RealGM

Sorry if this has already been mentioned but I thought this deserve its own thread for the time being. I know I am only pasting the obvious, but Kobe has never really said anything on the record regarding his status until now. I mean 99.9% of us all believed he wanted to remain a Laker when they started out that well with Bynum and arguably 100% of us knew for a fact that Kobe is a Laker for good when Mitch pulled off the Gasol trade. Anyway, here is the article.

I love this team. If they want to win right now, I'm all for them. That's all I've said the whole time. We have a job to do here, so it's important to focus on what we're doing and not get distracted from that.

"I've been sitting on this for four years now," he said. "After three or four years of not getting anything done, to see it today, it feels pretty damn good. It's been a hell of a ride."

Bryant had harsh words for Buss and Kupchak last spring.

And now?

"Nah," he replied when asked if there were any lingering bad feelings toward anyone in the organization. "On the serious side, I learned a lesson, which is you have to separate business from the love of the game because there were a lot of decisions that were made business-wise that I wasn't happy with. I took a lot of the blame for a lot of the stuff they were doing. It didn't sit right with me. It still doesn't sit right with me. But you have to be able to separate that from the love that you have for the game of basketball and the respect that you have for your team."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2 ... id=3357845

finally, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Man up Kobe and apologize for making us think you were leaving. Say I am sorry to Meeatch.

Kiss Buss.

Win now!

I thing another ring will be all the apologizing Kobe needs to do. Nothing says sorry more than jewelry, it worked for Vanessa and it will work for Buss.

"I love the weather. I love my '63 drop-top Impala. I love the 405 [freeway]. I love my guys."

What a great line! Classic!
Kobe's heart and soul is with the Lakers.

It's nice, but honestly, it just reads to me a continuation of the stuff that he's been saying all year. For example, joking that he was done playing GM, that he and his teammates are like brothers, etc. He was raving about the team and Andrew Bynum in particular even before Christmas, IIRC.

All he wanted was better/improved teammates, a legit shot at the championship. Once that was delivered, the trust was restored, the reason for him to want to leave, gone.

But it's nice to hear him try to kill this story, to stop it from becoming a distraction (yeah right, it's THE storyline of the year, sorry Celtics). It's humbling to hear him admit his mortality, the eventual closing of the window, as well as encouraging to read that his feelings towards the team won't change, even if they do fall short this year.

lol where does it say he wants to stick with the lakers.. all it says is...

"He said he hasn't necessarily changed his mind about wanting to stay instead of wanting to leave."

that can be seen as both positive and negative...

It says it in the first sentence of the article. They also quote him as responding, "Absolutely."

And you're misreading that line you quoted. What Kobe is disputing is the assumption that he wanted to leave at all. You would have read it correctly if you continued reading, and didn't take the quote out of context.

Nice to see Kobe man up and accept his mistakes. Goes to show how much he has matured from the whole fiasco.

well i agree with kobe except i don't like the 405 freeway.

but this was a "no duh" question... why the hell would kobe leave?

I still agree with everything Kobe said during the summer, it was imperative that things needed to change and change quickly.

Simple example, when fans at a town hall meeting demand for the GM to be fired that says change is needed.

When fans threaten to not renew season tickets that says change was needed.

Bottom line things had to change period.

Good points, DEEP3CL.

What's interesting is that some people see what transpired as a demonstration of: "eat your words, Kobe."

However, he got exactly what he wanted. Presumably, what we fans also wanted.

Yes, he complained about ownership's commitment and management's competency. Two things that were almost universally acknowledged as lacking for the past few years - or did we already forget?

It didn't happen in the prettiest or predictable way. Laker fans were pretty much embracing for the worst right up until the first few games of the season.

Yes, Kobe demanded a trade, he leveraged himself, wanted to leave LA if they weren't going to build around him, Buss called his bluff, Kobe exercised his no-trade clause...

And the solution turned out to be a Suddenly-Arrived Bynum, improved Farmar and Vujacic, etc. His teammates got better, a LOT better, despite, in spite, or because of Kobe's demands. Depending on your POV. Or, you could see it as a combination of factors.

Regardless, the fact is that Kobe quickly embraced his teammates improvements, especially Bynum, who received the brunt of his dissatisfaction regarding the failed Jason Kidd deal. Kobe's quick turnaround pretty much indicates what his motivation was behind his demands.

