Current Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue won two National Basketball Association titles as a player while with the Los Angeles Lakers from 1998 to 2001. One or the other played in every NBA Finals from 2007 to 2015, but never against each other.
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His all-hours and always-saturated workout schedule is legendary. “Sometimes you live and die with it”, Lakers coach Byron Scott told reporters of Bryant’s shooting.
ESPN on Wednesday uncovered a proposed deal from the summer of 2007 in which the Los Angeles Lakers approached the Clevaland Cavaliers about a trade that would’ve swapped Kobe Bryant for LeBron James.
Los Angeles (11-43) has lost 12 of its last 14 games, including two straight losses against San Antonio and Indiana. “Anytime I even watch his games, even when I’m not playing him, it’s always, like, very emotional just knowing it’s his last hurrah”, James told reporters of Bryant. I have to win without (Shaquille O’Neal). “You come out and score 40, 50 points, fill the seats, we’re going to keep the payroll at a minimum, generate revenue”. But Cavs execs remember the call as the only occasion of a team ever calling and asking for James in a potential trade.
The 28-year-old Bryant averaged 32 points per game and shot 46 percent from the field during the 2006-07 season and was the NBA’s Most Valuable Player the next season. 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 Lakers declined, according to the report.
When point guard Kyrie Irving was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft out of Duke University, the team was in a rebuilding mode after the departure of LeBron James to the Miami Heat.
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Interestingly enough, these two will meet for the final time on Wednesday night as Kobe continues his retirement tour. “That wasn’t one of the teams that was on my list”. Unfortunately, fans never got to see them battle each other in the Finals. “If you give up one big fish, you got to give a big fish too”, he said to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
