The Bulls Will Have A Tribute To Kobe, The Only NBA Star With The Guts To Want To Play In Chicago After Jordan

Good move by the Bulls. Kobe is getting tributes around the league and deservingly so. I said my thoughts on him as a man yesterday on twitter

The only thing I'd want to add to that is that Kobe was seemingly fearless. For as long as I can remember the Bulls pursued various free agents only to get shunned every time. Grant Hill, Tim Duncan, Lebron, T-Mac, D-Wade, etc. They all passed. The narrative has become that no big name free agent wants the weight of playing in Jordan's shadow. In the 22 years since Jordan retired the Bulls went from being a premier brand and franchise to a middling laughing stock with the exception of a few great years with Derrick Rose. Kobe was the only guy to who seemed to run towards Jordan shadow. He didn't care. I wanted to live in it. Swim in it. He wanted to win and hang in the rafters next to Michael for an eternity. 

Vanessa had agreed to live in Lake Forest. Kobe was telling kids to buy Bulls jerseys. He was going. He wasn't scared. Then, the Lakers made the right call and kept the legend. 

That wasn't the only time though. Kobe almost ended up on the Bulls again a few years later. 

The Bulls allegedly agreed to trade Noah, Ben Gordon, Tyus Thomas and Luol Deng to the Lakers for Kobe. Kobe, the only player in the NBA right now with a full no-trade clause, said he'd veto any trade that didn't keep Luol in Chicago and the deal died. Sliding doors. The ultimate What-If moment. Just for fun…if the trade went through with Luol going to LA the starting 5 probably looks like…

Ben Wallace

Joe Smith

Thabo Sefolosha

Kobe

Kirk Hinrich

Then Duhon and Nocioni off the bench…not great. Who knows what would've happened. The Bulls finished 33-49 in 2007-08 and in the lottery which lead eventually to getting Derrick Rose with a 0.17% of winning the lottery. Butterfly effect and all of that, but imagine a run with Rose and Kobe going against Lebron and Wade. Stern definitely was going to fix the lottery for the Bulls no matter what. 

Either way, I always appreciated the fact that Kobe wasn't shy or scared of carving his own legacy as he walked by Jordan's statue every day on his way into the United Center. The ultimate competitor. Balls of steel.