Reveals himself, the legend that helped Kobe Bryant to stay in the Lakers

b is one of the greatest NBA players of all time and the most outstanding Lakers ever, according to the purple and gold fandom, but he almost left LA once in his career.

In 2004, Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant became an unrestricted free agent for the first time. At the time, Jerry West, a Lakers legend in his own right, was the general manager of the Memphis Grizzlies.

According to West, Bryant was ready to come to Memphis and play for the Grizzlies, but West didn't let it happen. It's good to know that Jerry, being a Lakers legend, gave great advice to Bryant.

"He became a free agent, and his agent then was Rob Pelinka," West recalled. "So, I met them in Orange County in a hotel room, and he said he wanted to come to Memphis and play basketball. And I looked at him, and I said, 'You kidding me?' And he said, 'No.' And I said, 'Kobe, no, no, you belong somewhere out here, okay?' And even though he would never played there, I just wanted to reassure him that — don't feel like you have any obligation with me or the Grizzlies to play here. I guess, in some sense, that might have been tampering. I didn't look at it as tampering because he was at our house all the time. He ate at my house a lot. I felt more like a father figure with him."

Kobe Bryant had a successful 20-year-long career with LA

West's advice to Bryant obviously stuck, as the late great ended up spending his entire NBA career with the Lakers. Across 20 seasons with Los Angeles, Bryant etched his name into the NBA history books with five championships, two Finals MVP awards, one league MVP award, 18 All-Star selections and countless other honors.