Lakers News: Sole Man Sonny Vaccaro Discusses Kobe Bryant's Eventful Draft Night
Lower Merion High School alum Kobe Bryant was pretty sure he would be some level of lottery pick in 1996.
So was Jerry West.
That's why the Lakers' team president at the time made sure he traded up in the NBA draft to ensure that he snagged the future 18-time All-Star shooting guard and five-time Los Angeles champion.
Longtime sports marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro was working for Adidas at the time, and spoke with Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson of Bally Sports about Bryant's eventful draft night, among other topics, for an episode of Robinson's Scoop B Radio Podcast show.
Bryant had signed on for Adidas sponsorship heading into his rookie season. He wanted to be a Laker, and was aware that West was maneuvering to trade starting L.A. center Vlade Divac to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for their draft pick, No. 13.
Unfortunately, at least one rival club was very interested in drafting the future Hall of Famer: the New Jersey Nets.
"I was with Kobe until he was with Adidas and left for Nike [in 2003]," Vaccaro reveals. "But that night? I KNEW that the trade was going to be made. Arn Tellem, one of the best agents in America, he ended up representing Kobe, so we were in the green room and we knew what was going to happen; I had spent the morning of the draft talking to [then-Nets head coach] John Calipari and the general manager and it was a FACT the he could’ve gone to Italy [if he had been drafted by a team he didn't want to play for, which included New Jersey]."
"So the draft comes, and… Pam, Arn and Joe knew that the trade would’ve been made with Jerry West and people at Charlotte on Divac for Kobe. All he had to do is get to 13. Now we knew the biggest ones who was really, REALLY interested was John Calipari and the New Jersey team. We knew they were interested and he talked to Arn a lot of times. I only talked to John one time during the draft. Arn handled all that, but in the green room it comes to number eight and they say Kerry Kittles. All the kids are in the green room and Pam, Arn and I jump up and then we were embarrassed [laughs] because Kerry was sitting behind us and they asked us, 'Why did you jump up Sonny?' I said, ‘We were happy for Kerry!' and we were and it was beautiful segue because I did know Kerry from the camps and stuff so it was a natural thing but ton your audience, all we had to do was to get past number eight because nine, ten, 11, 12 never worked Kobe out and we KNEW they weren’t taking him."
"What I know for a fact is that I think that [Arn Tellem and his team] may have made it ‘difficult’ for the other four teams [9-12] to [work with Bryant] and not demeaning the other four kids picked before Kobe, but it was a mistake and as we further went on and for you just to know for the record, when he signed his shoe contract with Adidas, Nike never made a bid. There was a lot of people who DID NOT believe in Kobe Bryant. I believed in him. There was no question about it."
Check out the full episode for more:
