0 championships if drafted to the nets. Won't have the most dominant force in the last 15 years on his team to carry him to a few rings

Nets wouldve won 10 titles with Kobe cause he is the greatest basketballer to ever play in the NBA. Shaq held Kobe back. Dwight is holding the Lakers back. Kobe is the MVP this year for sure oh my god ingles13 he is so good.

Who is this James Harden guy and who's he play for?

"Kobe could HAVE been a Net"

Sorry, it drives me crazy. Hate being a grammar nazi, but this one really grinds my gears. It is not could of, should of, would of, it is should/would/could HAVE.

On topic, Kobe never would've played there. Never. He basically rigged it to get to the Lakers. The Hornets were forced to trade him, it was bullshit.

THANK YOU Speed44!

bad troll is bad ^

Speed 44 you don't know your facts. The Hornets knew nothing about Kobe. They had no interest in drafting him. In fact Hornets coach David Cowan told Bryant, when they selected him that they didn't need him and he would be traded like planned to the Lakers.

Kobe had cancelled workouts to be picked by the Lakers and there were only three teams that were super-interested in him. The Lakers, Nets and 76ers. The 76ers only had one pick in the first round and they were going to use it on Iverson. If they had a 2nd pick that was reasonably high they would of selected Bryant. That left the Nets and Calapari deserves credit because unlike other teams he saw the brilliance of Bryant. But of course this is the NBA where players care more about markets and endorsements then they do about starting a tradition for theit organisation (Howard, Anthony, Marbury). It was a big game of Chicken and Calapari blinked.

Correct David. The deal with the Hornets was per-arranged before the draft. The deal was - if you select Kobe we'll trade Divac to you for him. He was drafted by the Hornets because they wanted to complete the trade for Divac.

It's hard to imagine but it was seen as a risky move by the Lakers, trading a legitimate centre for a teenager. But it was also a trade to get Vlade's salary off the books so the Lakers could make a better run at Shaq. It turned out to be genius really. One of the many moves the Lakers did to free cap space for Shaq also got them arguably the best player in the league for his generation. Not bad.

Lol anons

@Speed44 While I applaud your obsessive compulsiveness, is this really the right place for a grammar war?

Sure, the mistake was in the topic title which makes it even more glaring, but if you keep this up, you might be here a while!

Thanks Beekayz I appreciate that. Most likely speed 44 is a troll just looking for a reaction. People knew what I meant in the post and posters usually make these types of post to cover up for their lack of knowledge of the topic being discussed.

"Bryant and a Nets team with Keith Van horn, Sam Cassell, and a healthy Jayson Williams would OF been pretty interesting."

"If they had a 2nd pick that was reasonably high they would OF selected Bryant." - Not only in the topic title, you do it often. Just trying to help you out ;-)

So you're just re-affirming what I said. Kobe had no intention of playing anywhere but LA. There is no way he would have (sorry, OF) played for the Nets either. He always wanted to play for the Lakers, and tampered the draft to make sure of it.