How Kobe Bryant almost became a Detroit Piston
By Duncan Smith
Kobe Bryant’s long and illustrious career with the Los Angeles Lakers is nearing its end, but in 2007 he was almost traded to the Detroit Pistons in a deal that would have surely extended the Piston dynasty into the 2010’s.
It’s no secret that Kobe Bryant has had an incredibly successful career in the NBA, winning five championships with the Los Angeles Lakers and an MVP award to go with two NBA Finals MVP awards, but it has been a tumultuous relationship at times with the Lakers. From his personal battles with Shaquille O’Neal in the early 2000’s that finally broke up the Laker dynasty after the Pistons beat them for the 2003-04 NBA championship to his frequent distaste of Andrew Bynum and Dwight Howard, it hasn’t always been a happy marriage.
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Things reached a boiling point in 2007, as noted by Ken Berger of CBS Sports. As he detailed, before the season began, Kobe was so dismayed with the Lakers inability to get out of the first round of the playoffs, among other things, that the organization was determined to move him just months after he demanded a trade after the 2006 postseason.
The Lakers were determined to move him out of the Western Conference, and there were only two teams at the time with the assets to satisfy what they were seeking in exchange for Bryant. The Chicago Bulls were Bryant’s first choice, but the deal was all but done in principle with the Pistons. According to Berger’s piece, the trade was going to include Rip Hamilton, Rodney Stuckey, Jason Maxiell and two first-round picks.
As explained by Berger’s source, at the time Bryant had signed off on the deal with the provision that Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace would not be included in any deal, as his plan would have been to team up with them.
The deal was all but done, to the point where Piston president of basketball operations Joe Dumars got a call from Laker general manager Mitch Kupchak simply saying, “We’re good to go.”
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Unfortunately, Laker owner Dr. Jerry Buss wanted one last face-to-face meeting with Kobe before the deal was to be done, and he was persuaded to stay. Instead of Kobe being traded to the Pistons and the Lakers rebuilding with Andrew Bynum, Rip Hamilton, Rodney Stuckey and a stockpile of first-round draft picks, they virtually fleeced the Memphis Grizzlies in acquiring Pau Gasol later that season.
The Lakers went on to make three straight NBA finals appearances, winning two of them. The Pistons made their final Eastern Conference finals appearance of their six straight in 2007-08, and then traded Billups for Allen Iverson at the beginning of the 2008-09 season. The Pistons made the playoffs with a 39-43 record that season and were swiftly trounced in the first round by the Cleveland Cavaliers in four games, and haven’t returned to the playoffs since.
It was a pivotal moment for both franchises, and if not for Dr. Buss’s heroic eleventh-hour intervention, the Pistons may have been an Eastern Conference dynasty that even LeBron James and his Cavalier squads of that era may not have been able to overcome.
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While the future is brighter for the Pistons than it has been in years, it’s difficult not to look back as Kobe’s career wanes and wonder just what might have been.