Dwight/Kobe feuding"we have to play like we like each other"

[KrazySixersD]

said it five years ago what a cancer howard was and an overated player..

he is a career loser... end of story

you know this is true... you have to be incredibly naive to think otherwise

[Green Backpack]

lol.

[moocow007]

Yup. Clearly the LAL mojo is imploding, management included. How could you not throw the moon at Phil? I like D'Antoni but I am tired of defending him. He's a good coach, but come on, we're taumbout Phil Jackson.

D'Antoni is a good coach IF you build a team specifically for his style of play. A team that can get the ball up the floor and get good shots up early in the shotclock. A lot of willing passing and a lot of 3 point shooting. Not a team whose skills are in the post or have ball dominant ISO heavy stars. And that team needs to be able to take care of it's own defense and not need him to manage egos. His Phoenix team had basically every component mentioned above that he needs. Not exactly easy to build a team like that...especially not in a short period of time. This Laker team? Has pretty much nothing that he needs (other than a 39 year old Nash coming off injury) to run his system.

And yep. Huge mistake not even giving Jackson the time of day before signing D'Antoni. D'Antoni on this team had all the earmarks of fail waiting to happen for any serious basketball fan and would have seemed like a great choice only for the casual fan IMO.

[HotRocks34]

This has been coming for awhile now.

If Kobe brought up Shaq to diss Dwight, does anyone think Dwight would NOT have gotten ticked off? And does anyone think Dwight -- seems like an ok dude off the court, but clearly appears to be the classic bully who likes to throw around his gym muscles -- wouldn't at least try to make his teammates think he would defend himself from Kobe (or anyone else) in such a situation? Just to try to save face?

Look, this has been going on for around a year, at least. I think most remember the Dwight camp leaking the "Kobe ruined it" story when Kobe was supposedly recruiting Dwight to LA over a year ago, during or before the Dwightmare. Dwight almost certainly doesn't like Kobe, and probably never has. And I'm sure it would be a mutual feeling.

I've said this before and will repeat it again: Dwight has his own media sources so he can get his message out. Jared Rudolph is just one of many. Kobe likes to play the media game and he has plenty of media 'helpers,' but so does Dwight. If Dwight wants to hurt Kobe's rep, then he can do that with leaks like "Kobe echoed what Shaq said," etc. That is already starting to happen.

As far as all sides saying nothing happened, of course they would say that. I doubt Kobe's media people would confirm anything happened, even if it did, because then it could look like Kobe is being challenged by The Young Lion and it could fuel a whole "mutiny against Kobe" theme or a "bad leader Kobe" theme. Kobe wouldn't want that, I would imagine.

Dwight is trying to overcome the entire Dwightmare PR debacle. I would think his side wouldn't want to confirm a potential near-fight with Kobe, true or not. That would be public relations suicide, especially as Dwight is currently a Laker and Kobe is a kind of demigod for many Lakers fans.

I would also imagine that the Lakers organization isn't likely to confirm the information, true or not. If they did confirm it, and they later decide they need to move Dwight before he may walk on them at the end of this season, they would likely lose all negotiating leverage and would likely get taken to the cleaners in a trade.

Someone said it earlier in the thread: Where there is smoke, there is fire. Dwight, diva that he is, has probably never liked Kobe. I think it probably goes without saying that Kobe is a diva. Two divas can't coexist; just ask Shaq or Kobe. Bynum wasn't a big Kobe fan. Nor was Shaq. Is this possible near-altercation really that difficult to believe?

I'm almost certain Shaq went at Kobe at least once, or came close to it. You don't think Kobe knows how to push people's buttons?

As the season moves on, and the disappointment likely mounts, more will come out. Dwight has been all but openly blasting Kobe recently in interviews. It's not hard to read between the lines of what he's saying. You think when Dwight is talking about people on the team not liking each other, he's talking about Pau?

If this team loses to Houston tomorrow, and they very well could, look out. Because they are then likely to lose to both San Antonio and OKC in the next two games. That would give LA a 6-game losing streak with the entire Big 4 setup intact and there would be nowhere to hide then. That could lead to some real fireworks.

[Deus]

I see this different. I think Dwight is the type who needs to be pals off the court to have chemistry on the court.

i.e. Dwight has tried to party with Kobe on their days off and Kobe isn't interested. Its all like a soap opera really.

Kobe is tough to play for. Look at the whole Pau-Kobe relationship the past few years. Pau is up and down all the time. He complains about Kobe, insults him. Nothing new. Its worked itself out eventually.

I can see this doing the same, if Dwight doesn't care that Kobe is not his friend off the court.

[va-mos]

Surely the Lakers will look to trade Dwight. No way in hell he stays. He wants a ring. LA don't have the foundation in their roster to win a ring. Their stars are old and the championship window was small to begin with. Now it looks like there is no window. Even if they make the playoffs they'll have to beat the big boys on the road early in the playoffs, and the West is stronger than ever right now. And next season Nash/Gasol/Artest and Kobe are another year older and most likely 2 of those 4 will play worse next year. And on top of that he doesn't like Kobe. Nothing here for Dwight, he moves on.

