Mark Cuban reveals Kobe Bryant was almost traded to Mavericks in 2007

On a recent podcast appearance, Mark Cuban told a story about how Kobe Bryant was almost traded from the Lakers to the Mavericks back in 2007.

Many of the Kobe Bryant stories we get now are about his maniacal work ethic and the moments on the court where he displayed just how relentless of a competitor he was.

Having spent all 20 years of his career with the Lakers, something we hear far less about are stories on places he could've played besides Los Angeles.

On Shaquille O’Neal’s podcast, "The Big Podcast" minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, revealed that a trade for Kobe was nearly completed in 2007 when he was still the majority owner of the team.

You'll never get equal trade value if you part with a player of Kobe's stature, but trading him for Josh Howard, Jason Terry and picks would've been diabolical. Luckily, the Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak was able to cool things down and keep Kobe in Los Angeles.

Instead of trading away their franchise player, the Lakers made a deal for Pau Gasol a handful of months later and won two more titles. Kobe never left and had a fairytale ending in the City of Angels.

Cuban is a reliable source and would have, obviously, been deeply involved in this potential trade. Given that Bryant's desire to be traded was known to all at the time, I imagine nearly every organization in the NBA at least called Lakers owner Jerry Buss to find out what the asking price for the superstar was that summer.

Kobe Bryant himself admitted two different trades nearly happened, one that very nearly sent him to the Chicago Bulls and another that would have landed him with the Pistons in Detroit.

The NBA was different then and player empowerment was nowhere near the level it’s at now. With a couple of years left on his deal, Bryant was both convinced to stay and stuck in a scenario where he had to at least play things out. In the end, it was a win-win scenario for both parties.

Pairing Kobe with Dirk Nowitzki would've been a scary duo in Dallas. While both won titles even after this trade fell apart, can you imagine how good they would've been together during Kobe's prime?

Maybe they do better in that alternate NBA world than what they accomplished apart.

In this timeline, however, Laker fans are just happy that they kept their homegrown superstar and had a front office that found a way to appease their star and still build a contender that won titles.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.