If you could change one draft...it would be...

[2short]

Keeping Len bias alive

Funny we forget how bad Rick pitino was.........

[Eja117]

Kobe Bean Bryant

Yea, not sure how you can answer anything but this.

For the same reason I wouldn't ever want A Rod on the Sox under any circumstances.

Quite the stretch of comparisons, no?

Nope. The stretch would be Aaron Hernandez

[Mr Green]

I doubt Kobe would want to play for us. Didn't he make it clear before the draft that he would only play if it was either the Knicks or the Lakers?

That's how I remember it too. I've got an old newspaper article from 1996 somewhere about it. If I can find it I'll scan and post it up.

Teams were also generally hesitant about drafting high school kids in that era. These days it's the complete opposite. If a guy spends three or four years in college they think something is wrong with him.

[Mr Green]

I managed to find my stash of old hoops mags and newspapers. They're all about 20 years old, so most have deteriorated but some are still in good condition.



I've uploaded this page, which explains the Kobe-Vlade trade between the LA Lakers and the Charlotte Hornets.

At the center post is the redoubtable Vlade Divac (who must be pleased to find himself in the tobacco fields of North Carolina). Divac was traded from the Lakers because L.A. wanted to make room to sign Shaquille O'Neal. Talk about an unenthusiastic trade: Divac initially didn't want to uproot his family from L.A., and the proposed trade bait - high schooler Kobe Bryant - made it clear he only wanted to play for the Lakers. The whole deal hinged on Divac, who eventually relented.

It's incorrect to simply say that 12 teams were ignorant to pass on Kobe in the 1996 draft. His selection with the 13th pick needs to be looked at in the context of the time and circumstances 17 years ago.

Charlotte selected Kobe only because they had worked a trade out with the Lakers. If that trade wasn't organised he would have fallen to the Lakers at the 24th pick. They had already acquired Kobe by then, so that pick was used on Derek Fisher.