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Mark Cuban Claims He Thought He Had A Done Deal To Acquire Kobe Bryant In 2007

Now that Kobe Bryant’s career is over, the trades that “could have been” seem to be coming out daily. However, it seems like Kobe was very close to being a Dallas Maverick.

According to Fadeaway World, Mark Cuban went on J.J Redick’s podcast recently and talked about the time he thought he had a done deal for Kobe Bryant.

“I thought we had traded for Kobe. I thought we had a deal for Josh Howard, Jason Terry, and a couple of firsts and I went out to Jerry Buss with the Lakers and we agreed upon it. Dirk called me and said ‘look if you need to trade me for Kobe, I would make that deal in a heartbeat’.”

As for why the trade didn’t happen? Apparently it had a lot to do with Lakers legend Jerry West.

“It obviously fell apart. Jerry West called Kobe and said you can’t do this and that killed the deal,” Cuban recalled.


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Can you imagine Kobe paired with Dirk? That combination would’ve been lethal. I’m happy Kobe was a Laker for life, though. In an era where guys never stay in the same place for too long, it adds to Kobe’s legend that he was “Mr. Laker”. What a legend it was.

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