omg…

the basketball gods should give the nets lebron, bosh and john wall to balance out that injustice… :)

Why must you keep shoving this story in our faces. Does the knife not hurt the first 5 times

I hate this story. Kobe loved Jersey when he first worked out for us. It was close to home and he had a great workout

This just in… the Nets sold Dr. J and took Antoine Wright over Danny Granger!!!

some things happen for a reason

The reason here was Calipari’s mouth. You’d never get anything definitive out of Thorn before the draft. But I remember Calipari wanting Kobe before the ‘96 draft. He keeps his mouth shut and West doesn’t know. Thorn was completely mum about Krstic and surprised SA by taking him.

Didn’t Kobe told the Nets that he wouldn’t play for us if we drafted him?

Btw, I want Coach Cal back! Bring him back please! Say no to JVG!

stop living in the past.

kg, I agree. I’m not impressed by Coach Cal now and wasn’t impressed by him when we worked in NJ. I hope that he’s not on our short list of coaches for next year.

@brett
Because there on new details in the story of the worst draft decision in Nets history.

Now i see we sucked since the birth of the team, we wanted kobe and passed on him ????

didnt knew that!!!!

omG we suck :( :( :( :(

we’ll surely have won like 2-3 championships by now

Disband nets team plz

send C.lee back to orlando, harris 2, and give them brook too!!!

Lopez gortat
Howard / anderson
Lewis / bass / barnes
Carter / c.lee / jj redick
Nelson / harris

insane team, orlando to win this NBA season!!!!

Amazing. Kobe was this close to never winning an NBA championship :)

Kobe was very young and would of sat around for couple of seasons until he could leave. The Nets figured why draft and invest time and money in a player that was not ever going to play for them.

I highly doubt that John Calipari let the Lakers talk him out of taking Kobe. I remember that time, and the talk around the NBA and the Nets drafting Kobe, was out there for the public, even before the draft.

Kobe knew he was going to be a “big” star and Jersey was to small for “him”. 7 other teams also passed on Kobe. Did West call those guys too?

And to think he’d still make a better GM and/or coach than Kiki.

Kobe threatened to go to college if the Nets selected him.

At least Coach Cal was wise enough to want Kobe in the first place. Aside from the Jason Kidd trade, how many brilliant moves have been made in Nets history? Keep thinking about that one – the answer is zero.

Had Cal gone through with drafting Kobe and they somehow got him to suit up, that would have been one of the wisest picks in NBA history and would have turned the whole franchise around 5 years prior to J-Kidd’s arrival (although he likely would have never been a Net if this happened).

Say what you want about Coach Cal as a person but he know his basketball, and more than just coaching. He is a master judge of talent and recruiter.

We should have called his bluff!

Didn’t West also tell Thronski to take Gilbert Arenas over Brandon Armstrong?

Well then.

There was already a conspiracy to get Kobe in LA before the season even ended that year, and he wasn’t going to play for any team but the Lakers. It’s no coincidence that Shaq and Bryant ended up on the Lakers in the same season.

you are correct about the conspiracy to pair Shaq and Kobe together in LA Dollar Bills. Just about everything that has transpired in the last 25 years of the league involves a conspiracy – and it usually benefitted the Lakers, MJ or the Celtics (the McHale “wink-wink” KG to Boston trade is one of the most obvious and appalling of them all).

I think there was some underhanded stuff going on in both of the trades that led up to the Lakers and Celtics meeting in the NBA finals, but it’s hard to prove now because significant talent exchanged hands. Marc Gasol is a solid frontcourt player, and Al Jefferson prior to injury was arguably the best offensive back to the basket player skill wise.

I just wish that the Nets would get some sweetheart deals

@ Mr. Dollar Bills;

 The Nets did get sweetheart deals, Kidd for Marbury, and V.C. for whatever…

Why are ppl crying over Kobe? If Kobe had come to NJ he wouldn’t even be known as “Kobe”, he’d be Kobe Bryant the shooting guard that never became anything. How many players have the Nets developed into superstar talents? He was gift wrapped for LA by the league and developed by the lakers. He would not have gotten that development in NJ. He also wouldn’t win championships without an all-star big man and the nets have and have had zero of those.

Mike,

Bother Kidd and Carter were considered damaged goods at the time of their trades.

this season is like a bad joke but someone has to keep telling it. lol

The Mann:

You make some fair points about Kobe and the lack of star development for the Nets throughout the eyars. That being said, it sure would have been interesting tos ee what would have happened if Calipari had gotten his hands on that kind of talent.

@dollar bills.

Carter was a scorer that we needed. If this exact team has vc instead of lee we are at least 15-20 wins better.

Kidd—-2 finals????

Joe Johnson is our guy and the brass is obsessed.

This is revisionist history; Kobe’s handlers are the ones who chnaged everything and got him to LA. Kobe early on was excited about staying east and playing for either the 76ers, Knicks or Nets; I believe that the Nets scheduled a workout with Kobe, only to have him cancel the workout becuase Nike and friends were already engineering the deal to LA.