Bob Bass might have traded Kobe Bryant, but he did so much more with Charlotte Hornets
He was not on the list.
Bob Bass is the one general manager ever to trade former NBA
superstar Kobe Bryant.
He did so much more than that in a pro basketball career
that spanned five decades. He was the most impactful GM in Charlotte NBA
history. Bass died Friday in San Antonio at the age of 89. He had suffered two
strokes recently.
Bass began as Hornets GM in 1995, working for then-owner
George Shinn, and retired in 2004 after guiding the franchise through the move
to New Orleans. Yes, he traded two future Hall of Famers in Bryant and Alonzo
Mourning. He also got the Hornets to the playoffs in seven of his nine seasons,
oversaw the only two seasons of 50 or more victories in franchise history and
won the NBA Executive of the Year in 1997 after the Hornets won 54 games.
Bass was as old-school as anyone I’ve covered. He grew up in
Oklahoma, married a fellow coach, Pat, of Native American descent, and built a
career working for pre-merger American Basketball Association teams on
shoestring budgets. He once told me about selling off office furniture to pay
some bills at one of his ABA stops in Denver, Miami, Memphis and San Antonio.
Those experiences certainly sculpted his approach to running
the Hornets.
“Whenever I met with my financial people before a season and
set a budget — like good basketball people, we had to manage it like a business
— Bob would never exceed that,” Shinn said Saturday.
Bass was with the Spurs when the merger happened and spent
20 years there alternately as coach or in the front office. He drafted another
Hall of Famer, David Robinson, No. 1 overall in 1987 when that was a somewhat
risky move because Robinson’s military commitment as a Naval Academy graduate
endangered the Spurs’ draft rights if Robinson didn’t sign quickly.
All that prepared Bass for some tense times overseeing the
Hornets.
The Zo crisis
Quickly after Bass came to Charlotte (filling the GM role
when Allan Bristow left the front office to coach the Hornets), the Mourning
situation came to a head. The center was passing Larry Johnson as the Hornets’
best player at a rapid rate, and it became apparent the franchise had to either
lock him up with a record-setting new contract or make sure they didn’t lose
him for nothing in future free agency.
That became a showdown leading up to the 1995-96 season. To
this day there are hard feelings, as Shinn and Mourning have contrasting views
on what this was really about — money or whether Mourning wanted to remain in
Charlotte.
Negotiations came to an impasse and Bass searched out a
trade. He found a deal with the Miami Heat that would bring Glen Rice, Matt
Geiger, Khalid Reeves and a future first-round pick to the Hornets. The
problem? Mourning thought his new team was giving up too much.
So Bass went tough guy: He threatened to deal Mourning to a
team he’d want no part of, even if that meant the Hornets getting much less
back. So the Heat deal went through and Rice became one of the best players in
Hornets history in the three seasons he played in Charlotte.
The Kobe trade
Bass knew something weird was percolating leading up to the
1996 draft: A high school player from suburban Philadelphia, Kobe Bryant,
refused to work out for the Hornets and some other teams with high first-round
picks. Bass asked me about a week before that draft if I was hearing anything
about what Bryant and his then-agent, Arn Tellem, were doing.
Tellem was working with then-Lakers general manager Jerry
West to get Bryant to Los Angeles. West was also maneuvering to create enough
space under the salary cap to pursue center Shaquille O’Neal in free agency.
That would involve trading center Vlade Divac to a team that could absorb
Divac’s remaining salary without trading another contract to the Lakers.
The Hornets fit that description, and shortly before the
draft, West and Bass agreed to a tentative deal where if Bryant was available
with the Hornets’ 13th overall pick, Bryant’s draft rights would be dealt for
Divac.
“Bob explained to us how much Vlade would help the team,”
Shinn recalled. “Kobe’s agent let us know there was no way he would be a
Hornet. It was Bob’s nature if someone didn’t want to be with us, he would work
it out — like when Zo left, we actually got better.”
As with the Mourning proposed trade, there was a
complication. Divac, who loved Southern California, said he’d retire rather
than move to Charlotte. So Bass — in a typically calm but firm voice — told me
if Divac didn’t change his mind, the Hornets would just keep Bryant regardless
of Bryant’s threat to play overseas (where his father had once played
professionally).
I remember calling Tellem for comment on Bass’ statement;
Tellem was screaming and swearing. I also remember Bass not caring how agitated
Tellem or Divac was. Over the following days, Divac blinked, agreeing to be a
Hornet, and he was a great teammate to a group built around Rice and Anthony
Mason.
A couple of weeks into Bryant’s rookie season, I interviewed
him in New York and asked what he really would have done had the trade not gone
through. Bryant admitted he’d have been a Hornet.
Shinn adored Bass so much that late in Bass’s career, Shinn
offered him a 10-year contract. Bass said that was unnecessary, that no one
would need his basketball opinions when he was 80.
“He was the most brilliant basketball guy I have met. So adept
at evaluating talent,” Shinn said. “He always kept me posted, and I stayed out
of his way. We had that kind of relationship, and it was the best.”
Bob Bass was named the NBA Executive of the Year for 1996-97
after the Hornets won 54 games. No other Charlotte NBA executive has won the
honor. In 1997, Bass gets comfortable in a black 1965 Oldsmobile
convertible that team owner George Shinn gave him as special
recognition for the award.
It wasn’t the same for Shinn’s then-partner in Hornets
ownership, Ray Wooldridge. Leading into the 2001 draft, Wooldridge argued for
the Hornets to select a forward out of the Big Ten. Bass instead wanted a
European point guard. Wooldridge, Shinn recalled, was adamant.
Shinn says he stayed out of that debate, which proved to be
a major mistake. Wooldridge’s guy was Indiana forward Kirk Haston, whom the
Hornets drafted 16th overall. Haston lasted all of two seasons in the NBA,
averaging 1.2 points and shooting 23 percent from the field.
Bass’s point guard was Frenchman Tony Parker, selected 28th
overall by the Spurs. Seventeen seasons later, Parker’s time as a Spur has
finally ended. He’s a six-time All-Star and viable Hall of Famer who signed in
July with the Hornets to back up Kemba Walker next season.
Some players that he coached were: Larry Jones, Willie Murrell, Wayne Hightower, Warren Jabali, Mack Calvin, Manny Leaks, Glen Combs, Wil Jones, George Thompson, Johnny Neumann, George Gervin, Sven Nater, James Silas, Rich Jones, Donnie Freeman, George Karl, Billy Paultz, Larry Kenon and Mark Olberding.
Career history
As coach:
1950–1952 Cromwell HS
1952–1967 Oklahoma Baptist Bisons
1967–1968 Denver Rockets
1969–1971 Texas Tech Red Raiders
1971–1972 The Floridians
1973–1974 Memphis Tams
1974–1976 San Antonio Spurs
Career highlights and awards
As coach:
NAIA champion (1966)
NAIA Coach of the Year (1967)
As executive:
2× NBA Executive of the Year (1990, 1997)
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