John Calipari was talked out of drafting Kobe Bryant by Jerry West

West is cold man. 
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 He just saw something he wanted and went out and took it. But, this type of stuff happens constantly in pro sports. It wasn't like this was four-time champ Kobe coming out, rather just Kobe from Lower Merion. I'm sure Calipari wasn't that bent on taking him- obviously he wasn't because he saw some other guys just as intriguing.
 
With the 8th selection in the 1996 NBA draft, the New Jersey Nets select Kerry Kittles out of Villanova...

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It worked out pretty well for the Nets anyways. Kittles was an above-average NBAer and helped the Nets become...

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The story I always heard was after Kobe worked out for the Lakers, he told Calipari and the Nets he didn't want to play in New Jersey.
 
Originally Posted by copped

dude is very shady...not to mention the crap he did with gasol for kwame brown...

knowing damn well he was just helping out the lakers.
looks at sig...you mad mr. poppovich?
 
Haha, Roland Lazenby is my professor! His class is pretty entertaining. He has a bunch of stories about the NBA and he goes off on random tangents about different things--being a sports fan in general, I LOVE that!! ...

Anyways, props to Jerry West for getting his guy! I think it worked out pretty well for the Lakers... wouldn't you say?
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Originally Posted by Carlos Tevez

With the 8th selection in the 1996 NBA draft, the New Jersey Nets select Kerry Kittles out of Villanova...

kittles.jpg


It worked out pretty well for the Nets anyways. Kittles was an above-average NBAer and helped the Nets become...

kerrykittles_slam.jpg



pimp.gif

The REAL T-Mac
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Originally Posted by damnTHOSEjs

but Kobe was no LBJ though, he worked his butt off to become the player that he is now. JW saw his potential, nothing more.

Lakers developed his game very well.
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. not enough people realize this. he came in the league with no respect, sat on the bench. worked his way up. gained his respect.
 
^everyone saw the potential in kobe, not just jerry west. remember, kobe was busting dudes in philly up (stackhouse, and the rest of the sixers) in the summer time pick up gms.

he was gonna play for the lakers from the get go. there was no chance in him wearing any other jersey, his people sent out those warnings to all the other teams. sure, the nets could have drafted him, but he stated that he wanted to play with the lakers. all it would do was create a whole mess.
 
so who still wants to blame kobe for not being in jersey or charlotte?

it was obviously west.
 
Originally Posted by Blazers21NTNP

From the newly released ESPN Jerry West book by Roland Lazenby...

First West had to take the huge gamble of trading veteran center Vlade Divac to the Charlotte Hornets for their thirteenth pick in the draft. Then he learned that John Calipari, the coach of the New Jersey Nets, planned to take [Kobe] Bryant with the eighth pick before the Lakers could snare him at thirteen.

“Jerry wanted Kobe, so he basically called up and talked Cal out of drafting Kobe,
 
i dont believe this for a second.

this some trumped up story they put in a book to help West's Legend grow. He woulda had to talk down the GM John Nash as well. *shaqface*

and at the time, Kerry Kittles was a great selection
 
so who still wants to blame kobe for not being in jersey or charlotte?

I'll continue to.  When drafted Kobe didn't want to play for Charlotte and that is well known.  He wanted to play for a team or a franchise that was already well-established, mostly because he knew he couldn't lead a team from nothing to something like real truly great players do or have done.  Anybody can get drafted and beg to get traded to another team, ie. Eli Manning with the Chargers in the NFL, but only certain players with integrity can stick it out in situations that they might not want to be in at the time and make things happen from there.  
 
Carlos Tevez wrote:
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Slam stays with the outragous statments on thier covers. Anyone remember them saying Grant Hill was going to be better than MJ
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Nice move by Jerry West. That was a great draft class
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