Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers will head to Cleveland on Wednesday for the final time in his career to take on LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Kobe and LeBron are two of the iconic players of this generation and they will ultimately go down as two of the best to ever play in the NBA. The two players have never met in a playoff series despite one or the other being in every NBA Finals between 2007 and 2015 but they were almost traded for one another, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
Windhorst reports that back in the summer of 2007 Bryant had grown frustrated with the Lakers and how much they had struggled in the three years since Shaquille O'Neal left. Because of this the Lakers reportedly contacted the Cavaliers to see whether they might make LeBron James available in trade talks. Clearly a trade never went down but a Kobe for LeBron deal would have been the blockbuster to end all blockbusters.
At the time Kobe was 28 years old, had already won three rings and was coming off a season where he averaged 32 efficient points per game (46 percent from the field). The Cavaliers had to at least be tempted by the idea of acquiring Bryant, who at the time was the best player in the league, but they decided James was untouchable. The Cavaliers did make an offer for Kobe including basically anyone else on the team but the Lakers had no interest at all.
LeBron was 22 years old at this time and was coming off a season where he led a Cavaliers team with very limited talent to the NBA Finals. LeBron averaged 25 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists during that season and it was clear that he was the next big thing in the NBA. This was reportedly the first and only time that the Cavaliers had ever received a call with a trade offer for LeBron.
When asked about the possible trade now Kobe, who had a no-trade clause in his contract, said he never would have approved the deal. Bryant had three teams on his list where he would have approved being traded and they were Chicago, San Antonio and Phoenix. As we know now Kobe won two more rings with the Lakers and will end up finishing his career there but it clearly wasn't always guaranteed to be that way.
Kobe and LeBron will face off again in L.A. in the beginning of March but this is one of the last meetings between two legendary NBA players. The thought of them being traded for one another is mind-boggling but a conversation was reportedly had regarding that possibility. Now we are left to wonder what if, and while we are doing that we can look back at Kobe's top five moments of his career.
