As Kobe Bryant returns to Philadelphia to play basketball on Tuesday night, apparently for the last time, he comes back as a 37-year-old at the end of a Hall of Fame career. He is in his 19th professional season and, with a tweak of time, all of those seasons could have been spent in a Sixers uniform.
It is a career that contained seven appearances in the NBA Finals, five championships, two scoring titles, a Most Valuable Player award and 15 selections to the All-Star Game. Bryant became symbolic of the revival of the Los Angeles Lakers, carrying on the tradition of Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson. Just as easily, he could have been the player who picked up the banner for Billy Cunningham, Julius Erving and Maurice Cheeks.
Unfortunately, for that latter narrative, the calendar pages fell the wrong way. Lucas, who was prepared to take Bryant with the first pick in the 1996 NBA draft rather than Allen Iverson, was fired before he got the chance. The Sixers were sold in April and the new management under Pat Croce brought in another general manager and, ultimately, another coach.
Had Harold Katz waited another year to sell and stayed with Lucas, who had two seasons remaining on his contract, things would have fallen much differently.
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"I think Philadelphia has always had a love-hate relationship with Kobe," Lucas said. "But he would have been up there on Mount Rushmore in Philly, with Hal Greer and Wilt and Doc. He should be up there."
If you're serious, give me a hint, like the sport. 
