It’s all water under the bridge at this point. Two more banners added to the collection will make you forget that Kobe Bryant was actually booed at a non-Clipper home game in Staples following a tumultuous summer in which the Laker legend demanded to be traded.
Who can forget those times? Bryant throwing Andrew Bynum under the bus. Kobe’s wife telling some optometrist that the Bryant family was looking for houses in Chicago. Seemingly everyday there was another unsubstantiated report of Bryant requesting a new city of residence for his hoops career.
Can’t blame the guy. Playing in the same starting five as Smush Parker and Kwame Brown is unfitting for a hoops god like KB24. That kind of punishment is reserved for the Steve Francis and Stephon Marburys of the hoops world.
One destination that always seemed like a longshot was Dallas. No way the Lakers would have dealt Kobe to a contender in their own conference, right? Come to find out there were actually serious talks of the Lake Show and Mavs making a swap in the Bryant sweepstakes of 2007.
Mark Cuban opened up about the trade that never was in an interview on a Dallas radio station recently. According to Cuban the potential deal didn’t even involve Dirk Nowitzki.
"“When I was doing Dancing with the Stars, I was taking breaks because I was talking to Kobe’s agent because Kobe wanted to get traded. Literally, between Dancing with the Stars practices I had thought we traded for Kobe Bryant. I even talked to their owner and thought we were going to have done deal, and Mitch Kupchak changed Kobe’s mind and brought him back. It wasn’t Dirk for Kobe.”"
No telling how close that deal was to actually happening. But the fact there were even talks says a lot.
It also says something that this would be at least twice that Mark Cuban has been taping a reality show during a crucial time of player movement during the NBA offseason. Most recently it was ABC’s Shark Tank that kept Cuban away from the office when Deron Williams came to town. For the Mavs’ sake they’d better hope he’s not doing Stars Earn Stripes when Anthony Davis wants out of New Orleans in three years time.