Kobe agrees to contact extension with Lakers

[5DOM]

And he was Robin to Shaq being Batman on 3 of those "chips" as you call them.

This is probably why he didn't bother taking the discount. Even if he did win - which seems highly unlikely to begin with - people would be saying he was the third banana so it doesn't even matter.

I did not suggest he take the veteran minimum. However, why could he not have taken 10 million a season or so? Seriously, he has made over 280 million over his career just from contracts. There is no reason for him to be making 50 million over the next two years. Logically, he does not care about winning anymore, as how are the Lakers supposed to compete with him eating almost half of their cap space? That is what I am saying. Logically, he cannot care about winning at this stage, or he would have taken less so that the Lakers could build a better team.

There are 30 million reasons to take 50M over 20M.

[Flash Falcon X]

sometimes money is more important then anything considering the injury he just came off.

He already made a bunch of money already, though. He has enough to provide for several generations as long as he manages his money right, and even after retirement he'll probably get payed thousands just for easy appearances and all kinds of media stuff.

At this point he could have taken some type of paycut to help the Lakers sign key free agents so he can finally win that 6th championship and ride off into the sunset towards retirement, but hey I guess I can't blame him. Millions are millions.

[richboy]

Kobe made it known he was not taking a big paycut this summer.

The Lakers have consistently made decisions that are best for Kobe but not always best for themselves. There is not an organization in sports that says lets take our aging superstar coming off a career killing injury and make him the highest paid player in the sport.

Lets look what just happened here. A player coming off a major injury at 36 who has not played this year. Who was still signed for this year. Giving the Lakers complete flexibility to wait and see how Kobe came back. Then next summer structure a deal around what they could or couldn't do in free agency. Pretty much said screw that flexibility stuff lets just give Kobe another big deal. Almost as if they were afraid he was about to bolt. It makes zero sense for the franchise. It only benefits Kobe.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ramonashelburne/status/405022587396169728[/tweet]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/ramonashelburne/status/405030654930202624[/tweet]

I guess you missed these but believe what you want.

That is ridiculous if you buy into that. If Kobe said pay me 15 million you think the Lakers were going to say No Kobe we have to pay you more. Please.

Few years ago Rashard Lewis signed max contract with the Magic. Rashard Lewis agent made it known at the time he was signing the first max deal they could get. Otis Smith knew that Rashard picked to meet with the Magic first because they were the only team that could sign Rashard to the max with a S&T. Otis knew he could offer Rashard 12 million per and it still be more than any other team but Rashard's camp would consider that a slap in the face since the Magic could actually offer him the max. Rashard lands from Seattle and Otis Smith ran to give him the max. They knew the Magic must be willing to give them a max deal because everyone in the league knew Rashard's agent was searching for a max contract.

If Kobe Bryant is telling people I want to win and my salary doesn't matter. Lets do what is best to get the best squad we can. The Lakers aren't running to make Kobe the highest paid player in the league. How does that benefit them? Just like with Rashard. Just like most negotiations you let it be known what your kind of looking for. They were hearing that Kobe wanted to be the highest paid player in the league again. That he wasn't planning on taking a big pay cut. They were not about to come to Kobe with anything less than that.

Of course if I bought into what you say I be inclined to say that the Lakers have become the dumbest organization in sports. That apparently the cap and building a team with smart decisions is no longer a priority. The off spring of an owner that once didn't think Shaq was going to be worth his contract demands was now running to pay an even older player coming off a major injury. With not one justification on how this actual benefits the Lakers.

Good faith? Kobe makes 32 million this year. His number after luxury tax is some insane number like 80 million. The fact that the Lakers didn't amnesty him would have been good faith enough. If they didn't believe he could come back they would just amnesty him and see about making a play in last years free agency. Saying we need to even go further in good faith by adding 2 more years to that 32 is just stupid.

[Maroko]

has Kobe ever paid something in L.A ? I mean why does he need all that money ?

[5DOM]

Good faith? Kobe makes 32 million this year. His number after luxury tax is some insane number like 80 million. The fact that the Lakers didn't amnesty him would have been good faith enough. If they didn't believe he could come back they would just amnesty him and see about making a play in last years free agency. Saying we need to even go further in good faith by adding 2 more years to that 32 is just stupid.

