Jerry West Talked Kobe Bryant Out of Signing with Lakers Conference Rival in Free Agency
Kobe Bryant is widely recognized as one of, if not the greatest players to ever dawn a Lakers uniform ever. 20 total seasons with the franchise, five championships, a vast array of clutch shots and the willingness to stick with the squad through thick and thin.
The Black Mamba was able to play for some of the most dominant lineups ever seen in the game of basketball and wrecked havoc with some great big men in Shaquille O’Neal and Paul Gasol but also remained the with the organization as they entered a rebuilding stage in the latter parts of his career.
Even though he came close a number of times to actually leaving the Lakers and joining a different squad, he always found his way back to the purple and gold. One of the most surprising potential destinations that Bryant was looking at was the Los Angeles Clippers after the O’Neal era was over but it ended up being former Laker player and executive Jerry West who convinced him to due to their questionable management.
West played a key role in LA trading for Bryant on draft night back in 1996 and the two formed a close relationship up until West left the franchise and opted to join the Memphis Grizzlies as their new general manager in 2002.
Around the same time that the Black Mamba was growing frustrated and showed interest in going to the Clippers, he reportedly also had series thoughts about following West to the Grizzlies when he became a free agent in 2004.
West made an appearance on a recent episode of Paul George’s own ‘Podcast P’ and The Logo himself revealed that he once again convinced the young star to not move over to Memphis.
"He became a free agent. Ok? And he called me and his agent then was Rob Pelinka. And so I met them in Orange County in a hotel room and he said he wanted to come to Memphis and play basketball. And I looked at him, I said, 'Are you kidding me?', And he said 'No', and I said, 'Kobe, no, no. You know, it's just you belong somewhere out here'. And even though he would have never played there, I just want to reassure him that don't feel like you have any obligation with me or the Grizzlies to play here and because he would have never played there, it wasn't gonna happen.”
(via Podcast P)
A young Gasol was at the helm of that Grizzlies squad heading into the 2004 season along with the sharpshooting Mike Miller. By no means were they a contender but they had a promising young core and Bryant would have enjoyed the challenge of helping bring the franchise to new heights while playing under West.
Nonetheless, we are quite happy West laid out the facts for Bryant and it looked like it worked out in the end as he captured two more rings, got to eventually team up with Gasol and is cemented in the history books.
We'll keep you guys up to date as we receive more bombshells from this interview!
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