Picturing Kobe Bryant in something however a Lakers jersey feels bizarre.
But again in 2004 he nearly performed for the Memphis Grizzlies. Wild.
Memphis Grizzlies legend Kobe Bryant doesn’t fairly have the identical ring to it as LA Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, does it?
Kobe grew to become an unrestricted free agent in the summertime of 2004 for the primary time ever and at the moment, Jerry West was the GM for the Grizzlies.
Of course, West was a Lakers hero in his personal proper however was GM of Memphis from 2002-07 and Kobe was able to make the swap.
But West satisfied him in any other case.
“So I met [Kobe and his agent Rob Pelinka] in Orange County in a hotel room,” West said on the Podcast P with Paul George. “He said he wanted to come to Memphis to play basketball. I look at him and said, ‘Are you kidding me?’” He mentioned no. I mentioned, ‘Kobe, no, no. You belong someplace out right here. Okay?’”
“And even though he would have never played there, I just wanted to reassure him that — don’t feel like you have any obligation with me or the Grizzlies to play here. I guess in some sense, that might have been tampering. I didn’t look at it as tampering because he was at our house all the time. He ate at my house a lot. I felt more like a father figure with him.”
West went on to element the large quantity of respect he had for a tremendous basketball participant and superb human being.
“I had a wonderful relationship with him,” West mentioned. Forget as a basketball participant. I cherished what he stood for, his dedication to excellence. He wasn’t afraid of failing. Once you get afraid of failing, you’re going to fail. He was not afraid.”
Kobe’s later associate in crime, Pau Gasol was drafted to the Grizzlies in 2001 so if Kobe did resolve to make the swap, the pair could have crossed paths earlier.
Gasol and Kobe gained two championships collectively within the purple and gold and now their jerseys dangle within the rafters side-by-side at Crypto.com Arena.
Could they’ve gained extra championships collectively on the Grizzlies? Guess we’ll by no means know.
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