Lakers: The Showtime Great Who Worked Out Rookie Kobe Bryant
June 23rd, 1996 was a momentous date in Laker lore.
June 23rd was the day L.A. first worked out one Kobe Bean Bryant, then a star at Lower Merion High School in Philadelphia who had taken Brandy to the prom. The 6'6" shooting guard was primed to be a second-generation NBA talent as the son of journeyman forward Joe "Jellybean" Bryant, but no one had surmised the extent of his ceiling a the next level.
In the latest installment of Antoine Fuqua's epic Hulu docu-series "Legacy: The True Story of the L.A. Lakers," covering Los Angeles from the time they were purchased by Dr. Jerry Buss through to the team's present under his daughter, Jeanie, we are treated to a fun anecdote about that eventful moment.
To scrimmage against Bryant that fateful day, Los Angeles Lakers GM Jerry West, a Hall of Fame shooting guard for L.A. himself, called in a favor to a former Showtime Laker.
1987 Defensive Player of the Year Michael Cooper, an assistant coach with L.A. who had retired after one season with Italian club Virtus Roma in 1991, was recruited by Jerry West to work out the 17-year-old Bryant. "I'd never heard of Kobe," Cooper said. "Now I'm 40 years old and I hadn't done basketball in a while. And it was probably one of the most intense workouts I'd ever." Lakers assistant coach Larry Drew, who had closed out his playing career as a 6'1" point guard with L.A. from 1989-91, was also brought in to play against Bryant.
A 6'7" shooting Cooper was selected with the 60th pick out of the University of New Mexico in 1978. Cooper would play for L.A. until 1990, becoming a crucial piece for all five of the Showtime Lakers title-winning clubs. He was named to five All-Defensive First Teams and three All-Defensive Second Teams. Cooper is a basketball lifer. He won two WNBA titles as the head coach of the Lisa Leslie-era Los Angeles Sparks in 2001 and 2002. He's still a head coach to this day, currently leading the students of Culver City High School.
Assistant coach Bill Bertka spoke with team GM Jerry West following the audition. Though the video of that workout has been lost, audio from that day remains, and it includes Bertka and West's conversation after seeing Kobe's workout. "He's the best young player I ever think we've worked out here," West raved."I don't often make predictions for greatness, but I think he's gonna be great."
A present-day West (now a consultant with the... Clippers) says in the documentary, "The workout didn't last very long because I didn't want Michael to get any more embarrassed."
Cooper, in a separate interview, contests this theory. "Some people say Kobe kicked my ass, I'm gonna disagree with that," Cooper offered. "But I'll tell you what. The young kid, he got the best of me."
Jerry West spoke in the documentary about the team's sheer, dumb luck in being able to secure Bryant with the Charlotte Hornets' 13th pick in the 1996 draft in exchange for starting center Vlade Divac. "People passed him," West noted. "It wasn't in vogue to draft a high school kid. It was not. And I think that was probably the saving grace."
The Lakers lucked out when Bryant fell to Charlotte, picking for L.A.
That legendary 1996 draft is of course remembered as one of the best in league history. Aside from Bryant, two other eventual league MVPs were selected (Allen Iverson at No. 1 out of Georgetown and Steve Nash at No. 15 out of Santa Clara). Two other eventual Hall of Famers were among the prospects that night, with shooting guard Ray Allen being selected at No. 4 out of Connecticut and power forward/center Ben Wallace going undrafted out of Virginia Union.
That draft also produced six other All-Stars, listed here in order of awesomeness: center Jermaine O'Neal (another high schooler), stretch forward Peja Stojakovic, forward Antoine Walker out of Kentucky, point guard Stephon Marbury out of Georgia Tech, center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim out of Berkeley.
Marcus Camby, the No. 2 pick out of the University of Massachusetts, was never an All-Star, but he was the 2006-07 Defensive Player of the Year while with the Toronto Raptors.
