[Book] Scenarios that could have happened with KG, Kobe, TMac.....

So I'm reading this book titled Boys Among Men written by Jonathan Abrams and, not even halfway through, there are a few interesting stories about where some of these guys could have gone.

1. Nets gonna Nets. Sometimes your first instinct is the best but John Calipari didn't feel that way when he passed on Kobe. This isn't one of those "well a lot of teams passed on Kobe" story. According to the book, Cal had dinner with Kobe's parents and all but assured them that he was going to take their kid at #8 (irony). Then Cal's balls shrank when Kobe's agent told Cal that Kobe would rather play in Italy than play for the Nets despite getting inside information that West was prepared to trade up to get Kobe. So rather than calling Kobe and his agent's bluff, he went with Kerry Brittles for not real reason. SIDEBAR: Isaiah Thomas, by his account, also wanted Kobe and was going to select him at #2 but Kobe's dad and Jerry West convinced him not to do it. I don't know why Zeke would even admit that foolish mistake but he did.

2. AI/Kobe. The Sixers front office, after selecting Jerry Stackhouse the year before, were entertaining the idea of trading Stack for a lottery pick to get Kobe. They didn't want to go through with it because they didn't want to receive the backlash of trading Stackhouse for a high school kid. Funny thing is that they ended up trading Stack anyways.

3. Dunleavy tried to run a pyramid scheme. Same Kobe draft, Dunleavy was the GM/coach for Milwaukee who had the 4th pick. Knowing Minnesota had a massive hard on for Marbury, Dunleavy smartly selected Marbury and sent him to Minnesota for Ray Allen and a future 1st Rounder. Dunleavy was prepared to ship Allen on draft night to the Celtics for the 6th pick and wanted an additional future 1st Rounder. He would have then used the 6th to draft Kobe, all the while getting two additional future 1st rounders in the process.

3. Jordan and Tmac? Krause was prepared to shake up the 1997 Bulls roster even after winning their 5th ring. He had a deal that saw Pippen packing his bags for Boston and, in return, he would have received both their #3 and #6 picks, one of which would have been used on McGrady. After Jordan heard that he threatened to retire if Pippen was traded.

4. There was also a lot of crying by teenager Garnett in this book....well more than what his now almost-maniacal demeanor would have liked. He called one of his coaches after the first week of practice with the Wolves, crying over the phone because Sam Mitchell, his teammate at the time, pushed him around during scrimmage. He cried when he was given his jersey because he never had a jersey with stitched numbers/letters before. It's quite amazing how much he changed throughout his career.

5. Garnett wouldn't have fallen past #7 to Toronto. Zeke, as told to the author, said that he called Kevin McHale and said if he didn't take Garnett at 5 then he would take him at #7. I don't know if Thomas was trying to bluff but by all accounts McHale and Flip Saunders' publicly wanted KG so maybe this is another Zeke moment where he shares a bit too much for his own good.