Kobe Bryant went straight from high school to the NBA Draft in 1996, but if the future Hall of Famer had to abide by the current one-and-done rules he would have played for Mike Krzyzewski.
Asked on Twitter late Sunday what school he would attend, Bryant replied "Duke."
Duke https://t.co/RDyzJ0PMUw
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) November 20, 2017
"Coach (Dean) Smith stopped recruiting me [at North Carolina]," Bryant said in a followup tweet. "He thought I would go pro and wished me luck. Coach K kept at it."
In 1996-97 season, Duke was the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament but was upset in the second round by God Shammgod's Providence. Two seasons later, Duke finished 37-2 and Bryant couldn't help what it would be like to be a junior on one of the better teams in Duke history.
"There’s no maybe about it," Bryant said in 2007 about possibly attending Duke. "Every time I turn on the TV and see Cameron Indoor Stadium, see everybody in Krzyzewskiville and see the Crazies jumping up in down with the intensity and the building almost shaking, I wonder what it would have been like to play there with Corey [Maggette] and Elton [Brand] and all those guys."
Bryant ended up playing for Krzyzewski after all with the USA National Team, winning two Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012.