National Basketball Association

Phil Jackson recalls the time he considered trading Kobe Bryant for Grant Hill

Published Nov. 15, 2016 3:10 p.m. ET

Dan Graf

There was a time when a Grant Hill-for-Kobe Bryant trade made enough sense that then-Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson actually thought about making the deal.

Back in 1999-2000, Hill hadn’t yet suffered a series of ankle injuries that would turn him from a Detroit Pistons superstar into a role player, and Bryant was the one recovering from a broken wrist.

When Bryant was ready to return to a team that was red hot without him, Jackson – via Charley Rosen of Today’s Fastbreak – said he briefly considered taking the Pistons up on their offer to swap Hill for Bryant:

And good thing for the Lakers. They ended up going 67-15 that season, winning the first of three straight titles under Jackson. Bryant and Jackson would go on to win two more championships in 2009 and 2010, and Hill ended up hurting his ankle in the 2000 playoffs, signing with the Magic that offseason and going on to play just 47 games in the next three seasons. He averaged a career-high 25.8 points in his final year with Detroit and never again reached 20 per game.

Hill retired in 2013 having played in a total of 39 playoff games in 18 seasons compared to Bryant’s 220 in 20 seasons, and Los Angeles ended up being fortunate it stuck with a guy who could still score 60 points in his final NBA game.