Hornets: 3 trades that haunt the franchise to this day

The Hornets trade the greatest player of the decade Kobe Bryant

This is one of the biggest ‘what ifs’ in NBA history, let alone Hornets history. The Hornets traded away the draft rights of Kobe Bryant to the Los Angeles Lakers for Vlade Divac.

Divac stayed with the team for a couple of seasons and left to sign a contract with the Sacramento Kings whenever he hit free-agency.

At the time Kobe Bryant wasn’t a guaranteed superstar and coming out of high-school likely worried alot of teams. The Hornets never had any interest in taking Bryant according to several sources including Bryant himself.

According this tweet from Kobe Bryant, the Hornets were never interested in the young guard:

According to Baxter Holmes of ESPN, the Hornets were never interested in Bryant and in an interview, Bryant stated the following:

"“[Hornets coach Dave] Cowens told me he didn’t want me. It wasn’t a question of me even playing here. They had a couple of guards already, a couple small forwards already. So it wasn’t like I would be off the bench much. ”"

Obviously there’s no guarantee that under the Hornets Kobe Bryant develops into the player he became, especially without superstar Shaquille O’Neal, but it is something to theorize about. The pure speculation of how great Bryant could have become should leave Hornets fans with a hole in their stomachs.