"I've had a lot of clients who didn't want to play with Kobe" - Prominent NBA agent on why stars said no to Kobe Bryant in his final years

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"I've had a lot of clients who didn't want to play with Kobe" - Prominent NBA agent on why stars said no to Kobe Bryant in his final years originally appeared on Basketball Network.
By the time Kobe Bryant was limping through the final chapters of his career, the Los Lakers no longer felt like a destination.
L.A. felt like a place where great players could go to watch their careers stall or unravel under crushing pressure. The fear of stepping into that locker room was real, and it was about dealing with No. 24, the merciless leader whose quest for glory came at the cost of nearly everyone around him.
"I've had a lot of clients in the last five years who didn't want to play with Kobe," a top NBA agent said without hesitation in 2014.
Was the man who dominated headlines and highlight reels the real reason stars passed on the Lakers?
The same guy who inspired millions scared away those who should have been his teammates?
Why players said no
This agent knows what happens behind closed doors. When Bryant was the face of the franchise, the supporting cast became easy targets.
"His teammates become the chronic public whipping boys," the agent explained. "Anyone who even dared to challenge Kobe for the spotlight turned into the team scapegoat. That's what happened with Shaq. It happened with Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard. Everyone got their turn."
Bryant's words didn't help. He once told a reporter Shaq was "fat and out of shape." That kind of public criticism set a toxic tone that lingered long after the superstar big man left, taking those three Finals MVPs with him.
Take Andrew Bynum's contract talks in 2012. He wanted one thing.
"How are you going to rein in Kobe?"
The Lakers had no answer. Bynum wanted out of the chaos. From 2012 to 2016, the Lakers cycled through dozens of players, desperate to find pieces that could survive Kobe's iron grip.
The cost of being Him
Kobe left a legacy few will ever match: 33,643 points, five NBA championships and a mindset built on pure willpower. But his final years were marred by injuries and a locker room that felt more like a battlefield. The Lakers made the playoffs just once after 2012. And the cracks were everywhere.
Players didn't just want out because of the injuries or the losing. They left because nobody wanted to become the media's scapegoat. Because standing in Bryant's shadow meant risking your career being torn apart in public.
In the agent's words, "Anyone who could challenge Kobe became a pincushion for the media."
That toxic atmosphere gutted the team. Pau Gasol eventually walked away. Dwight Howard lasted just one season. Bynum's body gave out, but so did his patience. The Lakers paid the price for that in lost talent and wasted years.
But here's the finality to this…
Ask any of those players about Kobe now and they'll rattle off some of the nicest things that can be said about a person. Greatness has a cost, especially in the moment. Kobe was hard, but so was Micheal. So are LeBron and Steph. So were Magic and Larry. So were Russell and Chamberlain.
Whether the agent spoke out of spite, or what he felt was God's truth, this article is not written to demean Kobe. The exact opposite, actually.
The best player in the world can't carry a team if no one wants to stand beside him. And that's the truth the Lakers had to live with until the day their franchise icon said goodbye.This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Aug 11, 2025, where it first appeared.