Time rewinds to the 1987-1988 season, the Los Angeles Lakers won that year's championship under the joint leadership of "Magic" Johnson, "Sky Hook" Abdul-Jabbar, "Cobra" James Worthy and Byron Stert, 1996, a full decade has passed, during which the NBA has gone through the Pistons' bad boy army, Jordan's two Bulls dynasty and a Rockets defense, but there is no Lakers in it, and the Lakers' leadership banner has passed from Abdul-Jabbar to Johnson, After giving it to James Worthy and, finally, to Nick Van Exelel and Cedric Ceballos.

1995-1996 season, Ceballos averaged 21.2 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, while Van Ecel averaged 15 points and 6.9 assists per game, Johnson played 32 games in a short comeback, averaging only 14.6 points and 6.9 assists per game, and the brightest performance of the whole team was the center Vlad Divac from Serbia, who was the No. 26 rookie in 1989, and after several years of tempering, has shown the template of the league's top center, and in recent years, the average data per game has stabilized at 15 points, 10 rebounds and 3.5 assists, shooting more than 50%！

But it was clear that such a lineup was far from a championship, so the team began to look for a change, sending a large number of scouts and scouts to find the players they liked.

After the end of the 1995-1996 season, the Orlando Magic team seemed to be calm on the surface, but in fact there was an undercurrent, the cornerstone of the team, Shaquille O'Neal, whose rookie contract expired, and he became an unrestricted free agent, O'Neal was the top pick in 1992, and O'Neal's average points and rebounds per game in the first four years were 23.4+13.9, 29.3+13.2, 29.3+11.4 and 26.6+11.0 respectively, obviously, Now O'Neal is already one of the few centers in the league, he is not as tall as he is strong, he is not as strong as he is, he is fast and not as tall as him, before O'Neal, there has never been a center who can destroy the opponent's penalty area with such a size, there is no doubt that a player like O'Neal The Magic team should do everything possible to keep him, on the surface, O'Neal, who is smiling all day, will never leave here, he has a good relationship with everyone in the Magic team, general manager, head coach, scouts, teammates, Assistant coach, and so on, and that also includes his good friend Anfernee Hardaway.

The relationship between Hardaway and Hardaway is very good, a casual search can find photos of Hardaway riding on O'Neal's head and playing around, that year, Hardaway and O'Neill were only 21 years old, just children, the relationship between the two of them has been established more than ordinary teammates, but their friendship quietly changed a little bit in the summer of 1995.

O'Neal's stay is in O'Neal's hands, in fact, it is also in the hands of the Magic team management, compared to O'Neal, the Magic team is more inclined to keep Hardaway, in the 1995-1996 season, Hardaway played 82 games in full attendance, averaging 21.7 points, 7.1 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game, shooting as high as 51.3%, its performance is not much inferior to O'Neal, but from the history before the NBA, Wide and fat interior players will suffer more injuries than normal outside players, and careers are usually not very long, O'Neal was hit by injuries last season, and only played in 52 games seems to be the best proof, and he is also a star, interior stars are not as good as outside stars in terms of commercial value and market appeal, the NBA is a league that needs to make money after all, and the management of the Magic team must take this into account.

Time passed quickly, and the Magic team had to come to the moment of decision, and it was already a sure thing that they would give Hardaway a contract with a maximum salary of more than 10 million, so they offered O'Neal a 7-year contract worth $69 million, with an average salary of less than 10 million, do you know how big a contract Juwan Howard signed at that time? One hundred and five million dollars! What about Alonzo Mourning? 110 million dollars! Of course, O'Neal was not satisfied with this offer, but he didn't want to leave Orlando, so he negotiated with the management of the Magic team several times, but in the end, the Magic team refused to let go until 4 years and 80 million US dollars, in fact, the annual salary of 20 million US dollars at that time was basically the maximum salary contract, "basic" means less than 2 million US dollars, but it is this mere 2 million US dollars, Magic has always refused to add it, O'Neal was puzzled, and then was told, Hardaway will definitely sign a max contract with the team next year, Hardaway has always wanted to be the highest-paid guy on the team, and the Magic team doesn't want to upset Hardaway.

The Magic's approach made O'Neal feel that he was being slighted, he gave an ultimatum, $100 million in 5 years, in the face of a somewhat angry O'Neal, the Magic team did not sign, nor did they not sign, they did a poll, the question is, is O'Neal worth $100 million, 90% of fans chose not to be worth it, this move deeply hurt the young O'Neal.

At that time, the general manager of the Lakers was Jerry West, who decided that O'Neal was a once-in-a-century talent, so he flew to Orlando in the summer of 1995 to meet O'Neal in person, and came to Orlando together, as well as a seven-year super contract of $127 million in West's hands, West talked a lot with O'Neal, and West said to O'Neal,

"Bigbaby, (Big Baby) you are the person we need, and you will create a great era with another 17-year-old."

Because of the big contract and the excitement of O'Neal signing the contract, he didn't notice that West also mentioned a child named Kobe Bryant.

In 1996, there were a number of young players who announced their participation in the NBA draft, including the NCAA near-invincible Allen Iverson, the NCAA Honorable Grand Slam Marcus Camby, the invincible king of the street court, Stephen Marbury, and Ray Allen, Anthony Walker, Rasim, Jermaine O'Neal, Eric Dampier, Peja Stojakovic, Steve - that's and so on, Kobe? Almost all general managers have never heard of this name, Kobe Bryant was not yet 18 years old when the draft began, and in the NBA before 1996, there had never been a high school student who played guard to be selected in the NBA draft, although from several rookie training, Kobe's performance was not bad, and finally ranked Kobe Bryant at the end of the first round on the final official player draft template.