He isn't the only player contracted to the Lakers so it's wrong to imply he alone is responsible for the 80M or whatever the number is. And even if it is 80M, it's not toooo far from what Kobe's making for them.

has Kobe ever paid something in L.A ? I mean why does he need all that money ?

Well why does anyone need money? Just because you've got millions, it doesn't mean you stop wanting more. Hell 30M is surely worth more than a stupid ring which he already has 5 of.

[Pablo Escobar]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzQU20B3lh8[/youtube]

[Laazard]

Congratulations Kobe! You've just made Lakers irrelevant for the next two years.

League sends sincere thanks.

[Free Rider]

Utterly atrocious extension. At this point in his career, Kobe shouldn't be getting paid anywhere near $25 mil per year, especially coming off an Achilles injury. In a vacuum it's a horrible deal but when you factor in what the Lakers had to do to clear off cap space for next year it's completely inexcusable. What was the point of all that if you were just going to throw half you cap at Kobe anyway? 2 years/32-36 mil would have been reasonable. Was there even a negotiation or did Jimmy Buss just assume the position?

[YFZblu]

At this point he could have taken some type of paycut to help the Lakers sign key free agents so he can finally win that 6th championship and ride off into the sunset towards retirement, but hey I guess I can't blame him. Millions are millions.

When has Kobe ever put the team before himself? He's a great player, one of the best ever of course, that just isn't his mindset.

From a pure financial perspective, you're correct - millions are millions. Collecting every penny makes sense - He has a lot to lose. Besides uncle sam taking him to the cleaners as a high income salary earner: lawsuits, divorce, extortion, theft, etc - These are all possibilities for him on a daily basis.

Guys and gals out there - If you can help it, never leave money on the table.

[Blacksea Storm]

Lakers go hard for 8th

[Dominator83]

For the people saying things like "well he sells ao much merchandise his salary pays itself", that is not true my friends. I remember Broussard addressed this last year when everyone was wondering why the knicks let Lin walk despite all the merch he wouldve sold. He said that all merchandise that's not sold at the teams stadium, all gets split 30 ways. So basicly any Kobe jersey not sold at staples, the bobcats get just as much a piece of the pie as the Lakers do

[Br0ken_Sp0ke]

Kobe wasn't playing when he said he wouldn't take a paycut.

[fluffernutter]

It's worth thinking about the fact that $1million is not the same $1million for everyone in every situation.

Would Bill Gates stress over $1million? A little. Not a lot. Yeah, it's $1million. He's worth Billions. Not a huge stress.

The first $1million is always the most important. To a poor man $1million is a fortune. For somebody like Kobe, who is worth probably 1/4 billion if not more, and who can always make money hand-over-fist after retirement, what's $1million really worth? How about $10 million?

When does extracting maximum value for a contract fail as a life-goal, or career goal?

There are many things far more important than money, even in our own lives (what is your daughter's life worth?). This extension by Kobe just reeks of something I can't even explain.

Money can be used as a yardstick for worth - but it does not have to. At some point I have to wonder: how much money does Kobe need, compared to the other goals he has in mind?

I understand Kobe's move, and in a sleazy greedy way respect it, but I can't help but feel less of him for it, and suspect it's deeply unwise as a long-term move (both for his NBA career and everything else).

[An Unbiased Fan]

But they still can sign productive free agents. Even if they re-sign Pau, they'll have around 13 million left over in cap room.

Some of you guys don't have a clue how salary cap works.

First you'll have cap holds on your free agents....

Some Laker cap holds next year:

Gasol: 20,000,000
Blake: 7,600,000
Hill: 6,650,000
Kaman: 3,819, 600
Etc....

Then, if you renounce all of those free agents, you will have roster charges for players you don't have signed yet.

So, yeah, your 'cap space' isn't what you think it is.

The salary cap next summer is projected to be $62.9 million. The Lakers will also have their own first round draft pick. Based on their current record, this pick would fall around #15, and would therefore count around $1.5 million against their cap.This would give them a total of about $37.66 million for six players. We need to add another six cap holds totaling $3,04 million, which brings the total to about $40,70 million.

With this team salary, the Lakers would have about $22.2 million in cap room next summer. This will be enough for one maximum-salary player — for example, Carmelo Anthony is eligible to receive up to $22,458,401. While this is slightly above the Lakers’ maximum, there are other things the team can do to create more cap room if Anthony doesn’t want to take slightly less than the amount for which he ls eligible.

