What If...

This is right in my wheel house, the kind of thing I could spend hours obsessing over. Kentucky coach, John Calipari, was once a head coach in the NBA. This was in 1996, and he recently was quoted as saying he was very impressed with a high school kid he worked out before the draft. A kid named Kobe Bryant. So I get to play one of my favorite games, the “what if” game.


Bryant was picked by the Charolette Hornets in the 1996 draft, and refused to sign with the team, forcing a trade to the Lakers for center Vlade Divac. Vlade da di, we like to party. So there’s no guarantee that he would have agreed to playing in New Jersey, since Newark is about as appealing as back hair. Then again, maybe he would have loved it. Newark is just 90 miles away from Philadelphia, Bryant’s home town.

The 96-97 Nets were a pretty promising squad. Lead by shooting guard, Kendall Gill. They also had the now insane, Jayson Williams, who was a rebounding machine at the time. The Nets also had a solid point guard in Robert Pack, and giant Shawn Bradley. Bryant would have come off the bench, just like he did in LA. At 17, he would have been brought along slowly by any team. So his first year would have probably been limited to 15 minutes a game, just like it was in LA.

It was Bryant’s second season where his future greatness started to appear on a semi-regular basis. The ’97 Nets brought in point guard Sam Cassell and a draft deal landed them great white hope, Keith Van Horn. All of this could have easily happened with Bryant on board. Van Horn was a star in college, and was the obvious #2 pick in the 1997 draft. He also ended up leading the Nets in scoring his rookie year. The Nets used Kerry Kittles, who was taken in the spot they could have drafted Bryant, as their 6th man. The same role Kobe played for the Lakers that year, so slot him in as the Nets 6th man.

That brings us to 1998, which ended up being a shortened season, and the first season after Michael Jordan’s second retirement. The Lakers went through three coaches, and in the real world, ’98 ended up being Calipari’s last season as an NBA head coach, fired 20 games in after a 3-17 start. 20 year old Kobe Bryant entered the Lakers starting line up, and averaged 20 points a game.

Four games into the season, the Nets traded for 21 year old point guard, Stephon Marbury. So in the What If universe, the Nets would have a starting lineup of Marbury, Gill, Bryant, Van Horn and Williams. Their three leading scorers would have been 20, 21 and 23 years old, respectively. Now, of course, it’s hard to determine how the three would play together. Marbury and Bryant dominate the ball, and Van Horn was never your typical post player, preferring to shoot from the outside.

The situation wouldn’t have compared to what he went to, the Lakers had just brought in Shaq and they would have been a contender with or without him at that point. The Lakers would have been trading Divac no matter what; there was no room for him with Shaq in the middle. So the Lakers trade Divac to a struggling team with no big man, obviously they want to trade him to a team in the Eastern Conference, and they want a high draft pick in return. Perfect fit: Toronto Raptors. That pick, ends up being Tracy McGrady. A year later, but the Lakers end up with a similar player to Bryant. A high school phenom who can score at will. From 2000 till 2004, Bryant and McGrady put up similar numbers. Bryant’s scoring goes up in 2005, but that’s a result of Shaq leaving LA while McGrady is now in Houston after leaving Toronto for Orlando in 2000.

Which raises an interesting question: how would have McGrady and Shaq gotten along? Assuming they still win 2 of the 3 titles Shaq and Kobe won (giving up on the first, as McGrady was a year behind Kobe at that point)
Back tracking for a second here, with McGrady in LA, he never leaves for Orlando. The Magic need a shooting guard, so they trade Ben Wallace to the Nets for Kendall Gill. Wallace’s career plays out the same, a great rebounder and NBA Defensive Player of the Year. The Nets now have Marbury, Bryant, Van Horn, Aaron Williams and Wallace. The Lakers have Harper, McGrady, Fox, Grant and Shaq. The two teams meet in the Finals.
Oh, John Calipari still coaches the Nets instead of taking a job coaching the University of Memphis. Sot hey never get Derrick Rose. They never lose to Kansas in that National Title game. Calipari doesn’t end up coaching at Kentucky in 2010.

Back to the 1996 draft for a second, now who would the Hornets have taken, instead of Bryant? In looking over the players who were taken after Bryant and one name pops out: Steve Nash. So the ripple effect continues, as the Suns are changed as well.

Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin and Vince Carter never play for the Nets. Steve Nash never wins two MVP’s. The Hornets have a point guard, in Nash, and don’t pick Chris Paul. Paul ends up on the Bobcats, who are now in Charlotte after the Hornets moved to New Orleans with Nash.

Kobe Bryant wins titles in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006, along with MVP’s in all four seasons. His career numbers are closer to 27 points per game than 25. With Bryant, the YankeeNets never sell off the Nets, and the team moves to Brooklyn in 2004. Shaq wins titles in 2001, 2003. The Pistons and Heat never win titles. Since the Heat don’t have a title under Riley, he isn’t around long enough to bring in Lebron James. James stays in Cleveland and Dwayne Wade ends up going to Chicago to play with Rose, who was the #1 pick from Illinois and not Memphis.

The careers of Marbury and Van Horn are forever changed for the better. Marbury loves being the point guard in Brooklyn, and Van Horn gets to sit around and shoot 3’s when teams clog the lane to keep Marbury and Bryant out.
Good, now that I cleared that up, I won’t have to worry about this “what if” any longer.