Back in 2007, two years removed from his divorce with Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant wasn’t happy with the Los Angeles Lakers and demanded a trade.
That much is common knowledge. It’s been talked about and re-spun three times over for nearly a decade, and it’s bound to be rehashed now that the Black Mamba plans to call it quits after this season.
What remains unclear, even to this day, is where Kobe Bryant wanted to go. The Lakers were apparently ready and willing to move him, but as Kobe recounted to Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski in 2013, an 11th-hour meeting with the now-deceased Lakers owner Jerry Buss appealed to his seldom seen sentimental side and prevented him from accepting a trade….to the Detroit Pistons.
Chris Sheridan of Sheridan Hoops, however, tells a different story, one set in the same year, under virtually the same circumstances, only his version comes with a twist: The Lakers almost dealt Kobe to the Chicago Bulls.
Back in 2007, Kobe wanted out of Los Angeles. He was feuding with management, he was feuding with his teammates, he was at the height of his diva stage and he was coming off all the bad publicity that was associated with the rape allegations that were made against him in Colorado. Lakers management was sick of him, too, and they were working with Kobe on fulfilling his desire to be traded to one team and one team only: the Chicago Bulls.
By the time opening night of the 2007-08 season arrived on Halloween, the entire NBA was waiting for the blockbuster to happen. Mitch Kupchak and John Paxson had gone over more than a half-dozen proposed deals, and they finally settled on a swap of Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, Ben Gordon and Tyrus Thomas.
Problem was, Bryant had a trade veto. And he kept vetoing the deals that were on the table, wanting one or possibly two things: for the Lakers to be crushed in the deal, and/or for the Bulls to retain enough talent to make a legitimate run at the title.
Sheridan offers a few more specifics on the deal, and his entire recount is worth your time. It’s unclear if this was all happening at the same time as Woj’s Pistons story, or if the botched Detroit deal was borne from the Lakers’ inability to strike an agreement with the Bulls.
Whatever the case, it’s pretty crazy to look back upon Kobe Bryant’s very public trade demand eight years later. The relationship between he and the Lakers seemed irreparable at the time, and yet here he is now, with another two championships since, preparing to walk away after spending his entire 20-year career with the team he (at least) once tried to leave.
How’s that for a #ThrowbackThursday?
