When Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California on Sunday, he died as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Many are aware that he was almost one of the greatest UNC players of all time, too.
Bryant was born in 1978 and grew up idolizing Michael Jordan, among other stars, before becoming a touted high school prospect of his own. He spurned the college game to go straight to the NBA in 1996, and the subject of where he would have attended school sparked much discussion in later years.
In 2007, the Laker legend told GoDuke.com that “there's no maybe about it,” he would have become a Blue Devil, playing alongside the likes of Corey Magette and Elton Brand. As a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2013, though, Bryant changed course, saying that he would have attended North Carolina for the chance to face off with Vince Carter every day in practice. That 1996-97 UNC team, the last coached by Dean Smith, also featured Antawn Jamison, Shammond Williams and Ed Cota.
Then, in a 2017 Twitter Q&A, Bryant again insisted he would have attended Duke, at least in part because Smith stopped recruiting him, thinking he would go pro. “Coach K kept at it,” Bryant said.
Regardless, it’s clear that Bryant appreciated the Tar Heels’ brand of basketball and kept them in consideration while Smith was pursuing him. In 2012 he recounted a story about a recruiting letter from Smith, one that “jutted out above the rest”:
“I couldn’t wait to read it, but I didn’t want to do it with people looking over my shoulder,” he told the New York Post’s Peter Vescey. “So I opened it quietly during English class while the teacher was talking.”
Smith wrote that he knew it was a foregone conclusion that Bryant would turn pro, but that “if you change your mind, I want you to know I’m holding a scholarship for you.”
When asked if he still had the letter, Bryant replied, “Are you kidding, bro? Of course I still have it. It’s from Dean bleepin’ Smith!”
