As the entire basketball world celebrates the career of Kobe Bryant on his final day in the NBA, we look back at Kobe’s draft night — and how John Calipari passed up the opportunity to draft him.
John Calipari had every intention of drafting Kobe Bryant with the eighth pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, Calipari’s first as head coach and executive VP of basketball operations of the New Jersey Nets. He knew Bryant would be on the board; he loved everything he saw from the high school phenom in three pre-draft workouts; and he believed Bryant was a kid who could one day become his star player in the NBA.