As the TRUTH comes out on Ariza

[mecxi2000]

now with the signing of artest for me is evident what hapened with ariza.
The lakers give ariza a contract offer for about 4 million per year and the agent was what ahepend here, and what hapens is that the choice from the lakers point of view was ariza at 4 or artest at or artes at 6.
its all busines for both sides

[Tommy Trojan]

now with the signing of artest for me is evident what hapened with ariza.
The lakers give ariza a contract offer for about 4 million per year and the agent was what ahepend here, and what hapens is that the choice from the lakers point of view was ariza at 4 or artest at or artes at 6.
its all busines for both sides

Please do explain to us how you ended up with that conclusion? When there are reports stating the Lakers offered Ariza the full MLE.

[215paperboy]

this isnt similar to ronnys situation, ronny was making in the hundred thousand range, and knew staying with the lakers would mean less playing time and a role with odom, pau, bynum here. Trevor was just greedy, lakers were open to 6 mil a year to a guy that is nothing without kobe and pau, getting him open shots, if anyone was disrespected it was the Lakers, the lakers made trevor not the other way around.

trevor wasn't greedy. you have to remeber while winng is important to most athletes, they only have a certain amount of years to make their money. it's not like they're doctors or lawyers where they can pretty much work for as long as they want. by their mid 30's they're pretty much done. so they have a much smaller window of opportunity than the rest of the world.

[TonyMontana]

this isnt similar to ronnys situation, ronny was making in the hundred thousand range, and knew staying with the lakers would mean less playing time and a role with odom, pau, bynum here. Trevor was just greedy, lakers were open to 6 mil a year to a guy that is nothing without kobe and pau, getting him open shots, if anyone was disrespected it was the Lakers, the lakers made trevor not the other way around.

trevor wasn't greedy. you have to remeber while winng is important to most athletes, they only have a certain amount of years to make their money. it's not like they're doctors or lawyers where they can pretty much work for as long as they want. by their mid 30's they're pretty much done. so they have a much smaller window of opportunity than the rest of the world.

I can dig that, but you also have to remeber that Ariza wasnt and wouldnt have been as successful with any other team as he was with the Lakers. We carried him and build him into the player that he is today, you cant deny that.
Its like a boxer who got his ass beat every fight and then MIKKI took him and trained him and molded him and made him into a fighter that he is today, and then time comes for title fights and he turns his back on his trainer and walks aways from the person who actually made him who he is today.
I dont disagree with him getting paid, but lets be honest he isnt worth 10 mil a year, he sure aint worth 5 mil a year, but its okay let some other fool pay his money, we got bigger fish to fry.

Ariza isnt the first nor will he be the last young talent that came into LA and became a good player and then turned his back on his team, specially when he stood in front of everyone and thank LA for giving him his opportunity and he claimed to be an LA BOY and his loyalty to LA......B.S when we signed Artest I was so happy, basically the way I saw it, Ariza ishted on us and we took his ish and threw it right back at his face and then some.

[KObe Bryant]

I wonder if Mitch was begging Ariza. Ariza should have understand that he'll be much fit here. He should have argued with Lee first. Lucky we got Artest to replace him, but when I watch back Trevor's games, I do really miss his hustles.

[jamisont]

first. Lakers had about 15mil max to resign both Odom and Ariza, most thought 9 for odom and 6 for ariza was reasonable.
2nd. then David Lee start talking on media well before july 1st, he kept babbling about 'ariza wont take hometown discount' 'lakers gonna have to decide between Odom and Ariza, one is gonna be 35 years old and the others 28 when contract is up'

so clearly Ariza's agent gave some indication to lakers front office, he would not settle with MLE offer. and this wasnt the first time mitch deal with david lee. so mitch was prepared with plan B before they even began negotiating.

u dont call it greedy? Ariza didnt want to share money with Odom, he wanted Lakers to choose him over Odom.
I was listening on radio and Ariza came on and interviewed with steve lavin on june 30th, they were talking about 40~50mil contract.
PPL around Ariza gave him wrong idea about his value and current market, and they are the one to blame. they compare him like he's young scottie pippen??

Lakers did offer Ariza MLE, david lee soon rejected it then Mitch gave him 'go get better deal or we might match it' then david lee got all emotional and stormed out of the room , then began crying on media. he changed his story at least twice so far, and he's not that much reliable to me.

