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SteemSports Editor:
Kobe Bryant was the first guard to jump from high school to the NBA. Imagine how much of a question mark he must have been to NBA front offices. Kevin Garnett made the leap before him but he did it as a big man. People thought Kobe was too small and slight to compete with the grown men of the NBA. If you were going to take a risk on a young player, big men were viewed as more of a safe bet even though GM's made the mistakes of taking bigs over transformational guards/forwards like Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan and Greg Oden over Kevin Durant (sorry Portland fans). These days the league is more guard and shooting-centric so it's not as risky to pick them at higher placements.
In high school, he was the first freshman to start for Lower Merion High School's varsity team in several decades. He averaged 31.1 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 5.2 assists as a junior while winning the Player Of The Year Award over every other basketball player in the state of Pennsylvania. He juiced those stats up even more as a senior by averaging 30.8 points, 12 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 4 steals and 3.8 blocks. These accolades put him on the radars of Duke and North Carolina. When Kobe looks back at it, he would've chosen Duke. His hypothetical answer changes through the years, but if he went to UNC he would've been on the same college team as Vince Carter!
Kobe hit the jackpot on his life-or-death gamble of foregoing college. If he didn't fall to 13th in the draft, it would've been way more difficult for Jerry West to trade Vlade Divac for him after Kobe blew Jerry's mind in the infamous pre-draft workout. Jerry saw Kobe give Micael Cooper the business in a one-on-one game and declared that he had to draft the young baller, as a kid out of high school he was better than anyone they already had. There was even another pre-draft workout where a teenage Kobe absolutely destroyed a 3 year, Final Four college player named Dontae Jones from Mississippi State! If Jerry West didn't see him excel in those workouts, he would not have ended up pairing Kobe with Shaq to start his career three-peating with an all-time great.
It takes more than just technical prowess to convince an all-time-great player and executive like Jerry West. Young Kobe with the afro walked around 24-7 with the brash confidence of a teenager who just lost his virginity. It was confidence, but combined with an innate desire to destroy and bury his opponents and leave no doubt who was the superior player. Jerry West remarks that's what it takes to lead your team as a top tier player in this league. It's the trait that defined Michael Jordan who is largely viewed as the ideal NBA superstar.
Jerry West wasn't the only one who saw Kobe's potential though. The current coach of the Kentucky Wildcats, John Calipari, was coaching the New Jersey Nets who had the number 8 pick. He saw Kobe work out and felt he was a next level talent, but his upper management thought it was too much of a risk to take him. Instead, they took a guy named Kerry Kettles at number 8. His name is most likely brought up to this day only in reference to Kobe and the Net's situation. Funnily enough, if the Nets drafted Kobe he threatened to skip the NBA and begin his career playing in Italy.
These days you aren't allowed to go straight to the NBA after high school. For the kids who feel they are ready like Kobe, college is just a one year formality especially at major programs like John Calipari's Kentucky Wildcats. Laker fans are fortunate that there was a small window of time where the rule was still in place when Kobe was ready to lay waste on the NBA with Shaq, and later on for the franchise in 2009-2010.
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