When the Los Angeles Lakers reported to training camp for the 2007-08 season, they were merely hoping that Kobe Bryant would remain with the team after he had publicly demanded a trade during the summer.
But everything changed when they acquired Pau Gasol in a mid-season trade from the Memphis Grizzlies, and all of a sudden, the team and its fans were thinking world championship.
L.A. ripped through the remaining schedule and finished with a 57-25 record, the best in the Western Conference, and it was looking like a juggernaut in the making.
After averaging 28.3 points and 5.4 assists per game, Bryant won his first and only league MVP award, but he was just getting started.
In the first round of the playoffs, the Lakers faced Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson and the Denver Nuggets.
After winning Game 1 easily, they took Game 2 by the score of 122-107, as Bryant had one of his most prolific games ever.
He poured in 49 points on 18-of-27 shooting from the field and 5-of-9 from 3-point range, as well as 10 assists.
Bryant by himself almost equaled the combined output of Anthony and Iverson, who scored 54 points.
L.A. went on to sweep Denver, and although it lost in the NBA Finals to its hated rival, the Boston Celtics, its future was very bright.
In 2009 and 2010, the Lakers won back-to-back championships, including one over those same Celtics.
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