Former Los Angeles Lakers star guard Kobe Bryant is one of the more beloved figures in the franchise’s history. He helped lead Los Angeles to five NBA titles, winning one MVP award along the way.
However, things were always smooth between the two sides. At one point, Bryant had requested a trade out of Los Angeles and the team almost pulled the trigger on a deal.
He was unhappy with how the organization was going about things and was criticized by former general manager Mitch Kupchak. Many people blamed Bryant for the struggles that the Lakers were seeing but one trade changed everything.
When Los Angeles acquired big man Pau Gasol, the team was taken back to its championship heights. However, Bryant learned a valuable lesson from the period before that, learning how to separate the business side of things from the basketball.
“I learned a lesson, which is you have to separate business from the love of the game because there were a lot of decisions that were made business-wise that I wasn’t happy with,” Bryant said at the end of the 2007-08 season. “I took a lot of the blame for a lot of the stuff they were doing. It didn’t sit right with me. It still doesn’t sit right with me. But you have to be able to separate that from the love that you have for the game of basketball and the respect that you have for your team.”
The move for Gasol turned things around and changed the frustrations that Byrant had with the team. He wanted to win at the highest level each season so when the organization wasn’t doing so, it ticked him off.
“I’ve been sitting on this for four years now,” the MVP said. “After three or four years of not getting anything done, to see it today, it feels pretty damn good. It’s been a hell of a ride. He [Kupchak] has gone from an “F” to an “A-plus. He believed in the draft picks he made, he had the patience.”
The Lakers went on to win two more titles with Gasol helping to lead the charge, cementing him as one of the more loved players in franchise history. But the lessons that Bryant learned from his down seasons are a reminder that sports are a business when all is said and done.
