"Cold-blooded" - Former Pistons guard reflects on his first impressions of Kobe Bryant
Before Kobe Bryant was winning championships in the NBA, he had already captured the attention of fans around the world with his electrifying play. During the 2002 Western Conference Finals, the final year of Kobe and the Lakers' three-peat with Shaquille O'Neal, the team faced off with the Sacramento Kings, who Mateen Cleaves played for.
During Thursday's episode of "All The Smoke" podcast, former Pistons guard Cleaves spoke with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson to discuss his impressions of Kobe, and how impressed he was by the guard's Mamba Mentality.
With Cleaves and Bryant participating in the same 1996 McDonald's All-American game, he had a chance to see Bryant's evolution from a budding young star to an NBA legend who defeated him and the Kings en route to a title.
While discussing his first impressions of Bryant as a high schooler, he explained:
"Different. Different like I seen it firsthand, like I be seeing a lot of these interviews and stuff I got to see it first hand and you got to think we was all Americans. So we were some bad boys." [8:00 minutes mark]
"He was different, and how he approached it was different, was totally- he was a pro back then, he was locked in. Like we was hooping and we had fun and all that ... not him it was all hoop and he was so locked in that dude was different."
Following a three-peat in LA, Kobe Bryant nearly ended up with the Dallas Mavericks
Several years after Mateen Cleaves and the Sacramento Kings faced off with Kobe Bryant and the LA Lakers in the 2002 Western Conference Finals, Bryant reportedly was on the verge of landing with the Dallas Mavericks.
During an episode of Shaquille O'Neal's "The Big Podcast" this week, Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban spoke about the situation, explaining that in 2007, he and Dallas were on the cusp of acquiring Kobe Bryant.
"Do you realize how close we were to trading for Kobe in 2007? I was literally this close," Cuban said. "I talked to Jerry Buss and worked something out with Jerry because Kobe had asked to leave. Jerry said, 'Ok if you want to leave, we'll take care of it.' ... it was going to be Josh Howard and Jason Terry and picks and no Dirk."
"'cause I said, 'Anybody but Dirk.' I remember telling this dude, 'Guess what? Kobe's going to be a Mav.' And I literally thought it was done. And then, Mitch Kupchak stepped up and said, 'We can't do this.' Talked Kobe out of it. The rest is history."
Kobe Bryant ultimately remained with the LA Lakers, and the franchise acquired Pau Gasol midway through the 2007-08 season. The following year, he and Bryant won their first of two championships together.
On the flip side, it took several more years for Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks to finally secure their long-awaited title in the 2010-11 season, where they defeated the 'Big Three' Miami Heat in six games.