Boston Celtics Considered Drafting Kobe Bryant Back In 1996

Five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers will face the arch-rival Boston Celtics for the last time at TD Garden on Wednesday night. It’ll be a special night for Bryant who has had his fair share of epic battles in Boston with two appearances in the NBA Finals against the Celtics.

Along with participating in the famous rivalry between the two teams in the NBA Finals on more than one occasion, Bryant has some history with the Celtics leading all the way back to before he was drafted by the Lakers in 1996.

Apparently, the Celtics brass, including Red Auerbach, was very impressed with the 17-year-old kid out of high school. Bryant put on a show during his workout with the team that had Boston seriously considering drafting him in the 1996 NBA Draft. Jan Volk even compared Bryant to Michael Jordan via ESPN’s Baxter Holmes:

“If you closed your eyes and thought a little bit, you might have thought you were watching Michael Jordan,” says then-Celtics general manager Jan Volk. “He did everything well — beyond well. He was exceptional in everything that he did. And then we commented, as I recall, on how reminiscent he was of Michael.”

The 1996 draft class one of the most talented in NBA history. Along with Bryant, there were plenty of other players in the draft that year that left their mark on the league. Bryant joined the likes of Allen Iverson, Ray Allen, Marcus Camby, Stephon Marbury, Ben Wallace, Jermaine O’Neal, Peja Stojakovic, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Steve Nash, and Antoine Walker in the 1996 draft class.

Ultimately, the Celtics went with Walker at sixth overall, and that may have been one of the biggest mistakes the franchise made in the post-Larry Bird era in Boston. Bryant dropped all the way down to 13 with the Charlotte Hornets drafting him and then trading him to the Lakers for Vlade Divac.