Monday, August 27th, 2012 at 8:10 am  |  76 responses

Kobe Bryant Predicted Lakers Would Get Dwight Howard a Month Before They Did


by Adam Figman | @afigman

Kobe Bryant has a pretty intense skill set. He can score the ball like few people in NBA history. He can motivate his teammates and push them beyond what they thought they were ever capable of, all by wanting to succeed so badly that those around him are thrown past their limits just by association. He can maintain and groom his talent well into his 30s, even refining aspects of his game that many thought had peaked years ago. He can win five Championships, two Finals MVPs, two scoring titles and one regular season MVP. He can continue to be the same beast while morphing into a different animal.

But who the hell knew he can predict the future?

According to Kevin Durant, the Lakers superstar really can do just that. About a month before the recent Dwight Howard trade went down, when KD and KB were together with Team USA, presumably at one of the squad’s many stops leading up to London, No. 24 made a set of predictions that somehow, magically, came true.

Via Yahoo! Sports:

Kobe Bryant isn’t one to mince words. His trash-talking style on the court is legendary and his sense of humor is as dry as it gets. So when Bryant told his Team USA teammates during Olympic training in early July that  Dwight Howard would be traded to the Lakers, there were plenty of skeptics. Kevin Durant led Team USA in scoring during the Olympics. Howard had several suitors at that point, but Bryant’s prediction still stayed in the back ofKevin Durant’s mind. Bryant’s words eventually became reality as Howard was dealt to the Lakers from the Orlando Magic in a four-team blockbuster trade on Aug. 10. “Kobe called that a month before it happened,” Durant told Yahoo! Sports while promoting his new movie “Thunderstruck.” “I didn’t believe him. He was just like, ‘We are going to have Dwight. We are going to have Steve Nash.’ He just talks a lot of trash, jokes and laughs. But he said it. I don’t think anyone paid attention to it but me and him. He said it and it happened. And they got better, a lot better. “Dwight’s name was being thrown on every team. Houston, Brooklyn, the Lakers. But I guess he called it right.”

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  • peak507

    lol i cant wait for this season to start. i love the NBA

  • rkj92

    Kobe needs such a dominant bigman combo just to carry his ass back to the western finals and get his ass handed to them by OKC!!! THUNDER UP!!

  • LBJ Lover

    hell yeah lakers gonna shake up the league

  • ALD

    The Lakers always made deal with the devil…. Anyone could have predicted this.

  • http://n bogoyme

    @ rk92 lols so is your durant needing ibaka and porkins to carry his stick like figure to finally made it to top of western conf. too bad y’all like be sac queens 1 hit wonders.. i see a spurned lover here

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4FqOUz-Ia4 Ugh

    New Slam headline: “261 Slamonline forum members predict Howard going to Lakers three years before he did”.

  • c.a.

    Kobe > Mayans

  • http://juan.garcia@computershare.com PutUrMomma2Wrk

    I see trophies being added to Mitche’s office. Will my prediction wow anybody here?

  • LA Huey

    “He just talks a lot of trash, jokes and laughs. But he said it.” = Kobe throws a lot of sh!t at the wall and, inevitably, some of it sticks.

  • http://www.newyorkshockexchange.com Shock Exchange

    ^^ When L.A. loses, Horry Jr throws a lotta people under the bus too.

  • http://www.twitter.com/hurstysyd Hursty

    Jadakiss ‘predicted’ it on his Consignment Mixtape waaaay before that. So whatever.

  • http://cnbc.com JTaylor21

    Consignment is the best mixtape (so far) of 2012.

  • http://www.newyorkshockexchange.com Shock Exchange

    ^^ Check out 1999 from Joey Bada$$ … “Want the gold chains and the diamond rings, but I can’t live my life like this”

  • http://www.reverbnation.com/tray24 T-Ray

    Yea that Kiss tape was nice. I don’t remember any other tape that came out in 2012 lol I was gonna say Hoodmornimg by Game but that was 2011.

  • Redd

    Slam listened to me and used the ign comment system lol jk.

  • niQ

    I was testing out the comment system.. But none of my replies have stayed on the page after I refreshed…

  • davidR

    whoa

  • Drig

    Same here.

  • Ronald Mitchell

    They smile in your face( Backstabbers)

  • Superman24

    Haha!

  • nbk

    it’s new, got to give them a little time to work out all the kinks fam

  • Zone 4 Boss

    Slam finally updated the comments now I can reply to the person directly.

  • T-Ray

    What the hell?

  • LakeShow

    Your Welcome.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Gilbert/100001749589586 Mike Gilbert

    the best part about the new comment system…..giving people negative votes

  • shutup

    Of course he did, he was well aware of the black magic the front office was practicing, paranormal activity 4 is actually based on what is going to happen to the future Buss generations.

