A couple of months ago, Mark Cuban revealed in an episode of ‘The Big Podcast’ with Shaq the details of a trade offer from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers for none other than Kobe Bryant in 2007.
“Do you realize how close we were to trading for Kobe in 2007? I talked to Jerry Buss and worked something out with Jerry because Kobe had asked to leave. Jerry said, ‘ok if you want to leave, we’ll take care of it.’ And so I talked to him, and it was going to be Josh Howard and Jason Terry and picks and no Dirk [Nowitzki], ’cause I said, ‘anybody but Dirk.’ I remember telling this dude, ‘guess what? Kobe’s going to be a Mav.’ And I literally thought it was done. And then, Mitch Kupchak stepped up and said, ‘We can’t do this.’ Talked Kobe out of it. The rest is history,” Cuban said.
The Lakers were in a tough spot back in 2007. After the tremendous success of the early 2000s, the franchise struggled to compete at a high level in the three years following Shaquille O’Neal getting traded to the Miami Heat after he and Bryant’s relationship famously broke down.
The Lakers’ season ended by missing the playoffs and getting eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Phoenix Suns, twice during that stretch.
Things went from bad to worse for the Purple and Gold when Bryant requested a trade.
What If Kobe Bryant Had Left The Los Angeles Lakers?
Bryant was frustrated because he felt like the team wasn’t truthful about the direction they were going in as an organization. Bryant wanted to compete for titles again immediately and didn’t want to wait for then-19-year-old Andrew Bynum to develop.
The Lakers were reportedly in trade talks with the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons and actually agreed on a deal with the Pistons, but Bryant declined to go to Detroit.
We know that Bryant ended up staying put in Los Angeles for the remainder of his career, but let’s play out the scenario of Cuban getting his wish and being able to pair Bryant with the then-reigning MVP Nowitzki in Dallas.
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The players that the Los Angeles Lakers would have gotten for Bryant wouldn’t have been that bad. Terry was known as one of the best sixth men in the league for several years and a good scorer, while Howard was an All-Star in the 2006-07 season. Both players helped the Mavericks earn the number one seed in the Western Conference that year and make the NBA Finals in the previous season.
Despite being good players, they wouldn’t have been able to do what Bryant did over the next few seasons which would cement his legacy as one of the all-time greats.
In the 2007-08 season, the Lakers traded for Pau Gasol, and the next great Lakers team was born. They would make three consecutive NBA Finals appearances and lift the Larry O’Brien Trophy in 2008-09 and 2009-10.