Jerry West Dropped A Crazy Story About How Despite Being The GM In Memphis, He Wouldn't Let Kobe Sign With The Grizzlies In 2004

Getty Images.

Well that's certainly quite the NBA "what if".

In the 2003-04 season, the Memphis Grizzlies went 50-32. Things were so crazy in the West back then, a record like that was good for 6th. By comparison, there were only 2 teams in the East that won more than 49 games back then. That same season, the Lakers went 56-26 and were the 2 seed and ultimately lost to the Pistons in 5 games. That's probably why Kobe was thinking he needed to leave, and the Grizzlies did have a young Pau Gasol, Mike Miller, Shane Battier, Jason Williams etc. On the surface you hear "Kobe to the Grizzlies" and it stops you in your tracks a little bit, but there was obviously legit young talent on those teams.

The issue of course is the fact that Jerry West, the guy who was in charge of building the best possible Grizzlies team he could, blatantly told Kobe he couldn't go there. Clearly the guy that drafted Kobe probably cared more about him than building the Grizzlies, and the rest of history. Why tell Kobe he needs to leave the Lakers when he could just trade the Lakers Pau Gasol a few years later for the following package:

Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Marc Gasol, Aaron McKee, 2008 1st, and 2010 1st. 

I know Gasol ended up being a Grizzlies legend…but woof. Between hearing Jerry West basically forbid Kobe from joining the Grizzlies and then adding in what happened a few years later, my guess is there are Grizzlies fans that aren't thrilled with the Jerry West tenure. Can you imagine a mid 20s Kobe pairing up with a mid 20s Pau Gasol? We saw what they were able to do together as they both were in their early 30s, so something tells me that pairing would have been even better considering they hadn't even hit their NBA primes yet. 

Instead, West killed that dream, the Grizzlies went on to win 49 games the next year and got swept by the Mavs. They then traded Pau to the Lakers and immediately won 22 and 24 games over the next two seasons. Talk about a swing in what could have been. You go from potentially being a legit force with Pau/Kobe for the next handful of years to immediately being in a rebuild. That's crazy. 

Stories like these are why I think it's awesome that current NBA players have podcasts/participate in media/etc. This is the shit I want to hear. Tell me about things that almost happened that very well could have changed the course of NBA history. Maybe Jerry West had told that story before, but this was the first I've heard of it and I guarantee there are dozens more just like it. You're telling me West doesn't have crazy stories about the Kawhi recruitment to the Clippers? Or things that went on during the creation of the Warriors Dynasty while he was there? Of course he does and frankly the world deserves to hear them.