If Bryant had moved to the East, it could have shaped entire NBA landscape for years…
Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant has revealed that the Chicago Bulls were at the top of his list of teams to be traded to back in 2007.
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Bryant wanted to leave the Lakers that year, and he had gone as far as requesting a trade from the franchise as he looked for a way out.
However, he wasn’t desperate for leave for just any team, and so when the Lakers agreed to trade him to the Detroit Pistons, he used his no-trade clause to veto the deal and avoid a switch to the Eastern Conference with a franchise that he didn’t want to play for.
The 37-year-old has now revealed that he had a list of teams that he provided to the organisation which consisted of franchises that he would be comfortable with being traded to and while the Piston weren’t one of them, the Bulls were his “number one choice,” he told the Grantland Basketball Hour.
It was reported at the time that the Lakers and Bulls tried to negotiate a deal with Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas, Ben Gordon and Joakim Noah all moving to Los Angeles in return for the star guard.
However, Kobe was concerned by the loss of Deng who was a key piece of the team and he didn’t want the Bulls to lose him if he was headed to Chicago.
As a result, a deal failed to materialise as Bryant went on to enjoy further success with the Lakers why the Bulls were left to wonder what could have been had they been able to make the deal.
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