Media

Report: Lakers nearly traded Kobe Bryant to Mavs before deal was killed by last-second effort

Published by
Robert Marvi

The summer of 2007 was a time of discontent for Kobe Bryant and his Los Angeles Lakers.

The team had failed to get past the first round of the playoffs in three years, and thus Bryant demanded a trade.

Now, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has admitted that his team had a trade agreement with L.A. that would’ve brought Bryant to Texas.

After Shaquille O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat in the summer of 2004, the Purple and Gold fell on hard times. They failed to make the playoffs in the 2004-05 season and then were handily defeated in the first round of the postseason in the two following years.

When the 2007-08 season started without Bryant getting dealt, it looked like the Lakers were doomed to at least a couple more seasons of mediocrity.

Instead, young players such as Andrew Bynum emerged, and then the team acquired All-Star Pau Gasol at midseason. As a result, the Lakers were amongst the NBA’s elite teams once again.

They advanced to the NBA Finals in 2008, losing in six games to the Boston Celtics. They subsequently won championships in the following two seasons.

If Bryant had indeed gotten traded to the Mavs, basketball history would have been rewritten in a major way.

Robert Marvi

Robert is a native of Santa Monica, Calif., and a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has been an avid NBA fan since he was a little kid in the mid '90s and fell in love with the Nick Van Exel-led Lakers teams. He truly cherishes the Kobe Bryant-era of Lakers basketball and the five world championships that came with it, and is looking forward to the team's next NBA title.

Published by
Robert Marvi

Recent Posts

5-time NBA champion says ‘no real fans care’ about Lakers’ success in NBA Cup

The Los Angeles Lakers have started their NBA Cup schedule off on the right foot…

November 21, 2024

LeBron makes stunning announcement as he takes step back on social media

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James uploaded a screenshot of a social media post on…

November 20, 2024

Private message revealed that Austin Reaves sent Dalton Knecht before they knew they’d be teammates

Los Angeles Lakers players Austin Reaves and Dalton Knecht were familiar with one another before…

November 20, 2024

Iman Shumpert says LeBron ruined today’s game by forming superteams

The proliferation of superteams in the NBA arguably became normalized once LeBron James teamed up…

November 19, 2024

Shaq says he’ll fight Dwight Howard under certain conditions

Dwight Howard has a compelling case to one day be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial…

November 18, 2024

Report: J.J. Redick admires Serbian coaching, wants to send sons to go to basketball camp there

There are several productive players in the NBA right now who grew up in the…

November 18, 2024