{"id":61076,"date":"2025-08-11T22:56:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T22:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61076\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T22:56:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T22:56:03","slug":"former-la-lakers-staffer-admits-he-questioned-kobe-bryant-trade-loved-another-player-who-invented-the-flop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61076\/","title":{"rendered":"Former LA Lakers staffer admits he questioned Kobe Bryant trade, loved another player who ‘invented the flop’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kobe Bryant is a Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 icon, although not everyone within the franchise was convinced that he would be great.<\/p>\n

On draft night in 1996, the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> traded Kobe Bryant<\/a>, then the 17-year-old 13th overall pick, to the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> in exchange for center Vlade Divac.<\/p>\n

Divac would go on to be an All-Star for the Sacramento Kings<\/a> and enjoyed a fairly successful NBA career, although Bryant became an all-time great<\/a>, spending all 20 of his NBA seasons with the Lakers.<\/p>\n

At the time of the trade, general manager Jerry West<\/a> and head coach Del Harris thought they made an excellent move, although they didn\u2019t know just how right they were. However, another shot-caller, head athletic trainer Gary Vitti, was not convinced.<\/p>\n

\"LosPhoto by Mike Powell\/Getty ImagesVlade Divac was a real asset to the Lakers<\/p>\n

Vitti started working for the Lakers in 1985 and helped shape the careers of James Worthy, Magic Johnson<\/a>, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar<\/a>. For the Lakers\u2019 runs during both \u201cShowtime\u201d<\/a> and the Shaq and Kobe teams<\/a>, Vitti was an important figure behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

However, he was not the biggest fan of the Lakers giving up Divac for an unproven teenager.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe traded Vlade Divac for Kobe. You understand that trade?\u201d he recently asked. \u201cI mean, he\u2019s a legit seven-foot guy. I mean, huge hands. If he touched the ball, he owned it. Great footwork. Smart, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the trade, Divac averaged a solid 12.5 points and 8.7 rebounds for the Lakers, and he was one of the better defenders in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love when he played defense on Shaq,\u201d Vitti reflected. \u201cWhen Shaq would get him in the post, he\u2019d destroy him.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to defend O\u2019Neal, Divac invented a new tactic, flopping, and quickly endeared himself to Vitti.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing Vlade could do was invent the flop,\u201d Vitti added. But do you know that he\u2019s actually whispering in Shaq\u2019s ear? So the first possession that Shaq would get in the post, right before the ball went into Shaq, he\u2019d say, \u2018You ready to get two quick fouls?\u2019 Vlade played with his mind. Vlade was smart, man.\u201d <\/p>\n

Vitti would remain in Los Angeles throughout Bryant\u2019s career, quickly realizing that he was wrong about the trade. While Divac was a solid player for most of his career, Bryant was a legend who helped add five more rings to Vitti\u2019s collection.<\/p>\n

Kobe didn\u2019t make a great first impression with Vitti<\/p>\n

While Bryant\u2019s work ethic<\/a>, even as a young man, stood out to West in particular, Vitti was worried that his stubbornness and unrelenting playstyle would contribute to injuries down the road.<\/p>\n

In a way, he was right, although he would admit that Bryant was the toughest player to ever suit up for the Lakers, although in 1996, he wasn\u2019t so sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiving away a legit seven-footer, which is hard to come by for a 17-year-old kid, who was stubborn? Kobe was stubborn!\u201d Vitti recalled. \u201cKobe was one of those guys who had a lot of postural dysfunctional movement patterns because of the type of training and the amount of basketball that he played, and as hard as he trained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, Bryant\u2019s work ethic ended up prolonging his career and cementing his spot as an all-time great, although at the time, he was an unproven teenager, and the Lakers took a gamble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kobe Bryant is a Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 icon, although not everyone within the franchise was convinced that he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,5670,7321,13800,7232,590,34419,85,23904,7897],"class_list":["post-61076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-eastern-conference","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-nba-throwback","tag-sports","tag-throwbacks","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}