Kobe Week: What if Kobe Bryant played one year of college basketball?

Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Kobe Week is winding down here at the Hardwood Paroxysm Network, but before it does we’ve decided to put another Upside & Motor spin on it by looking into what would’ve happened if Kobe Bryant played one year of college basketball. We hope you enjoy it.

Kobe Bryant famously made the jump from high school to the pros in 1996, but it was never a sure thing that such a young player would be able to make it in the NBA without first getting some college experience under his belt. Knowing, now, the level of player Kobe has become over his career, I’ve always wondered how playing just one year of college basketball would’ve changed the trajectory of his career. Would he still be a Laker? Would he have gone higher than 13th in the draft?

I’ve decided to play pretend and see this thought experiment through. I’m not going to go full “Butterfly Effect” and surmise that Kobe would’ve blew out a knee in college, or that one less year of Kobe in the NBA somehow lead to Andrew Wiggins never picking up a basketball. This is merely an exploration of Kobe-universe parallel to the one we currently observe.

He would’ve been a Tar Heel.

Kobe and Mike Krzyzewski have a strong bond. With their work together on Team USA over the past decade-plus, it wasn’t a shocker that Bryant said publicly that he would’ve gone to Duke had he decided to give it the old college try instead of heading straight to the pros out of high school.

That is until Kobe sang a different tune just two years ago when, according to Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times, he revealed that he would’ve joined Vince Carter at the University of North Carolina.

"Defying urban legend that he was Duke-bound, had he gone to college instead of the NBA straight out of high school, Bryant said he was leaning toward North Carolina. “I love [Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski],” Bryant said. “The truth has to come out.” Why North Carolina? Vince Carter, a Tar Heel, was one of the top guards in the country at the time. “I want to play against him, every single day,” Bryant said."

The fact that Kobe would’ve chosen UNC because he wanted to go up against Vince Carter “every single day” is such a “Kobe” thing to say. His drive to not only play with the best, but to be challenged by the best at all times has been a common theme his whole career. I would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall in these hypothetical practices. I mean, how could those two find time to study when they are staying after practice for hours playing one-on-one? Eligibility would’ve been a problem.

Chapel Hill, N.C. would’ve become “Dunk City.”

With Kobe spending what would’ve been his rookie year in college, he could not have competed to win the 1997 NBA Slam Dunk Contest. All that means is that he would’ve taken his dunks to Tobacco Road with the future 2000 NBA dunk champion, Vince Carter. Monster dunks may not have been a huge part of Dean Smith’s game plan, but I doubt even the legendary coach could stop these two from feeding off of each others’ energy when it came to throwing it down.

So, again, this guy…

…would’ve been on the same North Carolina squad as this guy…

It wouldn’t have been fair.

These dunks on Antawn Jamison in practice would’ve happened sooner.

Also on that 1996-97 North Carolina Tar Heel roster was Kobe’s future 2012-13 teammate and NBA journeyman, Antawn Jamison. During his time in college, Jamison was a McDonald’s All-American, 1st Team All-American, Naismith Men’s College Player of the Year Award recipient, and future first-round draft pick. Needless to say, Antawn Jamison was a beast in college.

Knowing that, you have to assume that if Kobe was a Tar Heel at the same time as Jamison, Mamba was going to go after him constantly in practice. Bryant is famous for completely obliterating his teammates during practice, and Antawn has personally been on the receiving end of his aggression in these moments while on the Lakers in the October of 2012.

Seeing how Kobe was treating Jamison when both were in their mid-to-late 30’s, it’s safe to assume that younger, more lively versions of these dunks would’ve occurred during late night practices in Chapel Hill.

North Carolina may have won the 1997 NCAA National Championship.

The Tar Heels dropped their Final Four match up against the eventual national champions—the Mike Bibby and Miles Simon-led Arizona Wildcats, by a score of 66-58. UNC had the nation’s most efficient offense coming into that game, but put up one of their worst shooting efforts of the season, going 4-of-21 from behind the arc. Some of it was North Carolina just having an off night, but a large part of it was due to the Wildcats’ hounding defense. UNC rarely got a shot off without a hand in their face, and had a 31.1 FG% to show for it.

But you have to wonder if the potential-freshman, Kobe Bean Bryant, could have been the lethal third option that the UNC offense desperately needed in that game. I’m not going to go all the way and assume that Kobe could have put that game away for the Tar Heels; he just could have attracted some of the attention that the hounding Arizona defense was putting on Jamison and Carter. An extra threat like Kobe may just have been what pushes Dean Smith’s squad over the Wildcats in that game, and sent them on to beat Kentucky in the National Championship.

I admit, this may be my biggest leap throughout all of this hypothetical situation, but it isn’t crazy to think Kobe Bryant could’ve been what was missing in that game.

Kobe would’ve been drafted 2nd overall to his father’s former team and hometown Philadelphia 76ers.

It’s well known that Kobe grew up living in Italy watching his dad play basketball and he will forever refer to it as “home”, but he was actually born in Philadelphia, PA. where his father was playing for the 76ers. He moved back to Philly in 1991 after his father retired from the game.

Fast forward to the summer after Kobe’s hypothetical freshman season, and who is sitting with the second overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft? His hometown and father’s first professional team: the 76ers. Assuming the Spurs still take Tim Duncan with the first overall pick (let’s not mess with history too much), Philadelphia would be in perfect position to pick up Kobe to join their pick from the previous year’s draft: Allen Iverson. With both “The Question” and the “Black Mamba” on the same team — both future Hall-of-Famers — the Sixers would’ve become one of the most talent rich teams just two years after finishing at the bottom of the league. Of course, they may have had to have some discussions about their differing opinions on the importance of practice.

But then again, this happy-ending alternate universe with Kobe ending up back with his hometown Sixers — the same team that his father played for — may have prevented the creation of the Mamba we know today. This means he wouldn’t have been drafted outside of the top-10 by the Hornets in 1996 — which also mans that Charlotte’s head coach, David Cowens, would have never reportedly told him to his face that they didn’t need him as they traded for Vlade Divac. For all we know, this was THE event, THE very first chip on his shoulder that made Bryant the tyrannical, hard ass, struggling-teammate chastising Goliath we know him as in our current version of reality. We live in a world with a Kobe Bryant that runs on the ever-growing urge to prove people wrong and shame them for ever thinking he couldn’t do it. If Kobe got exactly what he wanted in the draft, instead having one of his first NBA conversations be a hard-nosed dismissal from the coach who picked him, would we even be having a #KobeWeek almost 20 years later?

Now that I think about it, I like our current reality better.