The late Kobe Bryant only played for the Los Angeles Lakers in his 20-year NBA career as a shooting guard. But if you believed Dallas Mavericks Minority Owner Mark Cuban, you’d believe that Bryant almost became a Dallas Maverick in 2007. Cuban previously said he thought he had a deal in place to acquire Bryant, but recently revealed the details of the trade that fell through and the reasons behind them in a recent podcast episode of “The Big Podcast” with Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal.
If the Mavericks’ trade went through in 2007, you would’ve seen an elite duo of Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki, a Mavericks legend who played in Dallas for his entire 21-year NBA career. Nowitzki won the NBA MVP that year following the team’s first round playoff loss to the “We Believe” Golden State Warriors. Read on for the latest on Cuban’s recent revelation to O’Neal.
Mark Cuban’s Kobe Bryant Revelation
In a recent episode of “The Big Podcast” with Shaquille O’Neal, Mark Cuban asked O’Neal,
“Do you realize how close we were to trading for Kobe [Bryant] in 2007? … I was literally this close. I talked to Jerry Buss and worked something out with Jerry because Kobe had asked to leave. Jerry said, ‘Ok if you want to leave, we’ll take care of it.’ And so I talked to him, and it was going to be Josh Howard and Jason Terry and picks and no Dirk [Nowitzki], ’cause I said, ‘Anybody but Dirk.’
“I remember telling this dude, ‘Guess what? Kobe’s going to be a Mav.’ And I literally thought it was done. And then, Mitch Kupchak stepped up and said, ‘We can’t do this.’ Talked Kobe out of it. The rest is history.”
Cuban’s question to O’Neal was thought-provoking, to put it mildly. Cuban thought his talk with then-Los Angeles Lakers majority owner, Jerry Buss, who died of kidney failure on February 18, 2013, at age 80, would’ve made the Dallas Mavericks’ acquisition a done deal, but that wasn’t the case.
Kobe Bryant Once Asked For a Trade
Many people forgot that Kobe Bryant requested a trade away from Los Angeles in 2007. The Los Angeles Lakers either missed the NBA Playoffs or lost in the first round of the playoffs for three consecutive seasons, and Bryant reportedly didn’t think that the Lakers did enough to help him win.
The Mavericks’ offer to Bryant was decent. The team offered picks were Small Forward Josh Howard, who made his first NBA All-Star Game appearance at age 26, and Guard Jason Terry, a solid scorer for the Mavericks. But the Lakers kept Bryant, acquired power Forward Pau Gasol and Small Forward Trevor Ariza, played in three consecutive NBA Finals, and won back-to-back Finals in 2009 and 2010.
Cuban Achieved Eventual Success
Mark Cuban achieved eventual success as the Dallas Mavericks’ then-minority owner. The Mavericks struggled in the NBA Playoffs from 2008 to 2011, but eventually earned their second NBA title in 2011. As a result, the team sent Josh Howard, Power Forward Drew Gooden, and Forward James Singleton to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Small Forward Caron Butler, Center Brendan Haywood, and Shooting Guard DeShawn Stephenson.
Butler, Haywood, and Stephenson were all key pieces of the Mavericks’ 2011 NBA championship team. Meanwhile, Howard wasn’t the same player after his 2007 NBA All-Star appearance, as he battled various injuries, including a torn ACL that ended his NBA career in 2012.
Cuban would’ve made another great decision if he had Dirk Nowitzki and Kobe Bryant on the same team, as Nowitzki and Bryant reportedly always had mutual respect. But it’s important to note that Nowitzki’s first NBA title wouldn’t have been so memorable if Bryant was his co-star.
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