How Did Kobe Join the LA Lakers?
Believe it or not, the New Jersey Nets was originally poised to select Kobe, not the LA Lakers. However, with some clever mind games from the Black Mamba and a strategic trade with the Lakers, Kobe was able to live his dream of playing for LA. So how did Kobe end up at the Lakers?
High School Rookie Risks
Before the 1996 NBA Draft, Kobe Bryant had made quite the name for himself as a rising star at Lower Merion High School in Philadelphia. Not only did he dominate the court against fellow classmates, but his workouts and mock-games with current NBA players gave prospective teams a glimpse of what Kobe had to offer in the future.
While many of the top teams (including the Lakers) had their eye on Kobe, his age was still a great concern to them. Back then in the 90s, NBA teams could draft players directly from high school. Although this allowed teams to draft the most promising young players, there was still a huge risk in drafting a player with no college basketball experience. Unfortunately for Bryant, many of the teams who were keen on him, like the Philadelphia 76ers who chose Allen Iverson instead, got cold feet and opted for players with proven experience.
Saying “No” to the Nets
With all that said, the Brooklyn Nets and LA Lakers were still excited to have him on board. Luckily for the Nets, they had the 8th round draft pick, while the Lakers were a lot further down the list after their success in the previous season. Kobe had attended many Nets training camps and was all but confirmed to join them for the 96-97 season until he had a change of heart. Kobe told the Nets that he didn’t want to play for them and if they chose him, he would go play for Italy instead.
While there was a number of aspects that contributed to Kobe’s backlash against the Nets, this proved a deciding factor in their later decision.
Drafted By the Hornets
Coupled with the risk of signing a fresh-faced high-schooler, on draft day the Nets backed out and chose Kerry Kittles, leaving Bryant on the table for the Charlotte Hornets to scoop up as the number 13 draft pick.
Before the draft day, the Laker’s had negotiated ownership of Kobe from the Hornets if they drafted him. If the Laker's got Kobe, they would trade the Hornet's their current centre Vlade Divac. Behind this reshuffle, the Lakers needed to move Divac on to make room on the court and in the salary budget for superstar Shaquille O’Neal to join the team.
As all the pieces fell into place—with the Nets abandoning Kobe and Hornets drafting him only to be traded instantly to LA—the Laker’s had managed to not only secure one of the future’s greatest players of all time, but they also got Shaq to complete their unstoppable post-Bulls line-up.
NBA Summer League Debut
1996 was a huge year for the Lakers that is all too often overshadowed by the success of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Sure, the Bulls were dominating at the time, but brewing in the background was the rising Lakers led by Shaq and Kobe.
Kobe’s first games in the big leagues didn’t draw the same fanatical crowds as later on in his career. Instead, Kobe’s first piece of exposure to the NBA was in the Summer League. Compared to now, the Summer League was a quiet pre-season kick-off event, rather than the epic rookie showcase that it is today. There were no TV cameras, no in-depth news coverage - just a section about in the sports section of the newspaper.
However, Kobe was already making waves with his 36-point scoring spree against the Phoenix Suns during the Summer League. He was already carving a path against players with a year or two of real NBA experience under their belts.
The Beginning of Kobe’s Rookie Season
Right before the Laker’s pre-season training camp, Kobe broke his wrist during a pick-up game on Venice Beach. This, alongside another injury, sidelined him pretty much all of the pre-season practice. Kobe’s first season was off to a rocky start before he had even touched the paint.
Kobe Bryant’s first official NBA game was against the Minnesota Timberwolves on November 3rd, 1996. While the Laker’s walked away with a 91-85 win, Kobe got 6 minutes and 22 seconds of playtime for his first appearance. He took one shot and threw an airball right into the hands of the Wolves defenders. That being said, he did manage to block one shot, get one rebound, make one foul and commit one turnover - lots of 1s for his first game.
It wasn’t until a few days later in his second game ever where he scored his first point as a free throw against the New York Knicks.
For the rest of the first half of the season, Kobe was living a classic rookie 11th-man’s life - filling in for temporarily vacant positions in the roster while his teammates took to the bench for various reasons - nothing too spectacular for the Black Mamba.
A major turning point in his rookie season was during a game against the Detroit Pistons before the All-Star break. He scored 21 points in his 31 minutes of playtime, one of his biggest bouts yet. This impressed head coach Del Harris enough to continue giving more game time as the season progressed.
Dunk Content & Rising Stars Challenge
During the All-Star break, Kobe began to shine against his opponents. Due to his performance on the court, he was invited to join the Rookie Game Challenge. During this game, he absolutely dominated the court with 31-points to his name, the highest out of everyone on the roster.
Later the same day, Kobe was then invited back to participate in the Slam Dunk Challenge, which he also promptly won. In one short day, Kobe had gone from a Laker’s dark horse to a headline-grabbing champion.
Showing Signs of Greatness
During the second half of the regular season, Kobe found himself playing more and more. Head coach Harris put his trust in this young superstar and saw him as a future leader of the Lakers. Despite this, when the Lakers began their playoff run, it was back to square one for Kobe, having now been sent back to the bench so the veterans could take charge.
In his first playoff debut against the Portland Trail Blazers, Kobe scraped together 46 seconds of playtime, barely enough time to get onto the court and into position before being cycled off. He began to come into his own in Game 3 in the second round of playoffs against the Utah Jazz.
The Lakers were off to a bad start, losing the first two games in the series. However, in the final quarter of Game 3, Kobe managed to sink 12 free throws and clinch the victory from the Jazz. This huge outbreak from a rookie got the Jazz’s attention, so in Games 4 and 5, they tried to lock him down to control his explosive perimeter offence.
This tactic was working well until the final quarter of Game 5, where Kobe started to turn the tables with a quick 9-points, finished with a spectacular dunk. This gave the Lakers a 3-point lead which the Jazz would then equal, forcing the game into overtime. Although during this tense period Kobe wasn’t able to land the winning shot, his confidence under pressure proved to coaches and teammates that he wasn’t afraid of game-defining moments, in fact, he loved them.
While the Jazz swept up the Lakers 4-1 in the playoffs, their run was ultimately ended by Michael Jordan and the Bulls in his infamous ‘Flu Game’ to win their second Championship out of their second three-peat.
Kobe’s 1996-97 Season Recap
Statistically, Kobe’s 1996-97 NBA season, aka his rookie season, wasn’t anything too dramatic. He didn’t come out shooting 60-point games, but he also wasn’t relegated as a benchwarmer for the entire time either. Some might say that Kobe’s first season was of the most defining moments in his career, with the Black Mamba mentality developing as his skills grew.
In Kobe Bryant’s first season with the Lakers in 1996-97, he managed to score an average of 7.6 points per game with an average of 15.6 minutes of playtime—not bad for a rookie but not huge either. Compared to one of Kobe’s peak seasons in 2005-06 where he scored 35.4 points per game with an average of 41 minutes of playtime, the young star had a long way to go.
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