[Tommy Trojan]

first. Lakers had about 15mil max to resign both Odom and Ariza, most thought 9 for odom and 6 for ariza was reasonable.
2nd. then David Lee start talking on media well before july 1st, he kept babbling about 'ariza wont take hometown discount' 'lakers gonna have to decide between Odom and Ariza, one is gonna be 35 years old and the others 28 when contract is up'

so clearly Ariza's agent gave some indication to lakers front office, he would not settle with MLE offer. and this wasnt the first time mitch deal with david lee. so mitch was prepared with plan B before they even began negotiating.

u dont call it greedy? Ariza didnt want to share money with Odom, he wanted Lakers to choose him over Odom.
I was listening on radio and Ariza came on and interviewed with steve lavin on june 30th, they were talking about 40~50mil contract.
PPL around Ariza gave him wrong idea about his value and current market, and they are the one to blame. they compare him like he's young scottie pippen??

Lakers did offer Ariza MLE, david lee soon rejected it then Mitch gave him 'go get better deal or we might match it' then david lee got all emotional and stormed out of the room , then began crying on media. he changed his story at least twice so far, and he's not that much reliable to me.

nice well said

[Mamba Venom]

Ariza joined the

Joe Johnson
Shawn Marion
Steph Marbury club

who wlse left a better situation for more $ and to be a star

[CITYOFANGELSX3]

So Long Trevor

[dznutzz]

now with the signing of artest for me is evident what hapened with ariza.
The lakers give ariza a contract offer for about 4 million per year and the agent was what ahepend here, and what hapens is that the choice from the lakers point of view was ariza at 4 or artest at or artes at 6.
its all busines for both sides

reallly? i heard from my mom's friend's uncle that the lakers offered trevor 2 peanuts and a snickers bar a year with an anual increase of 1 snicker bar but lee was like "wassup with dat?" mitch then signed artest for the mle.

[jamisont]

now with the signing of artest for me is evident what hapened with ariza.
The lakers give ariza a contract offer for about 4 million per year and the agent was what ahepend here, and what hapens is that the choice from the lakers point of view was ariza at 4 or artest at or artes at 6.
its all busines for both sides

reallly? i heard from my mom's friend's uncle that the lakers offered trevor 2 peanuts and a snickers bar a year with an anual increase of 1 snicker bar but lee was like "wassup with dat?" mitch then signed artest for the mle.

doubt it, thats the story ariza's fan wants to believe.
if u read all news lately about ariza, then u'd know David lee mentioning Mitch wasnt willing to pay him more than MLE. he then said mitch doesnt think seriously about ariza's leaving, then he said there are several teams interested in ariza. David lee wanted to play media, and mitch wasnt falling for it cuz he had back up plans.

[milesfides]

If the Lakers didn't have Ron already in their back pocket, Ariza and his agent had all the leverage in the world. He already did it with Bynum last year.

But as Ric Bucher mentioned in his twitter, the Lakers were denying anything with Ron (for good reason) up until it happened.

The moral of the story is that the Lakers, primarily Mitch and co., are extremely tight-lipped about their plans. Many organizations have leaks all the time, but the Lakers don't - drafting Bynum was a surprise, Gasol trade, Ariza trade, etc.

That allowed the Lakers to strike hard and fast with Artest.

Remember, Kobe campaigned for Artest for YEARS, as he said a couple years ago when he complained about management not doing enough to surround him with enough talent.

Phil Jackson reportedly has wanted Artest for awhile too.

Artest apparently approached Kobe and/or Phil last season when the Celtics were eliminated.

I'm not going to imply that the Lakers were guilty of tampering, but considering the Lakers told Ariza to come back with an offer sheet tells me that Ariza was never their first priority at small forward.

It was Artest.

You could call Ariza's agent a douchebag for going public, but the bottom line is that it wouldn't have mattered. He made himself look bad (he got burned, badly), but the Lakers would have chosen Artest over Ariza regardless.

So, the bottom line is, blaming Ariza as being greedy or his agent a douchebag is irrelevant.

The Lakers wanted Artest. They finally got him, after years of wanting him.

Based on the available evidence and progression of events, I think it's simple as that.

[Tonyism74]

If Mitch offered something similar or something even better, Ariza, as much as I like the guy, is an idiot. He went from a Championship team, to a team that is in jeopardy. A hometown boy with the hometown team giving you an opportunity to play and to win...and this is what he did? tsk tsk. you never know, until you know.

[Dr Aki]

its wasnt just ron artest

marion was (and still is) available...

[TylersLakers]

Wow! D Lee negotiates publicly, and the LAL negotiate privately. This really should be an eye opener for future players signing up with D Lee's team.

