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diego, I believe I can answer your questions.
1) Charlotte has admitted they had a pre-draft deal to draft Kobe and trade him for Vlade Divac. See the link I posted.
2) This one is trickier, regarding Charlotte not doing homework on Divac and his potential retirement. Ok, follow along:
A) Teams have contracts of players and may trade them to other teams at will, barring no-trade clauses, and of course salary cap rules. GM's don't consult players or their agents unless:
B) The player and agent are actively seeking a trade. Still, it's going to be GM talking to GM and they only talk to agent once an offer has been made. The Charlotte GM wouldn't call Divac or his agent and ask if he would play in Charlotte. It's a business and players get traded without their approval. When a trade is completed, each GM calls his old players' agent and tells him of the trade, Then the player gets the news from his agent.
C) Free agency means agent talks to GM. Divac was under contract, not a free agent.
D) Who would expect Divac to retire in the prime of his career? No one would.
3) Divac threatening to retire does not give Charlotte any additional leverage in the deal. They have a deal, draft Kobe and trade him to LA for Divac. It can't be changed. See following for what could change it.
4) Now, suppose Divac does retire. His contract with the Lakers is over. Charlotte keeps Kobe. Divac can't step in and say, trade me to the Clippers so I can stay in LA and let the Clippers send someone to Charlotte and make it a 3 team trade. All Divac retiring does is void the trade between LA and Charlotte.
As mentioned, and shown with a link, Divac agreed to the trade 5 days after draft day. GSH mentioned it took 13 days and I figured out where he got that notion. The trade was official on July 11. This is standard procedure. Players must undergo physical examinations and the league must approve. If a player fails an exam, and that happens, deal is off. Usually, the NBA approves all trades, I can't think of any they don't, but I'm no expert on that. Trades are announced one day and become official on a later one. This policy confused GSH is all, nothing wrong with that. He wasn't the first, and won't be the last.
Can we close the books on the proven fact that Kobe did not force Charlotte to trade him? Since there is no evidence to say otherwise, I think it's wise.
Let's get back on topic, let me add something. Spurs missed the playoffs only 4 times. Two of those times they were fortunate to get a franchise player in the draft. If they start a youth movement now, they should be at least a 35-45 win team when Duncan retires.
Lakers missed the playoffs 5 times, once in Minnesota. In LA, they did after West retired and when they traded all their prospects for Kareem the following year. In the 90's it happened after Showtime was dismantled and a few years ago when Shaq was traded. 2014 is the key year, that's when Kobe's and Pau's contracts expire. Looks like the Lakers will bust their nuts to win while that window is open so a few years of mediocrity could await after 2014. That's also when they'll have a of a lot of cap space too, so who knows?
As others have said, both the Spurs and the Lakers have spoiled fans as a result of their ability to contend.