  • The Mauve Avenger

    Illuminati mayhaps?

  • http://twitter.com/AjpDos Allen Powell

    Durant said that Bron was really cool about not talking smack over his victory in the Finals. I doubt Kobe would have shown that sort of restraint. Lol.

  • Royal

    LOL it’s gonna be funny seeing people like The Seed get like 100 negatives…I personally enjoy his comments, but he is gonna get SO many negatives LOL

  • Junior Taylor

    Figures that your name is Gilbert.

  • LakeShow

    So true. Kobe is a “shite talker”, but he does say most things half jokingly. He likes to jab rather than ridicule it appears.
    He and Harden were having fun together all Olympics long even though they have exchanged some more serious words during the season.
    Bron honestly is a nice easy going guy. He and Durant might become real good friend, which most people would never think could happen, but he and Melo always have been good friends. Now the two best ball players at the same position are best buds.

  • nbk

    aren’t LeBron and Durant already really close friends? — and if it were me, the closer i am to you, the more likely i am to rub me beating you at something in your face lol

  • LakeShow

    Different type of close. I think Durant and Bron respect each other and both would rather help each other be better than take the other guy down and over take the throne. Bron and Durant might be nice dudes, but they are also professional athletes that want to be the best. It will be interesting to see how their friendship shakes out.
    I for one hope it goes sour and they are bitter rivals :)

  • nbk

    i hope LeBron and Dwight become bitter rivals. That’s what I’m hoping for.

  • MagicMaz

    Tobe Byron everybody

  • LakeShow

    I’m down for bitter rivals period. I’m not even one of those dudes that’s like “we need Oak back in the league to knock these young guys on their a$$es blah” blah blah.. I just want guys to take the L serious. Understand this is history. This is competition.
    What about Dwight and Bron that particularly makes you want them to rival it up?

  • RKJ92

    Cosign, Kobe is wayyyy too cocky..

  • nbk

    Dwight is on the Lakers lol – i want Lakers vs Heat in the finals. And i want them to just tear through everyone to get there, like the final scene of The Patriot

  • LakeShow

    LMAO. Mulisha style ambush on the L? I can dig.
    It’s going to be a fun year for you and I then.
    Although you can’t fully hate on the Lakers now with Nashty can you??

  • nbk

    I ain’t hatin on LA at all. I ain’t rootin for them per say, but they the best roster in the L, so I do hope they stay healthy and build chemistry

  • http://twitter.com/AjpDos Allen Powell

    Kobe is on that MJ tip where he has to always establish dominance explicitly. LeBron just expects to hold a dominant position as a given. Durant believes that he is the best, particularly the best scorer, but his natural tendency is to just go out and show you instead of yapping.
    Bron and Durant aren’t friends, but neither of them is the type of cat to keep teasing a rival like Jordan. Mike was mean spirited like that man.

  • http://twitter.com/Lacville_79 Back Of My Lac

    Lame ass jokes

  • LakeShow

    Man, me too. Obviously speaking I would, but also just for NBA basketball as a whole. This Lakers team should be everything good in basketball.
    Pass first PG who can knock down shots at a percentage equal to any shooter in L history.
    2nd best shooting guard of all time as his back court mate.
    An insane, muscled up, former defensive player of the year at SF.
    A Center with PF skills and a basketball IQ and passing touch to rival any big man.
    Flanked by the best Center in basketball.
    There is no reason this team shouldn’t be poetry on the court.
    BUT
    .
    .
    .
    That’s the beauty of Sports. They can be stopped. Either by a new up and coming team (OKC) or an athletic squad in it’s prime over on the East side.
    Plus the Celtics and the Spurs are zombies. You can’t kill em’.

  • nbk

    i enjoy that i can just like these comments rather than cosign them with a yup or some other one word comment.
    .
    but in reply, no doubt man, i’m so geeked for the season.

  • Corky

    You guys are hilarious. Discuss how you think their “friendships” are going to play out as if you’re watching an episode of a teen soap opera.

  • bike

    Durant was apparently thunderstruck when he heard Kobe say that

  • nbk

    how do you know they aren’t friends? they did work out with one another last off-season. i don’t see why you don’t think they get along

  • bigA

    Wow, I wrote Slam an E-mail about changing their comment system two days ago.
    My vanity suggests it was me who contributed to this change. I guess it was a coincidence though because nobody replied to me.

  • nbk

    a lot of us have talked to SLAM about it. I was reassured they were fixing the issue during the whole Troll debacle in June. Just glad to see SLAM wasn’t just blowin smoke.

  • bigA

    Good stuff. Yeah the troll debacle, that was one pathetic circus.

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