Remember back in 2008 when Kobe Bryant demanded a trade from the Los Angeles Lakers? Well Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said that his Mavs had the best shot to getting Bryant via trade.
Cuban made an appearance on ESPN Radio recently and said he thought it was a done deal back in 2007 while he was on Dancing with the Stars via Si.com.
"When I was doing Dancing with the Stars, I was taking breaks because I was talking to Kobe's agent because Kobe wanted to get traded," Cuban said on the Ben and Skin Show on KESN-FM. "Literally, between Dancing with the Stars practices I had thought we traded for Kobe Bryant. I even talked to their owner and thought we were going to have done deal, and [Lakers GM] Mitch Kupchak changed [Kobe's] mind and brought him back."
Apparently, the proposed deal didn't involve Dirk Nowitzki heading to L.A., and that could have possibly lead to the Lakers going through their longest drought in franchise history.
The Lakers would have been forced to build around Andrew Bynum, but Kobe and Nowitzki sounds like a dominating championship team, assumed they kept Jason Terry and still managed to acquire Tyson Chandler.
Ironically enough, both the Mavs and Lakers went on to win championships regardless of the failed trade that somehow never leaked to the media five years ago.
