Report: Lakers pitched Cavs on Kobe-for-LeBron swap in 2007

Kobe Bryant will retire this spring as a career Los Angeles Laker, having spent each of his 20 NBA seasons in the purple and gold.

But his two-decade spell in Hollywood was nearly interrupted some nine years ago, when the Lakers tried to deal their then-disgruntled megastar. After a deal with the Chicago Bulls fell through during the 2007 offseason, the Lakers' front office got ultra-ambitious, and rang up the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Their offer, according to a report from ESPN's Brian Windhorst: Bryant for LeBron James.

"At that time, the Lakers had to do something. I was just losing faith in what they were trying to do. It was like I was a meal ticket," Bryant told ESPN's Baxter Holmes, as quoted by Windhorst. "You come out and score 40, 50 points, fill the seats, we're going to keep the payroll at a minimum, generate revenue. It's like, look, listen, I am not with that, dude. I have to win without Shaq. I've got to do it. We've got to do something."

James wasn't surprised by the proposed trade, which, if consummated, would've been arguably the biggest in basketball history.

"I believe it," he told ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "If you give up one big fish, you got to give a big fish too."

The Cavs predictably declined - James, five years younger than Bryant, had just led Cleveland (almost single-handedly) to the NBA Finals in his fourth season - though they reportedly came back with a LeBron-less counteroffer that the Lakers dismissed out of hand.

Even if the Cavs had been open to the blockbuster swap, though, Bryant - who had a no-trade clause in his contract - would have shut it down.

"I never would've approved it," he told Holmes. "Never. The trade to go to Cleveland? Never. That wasn't one of the teams that was on my list. It was Chicago, San Antonio (or) Phoenix."

The rest is history.

No subsequent trade materialized, Bryant stayed put, the Lakers traded for Pau Gasol the following season, and by the summer of 2010, they'd capped a run of three straight Finals appearances with their second straight championship. James would leave the Cavs for the Miami Heat that same summer, only to return four years later.

He's yet to win a championship in Cleveland.