I don't remember hearing that rumor. Was it discussed here? Kobe Bryant passed on trade after this lesson from Jerry Buss: It's good to be a Laker for life - Yahoo! Sports Tayshawn, Rip, Amir and a 1st round pick... Kobe Bryant passed on trade to Pistons in 2007 RIP, Jerry Buss
That trade would have changed Everything. They probably would have run Kobe at SF, because they didn't really have any others. That would have meant a lineup of Billups/Stuckey/Bryant/Dyess/Sheed, with Afflalo, Hunter, Maxiell, and Ratliff off the bench. In that instance, I don't think they trade Billups, which means Afflalo doesn't leave, either. Detroit drafted DJ White with their 2008 pick (I would assume that would have been the choice), but that draft had a lot of talent come out of the late 1st/early 2nd, so who knows what the pick would have turned into (Ryan Anderson, Serge Ibaka, Nicolas Batum, Sergei Pekovic, SuperMario Chalmers, DeAndre Jordan, Omer Asik, and L.R. Mbah a Moute went 21,24,25,31,34,35,36) I suppose the pick would have depended upon how well the team would have done, but Kobe would have been an immediate upgrade over Prince, Stuckey probably would have been forced to take more of a jump-shooter role, and Saunders' offensive acumen probably would have gone over better with Kobe running the show, but on the other hand you would have had the clashing eogs of Kobe and the Billups/Sheed tandem. I don't know. It's nearly impossible to guess how well the team would have done, but it would have been a fun experiment.
Although trading for Bryant and moving him to SF would be a classic Pistons move, it is also being reported that Grant Hill would have signed with the Pistons to play the 3.
I'm pretty sure the Clueless Coach would just let Kobe run a bunch of isolation plays and try to score, instead of using him as a facilitator for Singler or English. Terrible idea.
I almost pee on myself when I read that yesterday and start imaging pictures of Bryant with the red blue and white with the number 24 in all the diaries around the world. The media back strong in Motor City. The lights on us again. The all-star games rooting for a Pistons' player again. The not caring on who are the first 20th picks of the draft The battles against Lebron's Cavs and the Celtics in the Eastern Conference. The closest to MJ (as some may say) but now in a Pistons jersey, wonders about where the bad boys would be? Coaches fighting to get a job here. Arnie Kander treating him Mike Abdenour healing him with bananas or something like that The Palace fullfilled. ESPN broadcasting our games worldwide again. Bunch of Youtube videos of Sheed joking with him. It would be nice to have an All-Star here again...
The population of Auburn Hills would have climbed to 845,000 people. People just clamoring to be near him. This web site would be called... KobeForum.com. We'd have a thread called "Kobe jokes about Rodney Stuckey" We'd have to remove the "Bacon" threa..........oh...forget it.
Rumor out here was that Kobe wanted to come but Vanessa vetoed the deal because there were too many groupies at the Palace that would have got Kobe straying....
The ironic thing about all of this is.. Kobe was supposed to be ALL about championships. He wanted to catch MJ and he'd spare no expense to do it. Apparently not. He would've won at LEAST one more 'ship had he let this go through.
Kobe joining some Piston scrubs would have won at least one more championship? Championship of what? You do realize that the LA Lakers won NBA Championships in both 2009 and 2010? I think Kobe's decision worked out pretty well for him in the championship category.
