Multiple times in his 20-year career, Kobe Bryant looked like he would leave the Lakers. But Jerry West wasn’t going to let him play for Donald Sterling.

When the Lakers were upset in the 2004 NBA Finals by the Pistons, the Kobe-Shaq era was clearly coming to an end. O’Neal wanted an extension. Phil Jackson left as head coach. Bryant, who was a free agent, felt unappreciated by the Lakers and was set to change Staples Center locker rooms and join the Clippers.

Then, former Lakers general manager and mentor Jerry West — who drafted Bryant out of high school in 1996 — stepped in, and stressed that it would be a mistake to play under Sterling, who was later stripped of his ownership and banned from the NBA after racist recordings of him were released in 2014.

“No one knows the intimate talks I had with him,” West said Tuesday night on TNT. “I remember when he was gonna leave the Lakers. I’ve never really mentioned this to anyone. He was gonna sign with the Clippers. I told him, ‘Kobe under no circumstances can you do this.’ He was mad at everyone, the Lakers, the owner, everyone.

“I said, ‘Kobe you can’t go play with the Clippers, you can’t play for that owner. Period.’ We had two conversations about it,” West recalled. “He supposedly made a commitment to the Clippers, and after the last one we talked the last time. But there’s so many things we talked about as he was just seeking information.”

Bryant later admitted how close he was to joining the other team in town. But, O’Neal was traded to the Heat in July and Bryant re-signed with the Lakers the next day, remaining there until his retirement in 2016.

Less than four years after Bryant’s final game, he is gone, tragically killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna.

West, 81, doesn’t believe that will ever make sense.

“Honestly, I felt like his father for two years,” West said. “I don’t know if I can get over this, I really don’t.”