RealGM

Dear Kobe,

We know you want to be considered the greatest ever...probably more than anything else in your life. You need 3 more 'chips to win over most people, as simply tying MJ with 6 won't be enough.

Please re-sign for $12 to $14mil a year and allow your team to stay together, and even improve, and you give yourself the best chance of passing MJ. This is more important that money, of which more championships will bring you more $ even after retirement. Any reputation you have as being selfish will evaporate upon the announcement that you're taking half of what you could so that your TEAM can stay at #1. Your teammates, and other potential (valueable) future teammates will be blown away.

SIncerely,
Lakers Fans Everywhere

IBTMerge

jerkslo wrote:Dear Kobe,

We know you want to be considered the greatest ever...probably more than anything else in your life. You need 3 more 'chips to win over most people, as simply tying MJ with 6 won't be enough.

Please re-sign for $12 to $14mil a year and allow your team to stay together, and even improve, and you give yourself the best chance of passing MJ. This is more important that money, of which more championships will bring you more $ even after retirement. Any reputation you have as being selfish will evaporate upon the announcement that you're taking half of what you could so that your TEAM can stay at #1. Your teammates, and other potential (valueable) future teammates will be blown away.

SIncerely,
Lakers Fans Everywhere

which reminds me...

my avy and mr.healthyfourfingersononeofhishandsman gotta have a sitdown!

siriUS BiZNAS!

He will take less $$$ but not significantly less $$$ IMO.

He will and thats where he'll prove all the HATERS wrong YET AGAIN............
He's got money and now all he wants is to win more titles..

By the way, why should he?

The guy has played harder than anyone in the league, he's earned every check, it should be up to the owner to pay the others what they deserve: Odom & Ariza. Not on Kobe to be a scapegoat.

shobe_81 wrote:By the way, why should he?

The guy has played harder than anyone in the league, he's earned every check, it should be up to the owner to pay the others what they deserve: Odom & Ariza. Not on Kobe to be a scapegoat.

well if things were justified Sasha and Morrison wouldn't be getting all that money... sadly Lakers made some bad signs before (with Morrion that was because of bad sign for Vlad), but almost every team has someone getting more than they deserve. Odom should be taking less money as well. I just hope another team isn't dumb enough to try and sign Odom for way more than his worth that and I think Lakers inflated Ariza's value a bit by starting him. I don't think Ariza is worth the same as Turkolgu or Prince, he is still a teir below them. He just playing well under the system much like Marion with the Suns. Looks at how much he stunk it up since going to Heat and Toronto.

Buss Family and all the upper management make the most money, so they should pay full price to keep the team together, but if Lakers enter a situation where other teams are trying to steal Odom and Ariza and they can't afford due to hard cap then I think Kobe opt out will help a lot.

what do people think he will take if he takes less?

you would hope that ariza is content on taking less than what he could get elsewhere as well, and we know lamar will take less as he's already come out and said that

Don't get your hopes up because there's a 99.99% chance that he will sign for over $20 million per.

12-14mill? wow, i mean i'm all for him taking a paycut but that's a little ridiculous

Kobe probably will be locked in for a long-term deal that starts this year at 20m. That most likely will save about 6m in payroll for Buss. Ariza with the luxury tax double will cost 12m at the maximum. Odom will be about 14m with the double. The Lakers will extend Kobe's deal, deal off the first round pick, find a way to move Luke's deal to the Knicks along with Morrison for Curry (saves money long-term and gives flexibility, plus they'll get Luke back).

Jajwanda wrote:Kobe probably will be locked in for a long-term deal that starts this year at 20m. That most likely will save about 6m in payroll for Buss. Ariza with the luxury tax double will cost 12m at the maximum. Odom will be about 14m with the double. The Lakers will extend Kobe's deal, deal off the first round pick, find a way to move Luke's deal to the Knicks along with Morrison for Curry (saves money long-term and gives flexibility, plus they'll get Luke back).

Wait a minute I don't know if the Knicks want Luke's contract because it's too big.

Saves 5m on Curry and after 2010 the Knicks will permanently be over the cap after their splurge. The length of his contract makes little difference.

- The Knicks will work to gain assets from David Lee and they'll have cap room with whatever expiring they take in.
- They want to get rid of either Jeffries or Curry to make more room. This basically gets rid of half of Eddy Curry or any average sized human being.
- Only deal that doesn't cost the Knicks money.
- They'll buy out Walton and we'll re-sign him.

I hope so but no way he'll do it.

Kobe may hold the fate of Odom and Ariza returning in his hands, err in his wallet..

shobe_81 wrote:By the way, why should he?

The guy has played harder than anyone in the league, he's earned every check, it should be up to the owner to pay the others what they deserve: Odom & Ariza. Not on Kobe to be a scapegoat.

I agree. It's not like he needs to give LA flexability so they can bring in more guys, they already have the guys, their owner just needs to not be cheap. Why should Kobe sacrifice money so the owner can save a few bucks? How about if Buss just pays the players who just won a championship for him the money that they are worth? Kobe shouldn't take a dime less than max.