Jerry West REVEALS Kobe Bryant’s desire to join Memphis Grizzlies in 2004 free agency

Jerry West revealed that Kobe Bryant wanted to join the Memphis Grizzles in 2004

Jerry West REVEALS Kobe Bryant’s desire to join Memphis Grizzlies in 2004 free agency

Kobe Bryant shooting a jumper against the Grizzles;

Jerry West and Kobe Bryant were always close to each other, with West drafting him to the Lakers in 1996 when he was the general manager for the Lakers during that time.

On the Podcast with P on YouTube by Paul George, special guest Jerry West recalled back a story back in 2004 during Kobe’s free agency with Kobe Bryant wanting to leave the Lakers to follow him to the Memphis Grizzles (West was the GM of Memphis at that time).

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Jerry West did not entertain Kobe’s idea but instead told Kobe to re-sign with the Lakeshow. West said about the incident, “He became a free agent. Ok? And he called me and his agent then was Rob Pelinka. And so I met them in Orange County in a hotel room and he said he wanted to come to Memphis and play basketball. And I looked at him, I said, are you kidding me? And he said no, and I said, ‘Kobe, no, no. You know, it’s just you belong somewhere out here.’ And even though he would have never played there, I just want to reassure him that don’t feel like you have any obligation with me or the Grizzlies to play here and because he would have never played there, it wasn’t gonna happen.”

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Kobe did re-sign with the Lakers after Shaq decided to head to Miami, giving birth to a decade-long feud between the duos.

If Kobe had joined the Memphis Grizzles, he would’ve paired up with Pau Gasol, a few years earlier than their collaboration in Los Angeles. The Grizzlies had 50 wins that season and were swept in the first round and would very much win an NBA championship if they had a player of Kobe’s calibre.

Related: Novak Djokovic DISCLOSES Kobe Bryant’s Mamba mentality cruised him past historic 23rd Grand Slam win

Kobe Bryant’s wild SNEAKER FREE AGENCY

Kobe Bryant
Kobe wearing the Jordan 11 ‘concords’

Following an ugly divorce with Adidas, during the 2002-03 season, Kobe became a sneaker-free agent after paying $8 million to Adidas to be out of his contract.

This split between Adidas and Kobe gave us one of the best sneaker moments in NBA history with every brand throwing shoes at Kobe for him to wear and crazy enough Kobe. tested out almost every brand on the court from AND1s to Reeboks. Three big companies were after Kobe at that time, namely – Reebok, Jordan and Nike.

Kobe brought out every shoe he wanted, famously wearing Lakers scheme Air-force mid tops, AND1 desire mids and even wore a player’s exclusive version of his rival Allen Iverson’s Reebok Questions in a beautiful Lakers colour scheme. He also played around in his idols’ shoe models, the Jordan 11s, the 3’s, the 7’s and even the 12s. Some of the shoes that Kobe Bryant wore during this time became so popular that they saw a wider release for the masses.

The Swoosh were the most aggressive with their advances on Kobe, with Kobe’s most worn sneaker coming from Nike, the Air Flight Air Huarache which alter gave inspirations for Kobe’s first signature shoe and the Hyperdunks which Kobe also wore intensively during the 2008 Olympics.

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Kobe finally signed with Nike, a partnership that gave us one of the best signature sneaker lines in history with The Nike Kobes being a fan favourite and earning cult-like status after his death in 2020. The Bryant estate recently renewed its contract with Nike and will continue to release the much sought-after pair of Nike Kobes.

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