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Kobe tweets Hornets "had no use for me"; Bonnell responds with draft night story

Dorian Gray

By Dorian Gray,
in Charlotte Hornets

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Dorian Gray Proficient

Dorian Gray

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So Kobe tweeted this earlier today:

 

Kobe Bryant        ✔ @kobebryant Follow

On this day 18yrs ago the hornets told me right after they drafted me that they had no use for me and were going to trade me #thanku #lakers

 

No idea why he felt the need to do that, but I remembered that story happening a little differently.  And it was nice to see Bonnell write up a quick blog explaining his memories from the night.

 

I was there, covering the 1996 draft and the ensuing trade for the Charlotte Observer. To suggest Hornets general manager Bob Bass or anyone else in the organization rejected Bryant is absurd.

 

Bryant’s agent, Arn Tellem, and then-Lakers general manager Jerry West manipulated that draft masterfully...The Hornets were more or less pawns in all this. Tellem wouldn’t let some lottery teams -– including the New Jersey Nets and the Hornets -– work out Bryant, a high school player from suburban Philadelphia. About a week before the draft Bass asked me what I was hearing about all this. He suspected the same thing I did, that Tellem was trying to direct Bryant to a team outside the top picks.

 

This got a little complicated when Divac threatened to retire, rather than report to the Hornets. I asked Bass what he’d do if Divac didn’t relent and Bass said he’d keep Bryant.

 

That put Tellem in a nasty mood. Eighteen years later I remember him screaming at me over the phone from Southern California that Bryant would be a Laker no matter what.

 

http://blogs.charlotte.com/inside_the_nba/2014/07/kobe-bryants-tweet-revisionist-history-at-its-worst.html

 

Kobe doing a little editing to the history books here.

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JJman Newbie

JJman

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technically, hes bashing the pelicans, so who gives a poo

That is definitely not true. Our history currently consists of the 1988-2002 Charlotte Hornets, the 2004-2014 Charlotte Bobcats, and our future as the new Charlotte Hornets.
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chknwing Veteran

chknwing

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That is definitely not true. Our history currently consists of the 1988-2002 Charlotte Hornets, the 2004-2014 Charlotte Bobcats, and our future as the new Charlotte Hornets.

 

player history and records. The people, that traded kobe, whomever is left, are still in new orleans

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