bryant, but due to the shareholder-based team structure, Calipari and general manager John Nash were under tremendous pressure, which made their plan to choose Kobe Bryant finally come to naught.
At the overcrowded press conference, Bryant announced that he would skip his college career and go straight into the league, which shocked everyone, including Kobe's coach at the time, Greg Donner.
Bryant is going to play in the 1996 NBA Draft, one of the most famous in the history of the league, with a large number of outstanding players including Aaron Iverson, Stephen Marbury, Ray Allen, Steve Nash and Peja Stojakovic.
Bryant's decision sparked a huge controversy, and everyone was discussing whether he was already qualified to play in the NBA, many people thought he had the ability, and many people thought he lacked experience.
In West's view, Bryant is ready to base himself in the NBA. The Lakers tried to train Kobe Bryant twice, and the second time the team arranged for him to play one-on-one with the Lakers' former star guard Michael Cooper.
After 10 minutes of confrontation, West realized the Lakers needed the 18-year-old. "Kobe Bryant has excellent physical talent and is also very technical," he said. Most importantly, he loves the sport, which is very rare. I said to his agent, Arne Treme, that this guy was going to be in the top three picks. ”
While West wants to bring Bryant to the Lakers, they only have the No. 24 pick in the draft, so West needs to do some operations to achieve his vision.
As the draft began, Nets general manager Nash and Calipaly hosted Kobe's parents— Joe Bryant and Pam Bryant— at a dinner party at a New Jersey hotel. The two were also told that their son would be selected by the Nets with the eighth pick.
Nash said: "We were discussing expectations about Bryant's career and Joe thought Bryant would be in the All-Star in his second season. While both Nash and Calipari tend to choose Kobe, they feel Joe's point is still a bit too high.
Both Nash and Calipali wanted to choose Kobe, and they were convinced that Kobe and his family would enjoy staying in New Jersey. But that wasn't the case, and Trome told West that Bryant's family wanted him to stay away from home and that he might not be able to concentrate on playing if he stayed in the East.
The Nets' plan to pick Bryant changed as draft day approached, and they had some concerns about Bryant. The Nets had seven bosses at the time, and Joe Taub, who oversees basketball operations, was one of them, and he didn't really want the team to choose Kobe. Nash said: "I understand What Taub is worried about, after selecting Kobe Bryant we will take the time and effort to develop him and make him a good player.
But after becoming a free agent, he may choose to leave the team. This kind of thing happens a lot with the Nets, and people will feel that he is not suitable to stay here all the time. Taub's concerns are not unreasonable, and the Nets do happen to this situation often.
They drafted Kenny Anderson in the 1991 draft, but after Anderson announced that he was going to test the player market as a free agent, the Nets had to trade him to the Hornets in 1995-96; the Nets selected Derek Coleman in the 1990 draft, and the team signed him to a five-year extension before the 1994-95 season, but Coleman made a trade request in the fall of the following year. The reason is that the Nets lack the competitiveness to win the championship, and he wants to go to a championship team.
Because of these circumstances, Taub does not want the team to repeat the same mistakes on Kobe, and he advocates that the team choose John Wallace, a forward player from Syracuse. But Nash and Calipari disagree, arguing that Wallace doesn't have the ability to be stars.
Kallipari said: "The team owners said to me, 'Hey, why did we choose Kobe, he's just a high school student.' They didn't want me to do that. ”
At that time, Calipari had just been hired by Taub to become the head coach of the Nets, and in order to maintain a business relationship with the team's management, Kalipari gave up the idea of preferring Kobe. After eliminating Kobe's option, Calipari and Nash intend to choose Kiters, the star player of Villanova University, who did become an important scorer for the Nets, but unfortunately suffered a knee injury.
Kallipari said: "Kobe bryant is the guy we need, but he may take five years to grow and Kittles will be better than him in the first three years. ”
It was draft day, and at 2:30 p.m., Trem informed Calipari and Nash of a message: Kobe's family no longer wanted him to play for the Nets. Trem said: "I tried to inform them of this in a professional manner. ”
The incident surprised the two, Nash made several phone calls to find out what was going on, and Kalipari said: "I asked David Pendergraaf, the HR director in New Jersey, and he said' Kobe bryant has reached an agreement with the others. ’”
Trême and West have a good relationship, and after Kobe Bryant's trial for the Lakers, West and Trëme said the lad could become the best player in NBA history.