Jerry West started paying attention to Kobe Bryant because of the team's several nagging from Eddie Jones, who repeatedly recommended to West a year-old friend named Kobe Bryant, how good he is, how good he is, and now he is only a high school student, with unlimited potential, and may become the next Jordan Brabrabra, talking endlessly, West's ears are calloused, high school student? West was no more than 58 years old at the time, and high school students were like little kids who didn't have any hair on him, West really couldn't think of a high school student or a very talented but that's all he could play in the professional league, although there was already a kid named Kevin Garnett who skipped college and played the NBA directly the year before, but he didn't play a very bright performance last season, West was not interested, but he still couldn't bear Jones's thoughts, and finally he went to watch a game of Kobe.

It was a showdown between Kobe's Marion High School and Maddie's Monte Christian College, the whole game was basically a one-on-one between Kobe and Maddie, dribbling, breaking, stop-and-go jump shots, back hitting and turning back, West was on the body of the curly-haired boy on the court, faintly saw Jordan's shadow, and finally Maddie scored 35 points in the game, Kobe scored 38 points, and at the last moment of the game, Kobe broke through Maddy's defense and rushed into the basket at the bottom line for a dunk to lock the game for Marion High School.

At the end of the game, Jerry West's face was completely different from when he first arrived, his eyebrows were furrowed, his eyes were fixed on Kobe Bryant who was cheering on the court, and then he said to Jones next to him, let him come to my training camp.

West summoned a number of players for special training at Inglewood High School, including Kobe, who had a few one-on-one heads-up with Michael Cooper during the break. The NBA's top defensive guru who was named to the league's All-Defensive Team eight times in his 12-year career, including five first-team and three second-team selections, or the 1986-1987 Defensive Player of the Season, such a player went head-to-head with an average high school student who was only 17 years old?

Bryant's performance greatly surprised Jerry West, he didn't fall behind in the confrontation with Cooper, and most importantly, the maddening stubbornness of Kobe Bryant made West's heart beat - this place on the court was blocked by Cooper, and then I would shoot in this place the next round until I made this shot!

Cooper walked over and said to West, "Three years from now, I'm no match for him."

At that time, West predicted that the kid in front of him would one day become one of the greatest players in the league.

Kobe Bryant doesn't go to the Hornets to the Lakers, in fact, it has nothing to do with Kobe Mao, why Kobe Bryant is unwilling to go to a small city to play, forcing himself to go to college, etc. is, if Kobe Bryant goes to college, it is equivalent to self-defeat, because a player can only participate in the NBA draft once in his life, if you go to college, this life will be over, and the first-round rookie salary is more than 4 million US dollars, these are boiled ducks, can you make it fly?

At that time, it was very cautious to choose a high school student with a high pick, even Kevin Garnett, who was known as the No. 1 high school student in the United States last year, was only the fifth pick in the draft, and in front of Garnett, Joe Smith, Antonio McDyes, and Rasheed Wallace were all interior players, which means that Garnett was only the fourth choice on the inside at that time, and Garnett, who was so awesome in high school, didn't dare not go to cold Minnesota, why did Kobe dare not go to New Orleans, don't be stupidThe first and only person in NBA history to blackmail a team to trade him before he landed in the NBA and finally made the trip was Steve Francis, and it was because of this incident that Francis got the title of a domineering "privilege".

It was from this special training that West decided to win Kobe Bryant in the 1996 draft, but at that time, the Lakers only had one No. 24 pick, and it was obviously not safe to sign Kobe, so West used a trick to "counter-plot".

West let out the wind and said that the Boston Celtics in the rebuilding period want to develop young players, and will make a trade with the Suns or the Kings to sign Kobe, the youngest Kobe, the Suns held the No. 15 pick at the time, and the Kings were the No. 14 pick, this kind of rumor will be there every offseason, so the Suns and Kings will not take it to heart, but the Charlotte Hornets, who hold the No. 13 pick, are on their hearts, because the general manager of the Hornets at that time was called Dane Cowens, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1990, He spent ten seasons with the Celtics and achieved numerous honors, but at the end of his career, because the team traded several of his friends in a row and had a falling out with the team's head coach Auerbach and finally turned his face, this intensified conflict made the team not miss the old love and hid Cowens, resulting in Cowens retiring three times and returning twice, although decades have passed, but Cowens is obviously a very grudgeful person, he will not let the Celtics easily achieve what they want, So he robbed Kobe Bryant early on the 13th in the first round.

But here's the problem, there is no shortage of scoring guards in the Hornets team, the starting second position is the team's boss Glenn Rice, and the backup guard is now Steve Curry's dad Dale Curry. They can also average 14.4 points per game, they are not short of guards, but lack of centers, this time, the Lakers made a favor, they took the initiative to use Divac, who had already shown the potential of a first-class center, to the Hornets, in exchange for the Hornets' No. 13 rookie, Kobe Bryant, this deal caused an uproar in the NBA, with a first-class interior player who has played in the league to exchange for a high school student who has not proven himself, is this appropriate?

In O'Neal's first season in Los Angeles, he averaged 26.2 points and 12.5 rebounds per game, while Bryant, who could only play behind Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel, averaged 7.6 points and 1.9 rebounds in 15.5 minutes per game. It is worth mentioning that this season is the last season for Byron Scott, he played in 79 games, averaged 6.7 points per game, and he was teammates with Kobe Bryant for a year, and no one could have imagined that twenty years later, Scott would become Kobe's head coach.

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