[HotRocks34]

In case anyone forgot the whole supposed "Hey Dwight, come be my Tyson Chandler" recruiting message from Kobe, here's the info. Think this was February of last year (2012):

http://bit.ly/XeEWmL

Howard envisioned going to the Lakers and forming a devastating one-two punch with Bryant. But Bryant had other plans for how Howard would be incorporated into the Lakers.

Bryant tried to sell Howard on being his "Tyson Chandler" and made it clear that Los Angeles would be his, but only once Bryant decided he was done playing.

There's more. Go read it for yourself.

Trust me, Dwight is going to have his say and get his story out there. Just watch.

My guess is Dwight always has felt, or has felt since at least last year, that Kobe is the ultimate diva who just wants "Tyson Chandler"s around to grab his rebounds and help on defense when Kobe's man blows by Kobe. Kobe will focus on his legacy and the scoring record, Dwight may think, and I'll be stuck cleaning up his defensive messes.

Wonder if Andrew Bynum felt like that when he played with Kobe?

Anyways, it's important to know who has what agenda, be they player or media member. Everyone has an angle, in my opinion.

I will tell you this: Bondy, the New York Daily News guy who put out this "near Dwight-Kobe fight" story, likely has his own agenda. And if I had to guess what it was, I would think it involves Dwight wearing a Nets uniform next season.

[Zane]

Dwight and a 1st for Boozer.

[OhMyBosh]

Dwight is going to stay in LA. The market potential there is too enticing to ignore. Everyone knows Kobe is not going to be playing much longer. Once he's gone, the storied franchise is all Dwight's.

[Beardman]

I should have known that this dude was not ready for primetime... Carmelo took the huge market criticism way better than Howard has taken it.

Hopefully he will bounce back like Melo did.

[Grumpy Heat Fan]

Dwight is certainly following in Shaq's footsteps alright.

Only difference now, is that Kobe is the old one and Dwight is the young one. Kobe is gone, Dwight stays. Unless of course, the Lakers want to let Kobe run the circus in LA until his contract runs out, and Dwight walks away this off-season due to it.

In july 2012, I said the Lakers should have blown it up and acquired Deron Williams + Dwight Howard in Laker jerseys and start over by trading/amnestying Kobe, Pau, Metta, Bynum for new pieces around Deron + Dwight. The next 10 years of Laker basketball would have been secured. Doesn't sound like such a bad plan now, does it.

[arkknight1988]

stay in hollywood dwight. he can get the lead role in the next drama

[arkknight1988]

Dwight is going to stay in LA. The market potential there is too enticing to ignore. Everyone knows Kobe is not going to be playing much longer. Once he's gone, the storied franchise is all Dwight's.

if you ignore that dwight has the patience of a 8 year old then yes, thats true

[Sark]

Dwight is certainly following in Shaq's footsteps alright.

Only difference now, is that Kobe is the old one and Dwight is the young one. Kobe is gone, Dwight stays. Unless of course, the Lakers want to let Kobe run the circus in LA until his contract runs out, and Dwight walks away this off-season due to it.

In july 2012, I said the Lakers should have blown it up and acquired Deron Williams + Dwight Howard in Laker jerseys and start over by trading/amnestying Kobe, Pau, Metta, Bynum for new pieces around Deron + Dwight. The next 10 years of Laker basketball would have been secured. Doesn't sound like such a bad plan now, does it.

Kobe is not going anywhere until after 2014. He's not walking away from $30 million next year, especially with the way his marriage is going, and Vanessa threatened to take half of his ****. He also has a no trade clause, so the Lakers can't just dump him somewhere without his agreement.

[arkknight1988]

Jarrod N Rudolph

For those wondering, I was told on Thursday that the rumor of a Dwight-Kobe altercation was nothing more than talk.

I also know of two other reporters that were made aware of the rumor last week and also told the story wasn't true when they looked into it. about 3 hours ago

rudolph has been in dwights pocket for years now. i believe this happened

[Apathy]

You think when Dwight is talking about people on the team not liking each other, he's talking about Pau?

Great post.

[ROballer]

Well,Kobe included Dwight with the rest of his teammates he's following on twitter so it's clear that nothing happened

[moocow007]

Jarrod N Rudolph

For those wondering, I was told on Thursday that the rumor of a Dwight-Kobe altercation was nothing more than talk.

I also know of two other reporters that were made aware of the rumor last week and also told the story wasn't true when they looked into it. about 3 hours ago

rudolph has been in dwights pocket for years now. i believe this happened

Someone should just ask Peace...he's never been one to mince words. If it happened, MWP will likely say "yeah".

[HotRocks34]

You think when Dwight is talking about people on the team not liking each other, he's talking about Pau?

Great post.

Thanks. Just pointing out what I see. Great post by you on the "where there's smoke, there is fire." You got it!

T.O. and Michael Jackson have their popcorn ready. If you like drama, I would stay tuned over the next week or so if the Lakers lose to Houston tomorrow.

[EscapoTHB]

I think pau probably hates everyone associated with the lakers at this point. That's probably mainly who Dwight is talking about.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2