Kobe Bryant was once convinced he was joining the Knicks: Woj

What could have been, Knicks fans will never know.

There was a time, former NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski has revealed, when Kobe Bryant believed he’d be coming to the Mecca.

“He was convinced he was going to end up with the Knicks,” Woj said during an appearance on Carmelo Anthony’s “7PM in Brooklyn” podcast Thursday. 

“[This was] when Jim Buss was running the Lakers, I remember sitting there with Kobe down in Orange County — I think Tim Grover was with us — and I remember him saying, ‘they’re going to amnesty me, no one’s going to claim me off waivers, and I’m gonna’ go sign with the Knicks.’”

Woj told Bryant that Los Angeles’ brass wouldn’t dream of it.

“I said, ‘they’re not going to amnesty you … they’ll burn this city down,’” Wojnarowski reminisced. “[Kobe] loved the Lakers and he only ever really wanted to be there, but he would fantasize, he loved the Garden.”

In addition to his mention of Jim Buss, Woj gives one other hint as to when Bryant believed he would be joining the Knicks, noting, “he was defending you [Anthony] … it was right in the middle of the Phil [Jackson] stuff.”

“[Bryant] told me ‘why the f—k you keep apologizing? F—k that motherf—ker,” Anthony confirms.

Though Woj doesn’t mention the “stuff” by name, it’s plausible he’s referring to the heated exchanges between the president and the All-Star that took place in 2017.

Elsewhere during his podcast appearance, the ex-NBA insider addressed his long-standing relationship with the Hall-of-Famer.

“I remember one of the things that really gave me credibility in the NBA was Kobe would talk to me. He was really generous with me,” Wojnarowski said.

“It gave me a lot of credibility with other players, with GMs, with everybody … I remember standing with him at the Staples Center. I would always talk to him on the way to his car.”

Woj is famous for his walk-and-talks. Bryant is famous for his Lakers legacy.

The 18-time All-Star spent the entirety of his 20-year career in Los Angeles. The Black Mamba led the Lake Show to five championship titles between 2000-2010 before retiring in 2016. 

Four years later, in 2020, Bryant and his daughter Gianna, then 13, passed away in a helicopter crash.

Wojnarowski, who left ESPN in September to become the men’s basketball GM at St. Bonaventure, revealed in a Sports Illustrated profile on Thursday he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March.