What ever happened to Lee Steignberg?

SKIP HIM.
He thought just because good old Jimmy boy had a hard on Bynum and didnt want to lose Bynum and he gave him that much money, he though he could pull the same ish for Ariza not realizing that there is this crazy hard headed warrior with balls knocking on the Lakers door willing to play for less money to win a title and be on the best team.
I bet you Arizas kicking himself in the ass right now wishing he have this dirtbag as his agent.
Ariz couldve made much much more money if he played a couple more years with what we were going to pay him and added a few more titles to his resume and then went after a bigger contract, but he didnt and look where he ended up.

Yep and don't forget, Drew stepped into the negotiations himself after nothing was progressing. It took Drew wanting to be here and to meet the Lakers halfway for things to be done.

[ElGrandeA]

I don't really have any problems with Ariza leaving, since we were able to sign Artest. Ariza didn't get a real chance to play until he came to LA. He left too early from college and he didn't fit in in NY or Orlando.

If a player leaves a championship team for 1-2 million more, I think that is messed up, but my understanding is that the deal he got from Houston was for $35M / 5 years. That is a lot more than the Lakers were offering.

[Tommy Trojan]

Well Ariza's agent said "Ariza won't take a hometown discount" from the start. So they were banking on the Lakers not to be able to get any other caliber player to replace Ariza

[Kilroy]

If the Lakers didn't have Ron already in their back pocket, Ariza and his agent had all the leverage in the world. He already did it with Bynum last year.

But as Ric Bucher mentioned in his twitter, the Lakers were denying anything with Ron (for good reason) up until it happened.

The moral of the story is that the Lakers, primarily Mitch and co., are extremely tight-lipped about their plans. Many organizations have leaks all the time, but the Lakers don't - drafting Bynum was a surprise, Gasol trade, Ariza trade, etc.

That allowed the Lakers to strike hard and fast with Artest.

Remember, Kobe campaigned for Artest for YEARS, as he said a couple years ago when he complained about management not doing enough to surround him with enough talent.

Phil Jackson reportedly has wanted Artest for awhile too.

Artest apparently approached Kobe and/or Phil last season when the Celtics were eliminated.

I'm not going to imply that the Lakers were guilty of tampering, but considering the Lakers told Ariza to come back with an offer sheet tells me that Ariza was never their first priority at small forward.

It was Artest.

You could call Ariza's agent a douchebag for going public, but the bottom line is that it wouldn't have mattered. He made himself look bad (he got burned, badly), but the Lakers would have chosen Artest over Ariza regardless.

So, the bottom line is, blaming Ariza as being greedy or his agent a douchebag is irrelevant.

The Lakers wanted Artest. They finally got him, after years of wanting him.

Based on the available evidence and progression of events, I think it's simple as that.

I think it's safe to say we wanted Artest...

But judging from the Phil and Artest videos, I think it's also safe to say our desire/need for him was at an all-time low...

It didn't seem like Artest and his Agent expected anything from the Lakers when they got the initial call from Mitch. And Phil called Artest "An Unknown." It sounded like Mitch was just feeling Artest out. I don't think he expected anything to get done this quick.

Now either Artest is a much better actor than he is a rapper, or there really wasn't any agreement between them until after the discussions with Ariza had begun.

I don't think they had Artest in their back pocket.... I think they knew he'd be a possibility if talks with Ariza failed, but I don't think they planned on getting anything done with them this fast.

Mitch has made some pretty pointed comments about David Lee in the past. It seems like he just rubs them the wrong way.

I think Ariza was just a victim of that dynamic... I think they started talks with Ariza and his agent in good faith, but given the Small Forward options out there, the economy, and Odom, they were not going to let David Lee dominate the talks and drive the transaction.

I mean, look how fast they signed another agreement... For the same ammount of money the Lakers offered. The Lakers going with Artest was a complete surprise to them.

Also, if they had Artest in their back pocket, you'd think the deal would be done by now... They're still working out the details.

Basically, I think this deal came down to 2 things....

David Lee wen't from 0-60 on the hardball negotiating scale in the very first call....
And Artest went 0-60 on the "I wanna be a Laker" scale in about an hour...

Basically 2 nut-jobs came together in a perfect storm of wackiness made this happen in record time.

[dingclancy]

Yeah what happened with Artest-Ariza is more improbable than the Gasol trade

All this thing had to happen:

* Yao getting injured for next season
* Houston offering peanuts to Ron Artest
* David Lee being too emotional
* All of it happening in a span of 2 days.