“Things Didn’t Work Out”: DeMarcus Cousins Confesses Kobe Bryant Tried to Recruit Him For the Lakers

The NBA often draws as many headlines for what happens off the court as it does for incidents on it. Blockbuster trades like the one that sent Luka Doncic to Los Angeles and Anthony Davis to Dallas dominate the news cycle to a greater degree than most playoff matchups.

This trend is fueled by the hard-to-satiate fans, who want to know every juicy detail behind the mega move. Who among us doesn’t enjoy spending some time on the trade machine, coming up with ways to get our favorite players to our favorite team?

While most of these deals never happen, they’re still endlessly fun to think about. That’s exactly why shows such as First Take draw such great ratings when they wade into the rumor mill. There are many tantalizing ‘what-ifs’ in NBA history, and thanks to the most recent episode of the Straight Game podcast, we now have another one to consider.

DeMarcus Cousins was a guest in the latest episode of the podcast, and he shared many stories from his 11-year career. The most interesting one was about Kobe Bryant.

It wouldn’t be a basketball podcast without the hosts asking their guest to tell their favorite Kobe story. Cousins had two.

One was about the time Kobe bought two magnum bottles of alcohol for Cousins and Paul George when they were part of the USA Select Team in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics. The other was even juicier.

“The one that sticks out to me the most is for Kobe to be hitting your line, recruiting you to come play with him,” Cousins recalled.

“It was a chance for me to be Kobe’s teammate. Things didn’t work out that way, but the fact that I was on his radar, he respected me as a young talent, [and] he felt like he could create a situation for us to be successful, that’s a huge honor,” he added.

It’s unclear exactly when this interaction took place, but Cousins’ and Kobe’s careers overlapped from 2010 to ’16. Kobe won his fifth and final title right before Cousins came into the league as a rookie in 2010. He still had Pau Gasol with him through the 2013-14 season, which was also the time that Cousins signed his rookie extension with the Kings.

Replacing Gasol with Cousins would have given Kobe a chance to end his career on a higher note. The Lakers legend managed to win just 38 games combined in his final two seasons.

Cousins was a multi-talented scorer and a dominant rebounder, and he would have given the Lakers a better shot at being competitive. Instead of the Lakers, he ended up being traded to the Pelicans to form half of a twin towers lineup with Anthony Davis.

Cousins never joined forces with Kobe. He did end up in L.A. for a brief stretch in 2021 (just over a year after Kobe tragically passed away). But it was as a member of the Clippers, not the Lakers.

Cousins and Davis were a dynamic duo during their short time together in New Orleans. But in his prime, he never got to play with a guard anywhere near Kobe’s caliber.

After he tore his Achilles in 2018, Cousins did end up in Golden State with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, but it’s fun to imagine what a young Boogie could have done with late-career Kobe.