RealGM

I don't know why people consider so many other trades worse than this one (Kobe for Vlade) but this must of been the biggest "What If" ever.

Well he flat out said he wouldn't play for us, so no I don't regret trading him. It does, however, mean that I will never respect Kobe Bryant. In hindsight, he may have actually been able to create a greater legacy being in a Hornets uniform from day one and not living in Shaquille's shadow, I certainly hope he never gets an NBA title without Shaq.

I wasn't really a Hornets fan back then but you can't really miss what you never really had. Besides, Kobe was unproven and the Hornets needed a center at the time and at the time, Vlade was a good one. It's not like Kobe had Lebron hype coming into the league. My brother who is a long time Lakers fan said when he heard the Lakers got Kobe Bryant, he said "who is that?" ,so obviously Kobe wasn't that big then. If he were, and the Hornets knew it, they probably wouldn't have gone the route to draft him only to trade him.

Would the Hornets even be here had Kobe been drafted? If Kobe develops into a superstar and they are making a ton of money, maybe the move doesn't happen, so who knows.

NO-KG-AI wrote:Would the Hornets even be here had Kobe been drafted? If Kobe develops into a superstar and they are making a ton of money, maybe the move doesn't happen, so who knows.

Exactly.

As an original "CHARLOTTE HORNETS" fan who still lives in Charlotte and supports the Bobcats I dont think it's fair to say "still regret" that kinda implies that majority of the fan base has always regretted it and thats not true...When the Charlotte Hornets drafted Kobe we were a competitive team and Kobe was a skinny, cocky high-school SG making the jump to the NBA which hadnt been done before and as the one poster said he had nowhere near the hype that Lebron had and what we got was Vlade probably the best european big to ever play in the NBA and at that time he had name value....

The one poster said it best in that you cant miss what you never had...no one knew Kobe would develop into a sure-fire HOF'er and based on how Kobe played the first few years in the league I think the Hornets got the better end of the deal, its now some 12-13 yrs later it looks so one-sided....if im not mistaken i believed the Charlotte Hornets took Kobe w/ the 16th pick you have to ask teams 1-15 the same(most of them)