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On the same day Bryant was recently officially ruled out for the remainder of the season because of a fractured knee in his left leg, the 35-year-old told reporters he expects the Lakers to return to championship form immediately, starting with the moves they make with their salary-cap space this summer. That diatribe prompted a meeting of the minds between Bryant and the Lakers' brass.

"Jimmy [executive vice president of player personnel Jim Buss] and I actually talked after that and it's important for us to have that conversation because this is their team, it's been in their family for years and we all know what the track record is for that, but I've also been part of this franchise since I was 17 years old," Bryant told Rovell. "I feel like I bleed purple and gold and I want to see this franchise be successful. I don't want to hear the comments of dissension between Jim and [Lakers president] Jeanie [Buss]. We need to figure this thing out. We're all moving in the same direction."

Bryant, who signed a two-year, $48.5 million extension with the team in November to lock up his 19th and 20th seasons in L.A., reiterated his message of urgency to Buss to return to the top as soon as possible.

"This organization is just not going to go [down]," Bryant said. "It's not going to take a nose dive. But I think we need to accelerate it a little bit for selfish reasons, because I want to win and I want to win next season. So, it's kind of getting them going now as opposed to two years from now."

Despite already airing his concerns about what direction the Lakers might be heading, Bryant said his faith is as strong as ever in the Lakers' ability to bounce back to contender status.

"Extremely confident," Bryant said. "That was one of my concerns [when he re-signed] and they assured me, 'This is fair for you for everything you've done for the franchise and will continue to do while being able to construct a team that is going to contend for a championship here over the next couple of years.'"

GeorgeDillion wrote:I'm tired of Kobe running his mouth while eating up cap space ruining our rebuild plans, I honestly wish we had a humble player like Dirk who's loyal and would go along with the teams plan no matter what.

"Now that I already reached my goal (of winning it all), I really want to finish my career in Dallas,". "But saying all that, I don't want another year next year with the same as this year, (with) the frustration and playing for the eight or nine seed. I think we all know that this is a very big summer for us (Mavericks general manager) Donnie (Nelson) knows. Cuban knows. We want to get back to the championship level."

April 8 2013

Yearly salary owed the season after the rant : $22.7 Million.

snaquille oatmeal wrote:

GeorgeDillion wrote:I'm tired of Kobe running his mouth while eating up cap space ruining our rebuild plans, I honestly wish we had a humble player like Dirk who's loyal and would go along with the teams plan no matter what.

"Now that I already reached my goal (of winning it all), I really want to finish my career in Dallas,". "But saying all that, I don't want another year next year with the same as this year, (with) the frustration and playing for the eight or nine seed. I think we all know that this is a very big summer for us (Mavericks general manager) Donnie (Nelson) knows. Cuban knows. We want to get back to the championship level."

April 8 2013

Yearly salary owed the season after the rant : $22.7 Million.

the difference is that players like Dirk is that teams go into negotiations with these players with the mind set of entering negotiations with a low ball offer then the players agrees to it. with Kobe the huge offer came from the Lakers first and he took it. I think if the Lakers would have tried to reason with Kobe to take a lower offer in order to keep the bigger cap space Kobe would have gone for it, but that was not the case.

TonyMontana wrote:Kobe and his double edge sword.
He took a 23+ mil a years deal and then he cries about adding talent around him to win a title.
WTF is he smoking? Seriously! And then he talks sht. WTF are we suppose to do!
Some of these guys just need to STFU.

Kilroy wrote:What I don't get is why Kobe was preaching faith and trust in ownership before and after he signed his contract and basically up until his "revenge is sweet and quick" comment, but now he's all up in arms about something...

I didn't hear any inconsistency in any of the Buss's messages in all that time. Where's this conflict he talks about?

I assume something with the Phil negotiations irritated him, but I still don't see what.