Like many players of his generation, Jayson Tatum grew up a massive fan of Kobe Bryant.
After his one outstanding season at Duke, Tatum entered the 2017 NBA Draft, where Kobe’s team – the Los Angeles Lakers – had the No. 2 pick. Tatum said on the Club 520 Podcast this week that he hoped to follow in Kobe’s footsteps in Los Angeles but the Lakers never even saw him come and practice.
Philadelphia had the number 1 pick in the draft and Markelle Fultz was considered a pretty clear number 1 pick that season (what happened to his shot between college and the NBA is another whole podcast).
The Lakers – then in the Magic Johnson/Rob Pelinka era (Pelinka was just hired in March) – had their sites focused on UCLA’s Lonzo Ball at No. 2. How high was Magic on Ball? At the draft pick’s introductory press conference, Magic pointed up at the retired jerseys that hung above them (Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic himself, and the list goes on and on) and said he expected Lonzo Ball to have his jersey hung there with them. Joining the Hall of Fame is an impossibly high bar to ask of any rookie.
Tatum says after a public pre-draft workout, someone with the Celtics contacted him and told him they loved his game and wanted to draft him (the smart money is on that being Danny Ainge). Boston did so with the No. 3 pick. Four All-NBA seasons, five All-Star games and one NBA championship later, that draft worked out well for the Celtics.
Drafting Ball worked for the Lakers, if not as originally envisioned. Despite injuries (which were the story of his NBA career), Ball was good enough to be a key part of what the Lakers sent to the Pelicans in the business of Anthony Davis, a deal that brought a championship to Los Angeles.
Still, it’s hard not to dream a little about how Tatum might have changed the trajectory of the Lakers franchise.
