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It was the day before the 1996-97 NBA regular season. The Lakers were still in the Forum. Richard Riordan was running Los Angeles. Dilbert was on the best-seller lists.
Jerry West sat in the Forum and watched practice, particularly the teenager that had passed through the Charlotte Hornets’ hands and into his.
“He’s the Tiger Woods of basketball,” West said.
Nineteen years later, at sunset, Woods and Kobe Bryant still march together.
On Oct. 6, 1996, Woods won his first of 79 PGA Tour events, in Las Vegas.