In order to get Kobe, West was always looking for a partner to work with, and he often communicated with Trem, and eventually, West found someone in Charlotte who was willing to work with him- Bob Bass, then the general manager of the Hornets.
Trem said: "I got assurances from West and Buzz that they were both willing to make the deal, and after that I contacted the Nets. While Buzz was willing to cooperate, West still couldn't believe Bryant would drop to the 13th pick, and in his opinion, the lad deserved the top three picks.
In order to increase the likelihood of getting Kobe, West began to approach the teams with the 3-13 signings and discussed with them the possibility of a Divac deal. But unlike West, Traeme wasn't surprised by Kobe's slip-off in the draft, saying: "They didn't have the guts to choose Kobe. ”
Tony Di Leo was working in the Personnel Department of the 76ers at the time, and now he is the director of the Personnel Department of the Wizards University. Di leo and West are in agreement, and they both agree that Kobe Bryant is a very good player.
In September 1995, Bryant competed with the 76ers, and Delio was also on the sidelines. He was so impressed by Bryant's confidence on the court that kobe bred a one-on-one match with Jerry Starkhouse in 1995, a very intense head-to-head game that was so intense that then-76ers coach John Lucas had to abort the game. Di leo also watched several of Bryant's high school games, and in order to try him out, Delio also made some preparations.
In Di leo's view, Bryant will undoubtedly become a superstar in the league in the future, and his views have proved accurate. Dillion made two suggestions to Brad Greenberg, then the general manager of the 76ers, one of which was to remove Bryant with a champion, but this approach was too risky for Greenberg to agree with. Aside from Kobe Bryant, only Garnett went straight into the league as a high school student in 20 years, and he was drafted by the Timberwolves in 1995 with the number five pick, compared to Bryant, Garnett was a big player, and in that era, he also had greater appeal.
West said: "At that time everyone wanted big players. Di leo said: "Everyone thinks that big is the key to winning the game, and everyone doesn't know what the change of rules means." Dillion's second suggestion was to keep the pick, trade 1995's Starkhouse for a lottery pick, and then use that pick to select Kobe. The idea didn't take shape in the end, and Bryant and Iverson missed the chance to join forces.
"I talked to Greenberg about that and he wasn't satisfied with the proposal I came up with, it was his first time as general manager, so he wanted to proceed cautiously and I understand his decision," Di leo said. Before the draft began, Calipari announced the team's decision at a dinner party in the Nets locker room, they would first consider choosing Kitters, but if Kitters was chosen and Kobe Bryant was still not selected when it was their turn, then the team would choose Kobe.
According to Calipari's recollection, after the Clippers drafted Lorrensen Wright with the No. 7 pick, cheers were heard from the other side of the team's conference room wall, And Kiters will be selected by the Nets, and the team owners are happy about it.
"The Nets still want Kobe, but Nash and Kalipari have a different view," Trem said. Nash insisted that the team should choose Kobe Bryant and could not change the decision just because of the opinions of the bosses.
But Calipari had just taken office at the time, and he didn't want to go too far against the wishes of his bosses. I talked to their bosses and they felt that choosing Kobe bryant was risky. The Nets picked Kittels with the eighth pick, while the Hornets, who agreed to trade with West, held the thirteenth pick, and the time from the Nets draft to the Hornets selection made West extremely nervous, he was afraid that one of the four teams with a 9-12 pick would select Kobe Bryant, but fortunately they all chose the big man, and then the Hornets successfully picked out Bryant.
But the deal didn't go well with the Hornets choosing Kobe Bryant, and Divac didn't want to play for the Hornets at first, and he even threatened to retire, but soon after he changed his mind and the deal went on successfully, 13 days after the Hornets selected Bryant.
Less than a week after getting Kobe, "Big Shark" O'Neal also traveled west to Los Angeles, and the "OK" group was successfully formed. West said: "For the Lakers, that time was as happy as Christmas. We got Kobe first and then O'Neal, and it's really incredible to think about it now.