The team can save a small amount if it waives Elias Harris’ non-guaranteed salary. A larger savings will come if they waive Steve Nash and utilize the Stretch provision on him. If this happens, only $3.23 million of Nash’s full $9.7 million salary will remain on their books.

If they remove both Harris and Nash, their team salary will drop to about $34.44 million, which would give them about $28.46 million in cap room. This would give them the opportunity to sign one maximum-salary player, and a second player at around the mid-level amount.They would also be eligible to utilize the Room Mid-Level exception for around $2.7 million.

However, this assumes they let all of their free agents walk, including Pau Gasol, Steve Blake, Jordan Farmar, Xavier Henry, Jordan Hill, Chris Kaman, and Jodie Meeks. If the wish to retain any of these players, they will remain on the team’s cap — in fact, Gasol’s cap hold alone will eat up most of the team’s cap room. To free up the potential cap room, these players will have to either:

a) Re-sign with the Lakers, in which case their new salary will count against the team’s cap, which will reduce their cap room for signing free agents.

b) Sign elsewhere, in which case they will be lost.

c) Be renounced by the Lakers, in which case the team loses the ability to sign them using Bird rights.

Let’s say the Lakers really wanted to keep Gasol.While he’s an unrenounced free agent he would count about $20.25 million against the team’s cap, reducing their cap room to about $8.75 million. If he re-signs and takes a one-third discount (similar to what Kobe took) he’d receive about $13 million, which would drop the team’s cap room to about $16 million. If they renounce him they can reclaim the entire $28+ million, but then he’d have to be willing to sign for whatever cap space remains after the team signs other free agents.

So if the Lakers are going to follow-through with their 2014 plan, keeping Gasol would likely require him to take a steep discount.
http://cbafaq.com/blog/?p=286

[inquisitive]

sometimes money is more important then anything considering the injury he just came off.

He already made a bunch of money already, though. He has enough to provide for several generations as long as he manages his money right, and even after retirement he'll probably get payed thousands just for easy appearances and all kinds of media stuff.

At this point he could have taken some type of paycut to help the Lakers sign key free agents so he can finally win that 6th championship and ride off into the sunset towards retirement, but hey I guess I can't blame him. Millions are millions.

I understand what you mean, but i think kobe has kinda conceded about winning another title, so just go for as much $$ as he can especially after this injury. If the lakers can get another star, then he will be even happier, but i think he pretty much is going after MJ's record. If he signed a 3yr extension, i think he wouldve had a good chance to break KM's scoring.

When Jeff Van Gundy was just told on @SportsCenter Kobe's deal was 2 years, $48 million he paused for 5 seconds. "God bless Kobe Bryant."

[Reservoirdawgs]

No one should be trying to demonize Kobe for trying to make as much as he can - he's made the Lakers a crap ton of money over the years...he should be trying to go for as much as he can.

However, for the Lakers...goodness Jim, you had a ton of leverage and you just roll over and play dead? What in God's name prompted you to go with that much for someone who will be 36 and is coming off surgery? It's funny how the Lakers chose youth over the old guard (Shaq) nine years ago, but now they're going all-in with the old guard with no plan for retooling. I just don't understand this from their perspective at all.

[xStanton27]

Food for thought:

Perhaps it is because people are starting to like Lebron now that Kobe is receiving this animosity now towards his extension.

It's probably the underlying sentiment that, since the big 3 in Miami sacrificed money in order to form a team that had a higher chance of winning,

it now becomes the expectation that superstars should sacrifice money to compete. This extension simply proves that that can't be the expectation.

[Mamba Venom]

I'm so happy Kobe will play 20 years with the Lakers barring some catastrophic injury complications. After we lost Magic tooooo early its great to have our franchise guy stay with the team until the end.

But this clearly means Pau wont resign. The Grizzles will get their missing piece in 2014-2015 and it will be cool to see brothers play together. But I'm sad that I dont think Pau is coming back.

[LUUUKE]

Congratulations Kobe! You've just made Lakers irrelevant for the next two years.

League sends sincere thanks.

Also made them relevant the past 20 years so whatevs I ain't mad

[frhanlan]

lol at people hating Kobe for taking so much

The owner who cuts Kobe's check is a billionaire, so no one should really be crying about anything. NBA players should never take a pay cut. How about having the owners put their money where their mouths are? Blame the billionaire owners who absolutely refuse to go into the luxury tax.