Lakers News: Mark Cuban Explains How a PA Ruined 2007 Mavs Trade for Kobe Bryant
Sometimes, it's the trades that teams don't make that define years to come. In 2007, the Dallas Mavericks where on the precipice of executing a trade for a disgruntled Kobe Bryant who wanted to leave the Lakers. Of course, the trade never happened, despite Mavericks owner Mark Cuban believing that the deal was "done" at the time, and the reason it all fell apart is fascinating.
Cuban retold the tale of how his involvement in the show "Dancing with the Stars" played a major role in the deal getting nixed in recent podcast appearance on Bleacher Report with Taylor Rooks.
"I was going back and forth with Dr. Buss...he said look, 'I think we might be parting ways with Kobe.' I remember it vividly because there was PA named Elvis. ...and he was Kobe, Kobe, Kobe all the time. So it started to happen and I started telling him [Elvis] about it, and that was the kiss of death. As soon as I told Elvis, it all fell apart."
The Mavs owner explained how his loose-lipped approach ultimately torpedoed the deal once then general manager Mitch Kupchak caught wind of the potential trade.
"I guess Mitch Kupchak talked Kobe into staying. ...when a guy thats's key to your team wants to leave, you're going to do everything you can to keep him."
Cuban took some time to reminisce about what a Dallas team featuring Dirk Nowitzki and Kobe Bryant, arguably the two best scorers of the generation, would've looked like.
"It would've been damn good. Dirk, was like 'I would've traded me for Kobe.' I said, no Dirk, that's the whole point. We would've been something else."
As the story goes, Kobe stayed, the Lakers traded for Pau and won back-to-back titles (2009 & 2010).
As fate would have it, Cuban's Mavs swept the Lakers in the Western Conference Semifinals as LA was vying for a three-peat. Dallas would go on to pull off a shocking 2011 NBA Finals upset of the LeBron-Wade-Bosh Miami Heat.
