Phil Jackson almost traded Kobe Bryant for Grant Hill?

Phil Jackson revealed a bombshell when he said he almost traded Kobe Bryant to the Detroit Pistons.

Future NBA Hall of Famer, Kobe Bryant, has finally called it quits after 20 seasons in the league. Bryant, arguably the second best shooting guard of all-time, spent all of his 20 years in the league donning the Los Angeles Lakers’ purple and gold.

Though as most know, his time in L.A. was not always easy-going. Not only did Kobe have the highly publicized feud with Shaquille O’Neal, before O’Neal eventually left for Miami, but he also wanted out of L.A. after the 2007 season. Bryant was seemingly fed up after three seasons of mediocrity after Shaq departed.

Though, it now seems that 2007 was not the only time that Kobe asked for a trade from the Lakers.

According to Charley Rosen of Today’s Fastbreak, Kobe asked for a trade during the 1999-2000 season and Phil Jackson thought about it, for a few seconds. The potential deal would have been a blockbuster with Grant Hill coming to the Lakers and Kobe going to the Detroit Pistons,

“Kobe was only averaging about 19 points per game. So Kobe called Jerry West and wanted to know how Jerry and Elgin Baylor both averaged 30 points. Kobe also said that he wanted to be traded. Of course, Jerry told me about the conversation. And, for a few minutes I thought about taking the Pistons up on an offer they made to trade Kobe for Grant Hill. Make that a few seconds.”

Next: 20 Richest NBA Players of All-Time

While that trade may have looked like a fair one for both parties at the time, that would prove later to be untrue. Hill was a great player but his career was marred by injuries. Meanwhile, Bryant went on to lead the Lakers to multiple championships and become one of the greatest players of all-time.

Kobe retired after the 2015-2016 season and scored 60 points in his finale.