Kings get Kobe Bryant disciple merely 20 years after he refused to workout for them

As we've discussed before, the Sacramento Kings have spent a long time down in the dumps. Not only were we without a winning season or playoff appearance for over half a decade, but according to our alumni, it seems like we failed to offer our athletes even the most basic of necessities.

However, we aren't those Kings anymore. The playoff drought is no more, and over the last two seasons, we've averaged 47 wins per season. And this offseason, we were able to cash in on an opportunity that was denied to us nearly 20 years ago.

Kobe Bryant Didn't Want To Play For The Sacramento Kings

I've recently been working through the book, "Three-Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty" – a riveting retelling of the early 2000s Los Angeles Lakers dynasty (written by the great Jeff Pearlman).

In the work of journalistic mastery, Pearlman takes a deep dive into Bryant's pre-draft process – one that was tailored toward landing Bryant in a large market so that he could sell more shoes (he signed a deal with Adidas prior to the 1996 NBA Draft).

Anyway, to do this, Bryant denied non-large market teams the opportunity to have him over for a workout, and one of those teams was the Kings. So, the Kings correctly identified Bryant's undeniable talent, but were not allowed to take the gamble on him.

(Sidebar: To be fair, the Kings had the 14th overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft – one pick after Bryant was selected. So, they wouldn't have been able to draft him anyway. Plus, they did end up getting franchise icon Peja Stojakovic, which is still a pretty awesome outcome, all things considered.)

If You Can't Get Bryant, You May As Well Get One Of His Disciples

Pretty much everyone who follows the NBA at any level knows the big fish we caught this offseason, landing six-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA forward DeMar DeRozan in a sign-and-trade.

Like many of the players from his generation, DeRozan very much idolizes the late Bryant and tries to emulate his game as much as possible. The only difference between him and most of those guys is that he has come pretty damn close to achieving his goal – at least when it comes to getting buckets.

So, after all these years, we finally got our own version of Bryant after having the opportunity denied to us all those years ago. What makes it even better is that DeRozan willingly chose (remember, in a sign-and-trade the player needs to agree to the terms of the deal) to come to Sacramento over a larger market like Los Angeles.

All this makes one wonder: if the Kings had been as functional as they are now back then, would Bryant have wanted to play here?