Most devastating injury in Los Angeles Lakers history: Kobe Bryant
David Stern gift wrapping Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Clippers did more than vitalize Tinseltown’s laughingstock franchise. It also led to the regression of their more storied in-state contemporary in the Los Angeles Lakers.
Prior to the then-New Orleans Hornets shipping Paul to the Clippers, that team had a deal in place to send Paul to the Lakers, but Stern — who had final say in personnel decisions due to the league owning and operating the franchise at the time — nixed that potential swap.
This was thanks in part to salty small market owners like Dan Gilbert of the Cleveland Cavaliers griping about “parity”.
So Paul went to the Clippers instead. It in turn the forced the Lakers to go to Plan B. This meant trading for an aging Steve Nash to pair with fellow recent acquisition Dwight Howard and incumbent star Kobe Bryant.
That experiment blew up in the Lakers’ faces. Nash spent most of the season injured, they fired head coach Mike Brown five games into the season and replaced him with Mike D’Antoni. Howard embraced the corniest aspects of his personality and Pau Gasol fell out of favor with the new head coach.
All of this forced Bryant to indulge his high-volume shooter impulses in order to keep the team afloat. In the micro, it worked. Los Angeles finished the year 45-37 and snuck into the playoffs, but it came at a heavy cost for Bryant and the Lakers.
During an April 12 game against the Golden State Warriors, Bryant tore his Achilles tendon, which all but ended any notions of a championship run. Shortly after that, the Lakers were swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round.
Bryant’s injury and the vetoed Paul trade set the franchise back significantly. He did return as a lesser version of himself and the Lakers have not made the Western Conference Playoffs since.