We’re not exaggerating here, are we?
Let’s set a premise here: Kobe Bryant is one of the best players in the history of the sport of basketball. Career regular season averages of 25 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists a game, 5 NBA Championships (including a 3-peat), a ridiculous 2005-2006 campaign that saw Kobe average a whopping 35 points per game while averaging a near-career high in minutes. That’s only the half of it.
When a player of this caliber falls in your lap in an NBA Draft (cough, cough, Charlotte) you don’t let him go. You do what you have to do. You trade who you have to trade, and restructure as many contracts as you have to because there are rings at stake here, right? Unfortunately, we’re speaking in hindsight in this case. At the time, in the 1996 NBA Draft, 13 teams didn’t quite understand that. Bryant was selected with pick #13, but the Hornets promptly traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers for–get this–Vlade Divac.
Despite the immense success Kobe has experienced in Los Angeles, he shared a small tidbit of what happened on that fateful day on Twitter to commemorate the day his life, and the world of basketball, changed forever.
On this day 18yrs ago the hornets told me right after they drafted me that they had no use for me and were going to trade me #thanku #lakers
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) July 1, 2014
Honestly, Khari had to power through this post, as he hates Kobe Bryant. You can follow him on Twitter, especially if you’re a Thunder fan (@KingVanGogh)
