Kobe Bryant publicly said he was leaving the Lakers when he was a player, what happened at that time

Kobe Bryant publicly said he was leaving the Lakers when he was a player, what happened at that time?

In the 03-04 season, the contradiction between Kobe Bryant's O'Neal was already an open secret, both of them had very hot tempers, and they both wanted the ball. Although the team had Malone and Payton to form the Big Four, many people said at the time that no matter whether they won the championship or not, Kobe Bryant and O'Neal must have one of them to go.

In 04, Kobe's contract expired, and O'Neal still had one year on his contract, and at that time, coupled with Kobe's black history, even coach Phil Jackson said that he wanted to keep O'Neal. And Kobe Bryant himself also said that he would test the free market, it can be said that it was a stone that stirred up a thousand waves at that time, after all, he was a player who helped the team win three consecutive championships and was still in his prime, how could he not be coaxed by the team?

The Clippers, who are in the same city as the Lakers, naturally also want to get Kobe Bryant without leaving his family, and the Clippers also had some good players at that time, but the Clippers did not have a good record. The Suns also wanted Kobe, the coach at the time was still D'Antoni, and Bryant once said that he admired D'Antoni very much, because D'Antoni was very outstanding when he played in Italy.

That year, the Knicks also joined the battle without gunpowder, and the Knicks owner said that Kobe Bryant and Maddie could bring infinite possibilities no matter who came to the Knicks. Although New York, where the Knicks are based, is the largest market in the world and the team is also very rich, the team's salary space is still insufficient, because the team already has four players with tens of millions of annual salaries, such as Marbury, and the salary cap at that time was not as high as it is now. Another team is the Bulls, Kobe Bryant admires Jordan very much, and naturally wanted to play for the Bulls, including later in 06 Kobe Bryant also had contact with the Bulls, but the Bulls were also unable to free up salary space, and Kobe Bryant has been staying in Los Angeles.

After going around in the free market, the owner of the Lakers chose to keep Kobe Bryant, and as soon as O'Neal left, Kobe signed a 7-year contract of 100 million dollars. In the next few years, in order to build a team around Kobe Bryant to win the championship, the Lakers' lineup underwent earth-shaking changes, and later in 09 and 10, the Lakers won two consecutive championships. To say that this 04 year is really a turning point in Kobe's career, even the team does not support him.

With the help of the boss, he still achieved his reputation of "one person, one city"!

In the summer of 2006, the Lakers were very active in the free market, they tried to recruit first-class stars for the team, Garnett and Kidd were both targets of the team at that time, but in the end, they were unwilling to add too much leverage in the trade process, which eventually led to the collapse of the deal, which finally angered Kobe, and he took the initiative to find the team management, saying that in this case, the team might as well trade itself away.

The Lakers' record in 07 was not particularly outstanding, and at that time, Kobe's personal technical ability could be said to have reached the peak level of his entire career, and Kobe Bryant wanted to win the championship but couldn't see any hope, so he wanted to be traded.

Bryant once talked about the clash with O'Neal when he was a guest on a TV show, and he recalled: It was O'Neal who threw his fist first, and then I started to fight back, but when my teammates pulled us away, I just wanted to stay away from him as much as possible, you know, his fist was big.

After that clash, Kobe Bryant and O'Neal completely entered the point of incompatibility, and the two said in public many times: This team has him and I don't have me.