He just wanted help, he wanted the chance to contend for a championship, after three tough years. There was no malice towards any of his teammates, and none towards Bynum, as clearly seen by Kobe's singing Bynum's praises and making it a point to look for Bynum in the post. Kobe WANTED Bynum to succeed. Many people assume Kobe uploaded that summer video to youtube himself, like he hated the kid.

Kobe wanted help, and when he got it, what was the motivation to leave?

In hindsight, Kobe admits that he learned some important lessons, on how it was a mistake to let his frustrations lead to the public outburst, how he underestimate the complexities of the business side of basketball, and how he should trust management's ability to do their jobs without his interference.

Anyways, the same people who didn't like Kobe before just see him as the same spoiled brat, the hired gun who cares just about himself. These are the type who look at the Lakers improvement, and smirk, "Now Kobe has no excuses." As if Kobe's outburst last summer was an excuse.

But some say, hey, Kobe, Buss, Mitch, everybody's made some mistakes. But you know what? People kept their cool. Frustrated, insulted, feeling betrayed, whatever, they put their head down and just did their jobs when push came to shove. And you know what happened? The ball started to bounce our way. Everything started to come together.

The important thing is, we're in a position to make a championship push. Apologies made, humble pie eaten, no hard feelings. Let's move on since we're all in this together, we need each other, everybody's in the same corner. Let's do this thing.

That's the attitude that I love about the current Lakers. And their fans. Our team, our city, bent, but did not break. Our crap bucket was filled to the brim, but didn't overflow.

While everybody buried us, we rose again.

yea seemed like management was happy with the way things were and wanted to build around Bynum in the future and ride the kobe money train till his retirement. Kobe was just there as income till they made the transition to build around Bynum, but when he was threatening to leave then the management got a wake up call and started looking for possible trades and eventually ended up with one that turned the lakers into contenders.

Nice and happy to see him saying that !
Only wise and mature men accept their mistakes...he souldn't have done it publicly, I think. But then, who knows, maybe Bynum wouldn't have been so nice this year ?!

It's already in the past...

we want you to stay kobe

Exactly Miles and Deep....

Just like when Magic gave the LAkers an Ultimatum a long time ago of "Me or the Coach" next thing you know the coach got fired. Fact is Kobe and Magic both knew what was best for the team.

Quite frankly I think I speak for most of us when I say I was sick and tired of watching Kobe, Odom and mostly scrubs struggle to make the playoffs only to get bounced year and year in the first round. All of that happened when Dr. Buss promised Kobe a championship contender when he resigned in the summer of 2004.

All of this leads me to believe had Kobe not vented to the media last summer, Dr. Buss and Mitch Kupchak most likely would have been content with the team making the first round as a 7th seed and waste Kobe's prime years away.

This is the best news all year IMO. Kobe needs to retire a Laker IMO, anything else would be a dissapointment. He is this franchise and he is important to the city and the organization. Great to hear he wants to stay for long.

Of course Kobe wants to stick to the Lakers. He should be extremely happy with his current situation and he seems to be. Why wouldn't he? He now leads his very own top tier team

This is the first thread I agree with all the posters


Good read Minhee ..............

Oh ya , Much love to the Bulls fans , all the B.S they use to post about Kobe going to Chi town .......... SUCKERS ..

What made you think KOBE was going to put on a Bulls Jersey A .99 cent Video ...LOLLLL
He's P&G Mangssssss .

Erik Eleven wrote:
I completely understand his frustration last summer, but I still maintain that he should have kept it all behind closed doors. It simply would have been the right thing to do.

I somewhat agree, but maybe it was kept closed door for 3 years and running and he realized that the FO wasn't going to do anything? We don't know for a fact that Gasol would have been obtained. Sure Bynum was already motivated, but had Kobe kept it indoors maybe the rest of the team wouldn't have felt the urgency to step their game up. Who knows?

Furthermore, I think what set Kobe off to the media outlet was because of that "Laker Insider" that told everyone that it was Kobe who ran Shaq out of town. Quite frankly, Kobe was sick and tired of defending himself in that situation when we are in agreement that Dr. Buss wanted Shaq gone regardless of Kobe's opinion.

I think Kobe may have kept everything to himself had he not read the newspaper one morning about a "Laker Insider" accusing him of running SHaq out of town and he deserves what he gets.