Joe Berry
Kosmopolitische NBA-Koryphäe
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But the details of the blockbuster deal that was agreed to -- including one person involved in the talks telling CBS Sports that Bryant had given his conditional OK to be dealt to Detroit before rejecting it at the 11th hour -- have never fully been revealed.
"The deal was done," another person directly involved in the negotiations told CBS Sports. "We were just waiting to set up the conference call with the league office."
It was the 2007 preseason, four months after Bryant had publicly requested a trade and three months after an amateur video had surfaced showing Bryant eviscerating teammate Andrew Bynum and pointedly criticizing Kupchak. Nerves were frayed. Feelings were hurt.
In the background, Kupchak and Pistons president Joe Dumars had been quietly hammering away on a blockbuster deal for Bryant that made as much sense for both parties as possible in a situation when a Hall of Famer demands to be traded.
According to one account from a person briefed on the timeline, Dumars was at a preseason game against the Mavericks when he got a call from Kupchak, who spoke the following words:
"We're good to go."
Either way, there's consensus among those involved about what the final deal was: Rip Hamilton, Rodney Stuckey, Jason Maxiell and two first-round picks for Bryant.
...
A day or two after Dumars had received the "good to go" call, Kupchak called him at the Pistons offices in Auburn Hills, Mich., around mid-day with an ominous update.
Buss and Bryant wanted to meet in person before finalizing the trade. "This thing is in their hands now," Kupchak said, according to a person briefed on the conversation.
With that, the Pistons knew the deal was dead. "There was too much of a relationship there," one of the involved parties said.
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