When Jerry West was GM of the Memphis grizzlies (2002-2007), he had the opportunity to sign Kobe Bryant, and pair him up with Marc Gasol.

Jerry West and Chandler Parsons are the two biggest villains in Memphis Grizzlies history.

Jerry West told Kobe not to come to Memphis when he was GM
byu/Egregiouspotatoe inmemphisgrizzlies

15 comments

  1. Pau, not Marc. Which I guess is kind of ironic since they ended up together on the Lakers.

    As an NBA fan, I’m happy he was a Laker for life and has his legacy there. I think you have to understand that Jerry West came from a different era where players were lifers on teams and did not change teams every couple of years like today. So a lot of guys (himself included) are legends for the franchise after spending an entire career there.

    As a Grizzlies fan, that would’ve been cool though lol.

  2. Kobe was never seriously considering the Grizz. He was frustrated and trusted Jerry West. Ended up forcing the Lakers to get rid of Shaquille O’Neal.

    And Marc Gasol wasn’t obtained until Chris Wallace was GM. In the Pau Gasol trade.

    If Kobe would have come to the Grizz, he would have played with Pau, not Marc.

  3. If I was owner of the team during that time I would’ve sued the hell out of him for this lol 😂

  5. I think Jerry is clout chasing a bit here.

    However, I’d bet that there were several people at Nike who would have begged Kobe not to leave LA for Memphis.

  6. Jerry West never put Memphis first, even when he was hired to do exactly that. Garbage GM when he was here.

  9. Kobe wasn’t coming here. He was likely going back to Philly where he was partly raised. Also West screwed us over a few times most notably telling Heisley to draft Thabeet against his entire staffs insistence not to.

  11. If y’all aren’t familiar with the history because it was too long ago…

    Jerry West was hired to bring a level of respect to the Grizzlies that the organization never had in its existence. The reason owner Michael Heisley was able to hire West in the first place from the Lakers who he’d worked for in one job or another since he began his NBA career as a player was because West felt besmirched by the Lakers who were underpaying him and not giving him credit for what he had done for the Lake Show era team. He also was losing influence due to Phil Jackson’s increasing power.

    Heisley paid West $5 million a year for four years and made a deal to buy his multi-million dollar house back when he left. Supposedly West was in financial straits at the time.

    They fired Billy Knight, the general manager who was credited with doing the deal to get rookie of the year Pau Gasol (along with Brev Knight and Ren Wright 🥺) for Shareef Abdul-Rahim and demoted Dick Versace who was a childhood friend of Heisley.

    West came in with the #4 pick in 2002 and the ticking time bomb of the Otis Thorpe trade which would give Detroit the Grizzlies’s first round pick when the protections dwindled away.

    That first draft (which was West’s first move as Grizz coach) was to pick Drew Gooden who was a power forward West hoped to convert to a small forward. This is despite the Grizz having three power forward sized players in Pau, Stromile Swift, and Ren to play the 4 and center. Gooden was meh and traded to the Magic for Mike Miller. Amare Stoudemire and Caron Butler probably would have been better picks at the time. West also fired Coach Sidney Lowe and made the inspired choice of Hubie Brown which might have been his best move in Memphis.

    The big move the next year was signing James Posey to the mid-level. Posey was the third choice (Scottie Pippen and Ira Newble were the first choices) but Posey had a Tony Allen before TA effect on the team.

    The Grizz also lost the #2 pick to the Pistons. Had the Grizz kept the pick, they probably would have gone against conventional wisdom and went for Wade over Melo.

    The Grizz ended up having a great season and West traded Wesley Person and a first round pick for Bonzi Wells; a really good move.

    In season three, which was the first year of FedExForum, West signed Brian Cardinal to a 6 year deal which other than his second season, was a bust.

    West had three winning seasons of four but the team was swept in all three playoffs. West’s final move was his biggest gamble; trading Shane Battier for the draft rights to Rudy Gay (and returning Swift to make the salaries match).

    West also influenced Mike Heisley to hire Chris Wallace.

    Also, Heisley didn’t like West having so much control, so after West, Heisley became a lot more hands on often making Chris Wallace a yes man who just followed Heisley’s orders even if they might have been bad ideas.

    Jerry West’s tenure as Grizz Prez of basketball Ops was satisfactory. He wasn’t a miracle worker but he didn’t fail. But he turned the franchise from a laughing stock in the NBA to a level of respect the team lived off of for years.

  15. To me, this seems more like a decision he made based on their personal relationship rather than taking advantage of it. Would’ve been great for sure if Kobe came, but I can understand why West did what he did

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