The Brooklyn Nets have had plenty of great players play for the organization in its 59 years of existence, including players like Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving. The Nets organization does not much winning to boast across the lifetime of the franchise, but there was a time where the Nets could have had one of the greatest players in NBA history.
There will be a documentary released by Warner Bros. that will give a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what the late Kobe Bryant’s journey in the 1996 NBA Draft was like, according to Anthony D’Alessandro of Deadline. What’s more, the documentary titled “With the 8th Pick” will be told from the perspective of former Nets head coach John Calipari, who wanted to draft Bryant, per D’Alessandro, and former Nets general manager John Nash.
“It changes the landscape of basketball,” former Nets guard Jason Kidd said of Bryant entering the league, according to a piece written by ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk. “It would have made New Jersey an attractive place, a basketball hotbed with a player like that. When you have a player like Kobe Bryant and what he can do, he would definitely have gotten talent. And maybe Shaq would have been one of those pieces,” Kidd continued.
Heading into the 1996 NBA Draft, the Nets, then in New Jersey, had the eighth overall pick, but decided to take guard Kerry Kittles instead of Bryant. Granted, Kittles did not have the career that Bryant as his eight-year career included him making the All-Rookie team for the 1996-97 season.
Bryant, who was taken with the 13th overall pick in the same draft, was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame after being an 18-time All-Star that won five championships and led the league in scoring twice in his career. At the time, the Nets were one of 12 teams that passed on Bryant during that draft, but it will be interesting to see what the proceedings looked like from the perspective of two former Nets.