Kobe Bryant fantasized about playing for New York Knicks, I gave him severe warning, says Adrian Wojnarowski

LeBron James discovered how leaving his first team could cause a backlash, when he left the Cleveland Cavalier for the Miami Heat in 2010. Even returning to win a championship could not completely erase the ill-feeling his departure caused.

Kobe Bryant’s entire 20-year NBA career from 1996 to 2016 was spent with the LA Lakers, although according to Adrian Wojnarowski, there was another team he felt a strong connection for.

‘Kobe Bryant thought about going to New York Knicks’

LeBron James’ exit from Cleveland in 2010 would have been nothing compared to the anger felt if Kobe Bryant walked out on the LA Lakers.

This was the warning Adrian Wojnarowski says he issued to Kobe Bryant, at a time he believed him to be considering signing with the New York Knicks.

Speaking to 7PM In Brooklyn, Wojnarowski says Kobe had strong feelings about potentially playing for the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

Woj explained: “Kobe always thought, I remember there was a time where he was convinced he was going to end up with the Knicks.

“There was a time when Jim Buss was running the Lakers, I remember sitting there with Kobe down in Orange County, I think Tim Grover was with us, and I remember him saying, ‘they’re going to amnesty me.’

“I said, they’re not going to amnesty you. I said, they’ll burn this city down’.”

Woj added: “He loved the Lakers and he only ever really wanted to be there but he would fantasize—he loved the Garden.”

There were times when Kobe Bryant did not see eye to eye with the Lakers hierarchy, and this was clearly one of them. But his affection for the team always shone through.

Kobe Bryant wowed Madison Square Garden

Kobe Bryant did have a slice of history at Madison Square Garden, when he dropped 61 points on the Knicks with the LA Lakers in 2009.

It was a record at the time, one that was later tied in 2019 by James Harden for the Houston Rockets.

That was well short of Kobe’s highest ever points total, when he scored a stunning 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in 2006.

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