By Matthew Shircliffe–
On July 1, 1996, Vlade Divac from the Los Angeles Lakers was traded to the Charlotte Hornets for 17-year-old Kobe Bryant in a pre-draft transaction, sparking perhaps the most notorious trade in the history of the NBA.
Vlade Divac played only two seasons with that Hornets franchise, but Bryant had a slightly different outcome on that trade.
Accumulating 32,000 points, five championship rings, two finals MVPS and a regular season MVP, Bryant also make the NBA all-defensive team on nine occasions and become the Lakers’ all-time leading scorer, among many other accolades.