With the Showtime Era a distant memory and Magic Johnson’s iconic No. 32 hanging from the stadium rafters at The Forum in Inglewood, the Lakers’ decade-long dynasty appeared all but over by the mid-1990s. So they started a new one. It was on this day, June 26, 24 years ago when the Lakers launched their plan to do exactly that, getting the ball rolling by acquiring Kobe Bryant from the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for talented seven-footer Vlade Divac. It would go down as one of the most lopsided swaps ever.
Not only did Los Angeles poach a Hall of Famer for pennies on the dollar (Divac would last just two seasons in Charlotte before defecting to Sacramento), but the financial flexibility afforded by offloading Divac’s bloated contract allowed the Lakers to make a free-agent splash in the form of All-Star center Shaquille O’Neal, the recipient of a seven-year, $121-million pact.