Kobe agrees to contact extension with Lakers

[Rasho_libre]

i like him as a player but he comes accross as a greedy so and so

no way should he be the highest paid player in the league and dirk and tim duncan all took less money so their team can make room for other players

very greedy imo

Well you're talking about two guys who actually have real "will" to win. When have they ever put individual agendas ahead of team? There's a reason TD was in the finals last year. The other guy will to win is just another thing that's been overly mythafied so he looks like Jordan. , another myth busted. Still a damn great player though and still wanna see him return. League sucks without him and rose.

[Rasho_libre]

He took this money because he's so competitive and wants to win a championship with a team of low-salary fillers.

This is the narrative the camp will push unfortunately.

[GlennQuagmire]

i like him as a player but he comes accross as a greedy so and so

no way should he be the highest paid player in the league and dirk and tim duncan all took less money so their team can make room for other players

very greedy imo

Well you're talking about two guys who actually have real "will" to win. When have they ever put individual agendas ahead of team? There's a reason TD was in the finals last year. The other guy will to win is just another thing that's been overly mythafied so he looks like Jordan. , another myth busted. Still a damn great player though and still wanna see him return. League sucks without him and rose.

Kind of hard to say the guy doesn't have the will to win when he has 5 rings.
One more ring then the guy you are comparing him to and like 3-4 more final appearances as well.

The Fakers are by far the richest team in the NBA. Not too sure on how the new CBA works but if there allowed to go over the cap and pay the penalties Im pretty damn sure there pockets are deep enough to afford it.
I know for a fact paying luxury penalties never stopped Jerry Buss from making title teams before.

[microfib4thewin]

Terrible deal. This pretty much absolves the Lakers management if the team can't be competitive in the next two years.

[witnessraps]

Terrible deal. This pretty much absolves the Lakers management if the team can't be competitive in the next two years.

Kobe Bryant wins ballgames. How much was he making when they won those championships with Pau and Bynum? Kobe is still incredible look at his numbers last season before he got injured. I expect Kobe and Gasol to be really really good this year together. Much much better than last year with Dwight

[Dupp]

48 mil what a terrible deal. I mean good on him for getting paid but its a bad contract. Maybe he realised he wouldn't be competing so might as well get paid.

[Rafael122]

I get it from a marketing standpoint because Kobe brings in far more than what he is being paid, but at the same time, if the team re-signs Pau, who Kobe loves, maybe re-signs Hill, that cap space starts drying up pretty quickly. They're projected to have about $27 mil in cap space w/this deal, you assume Pau will take up $10 mil, maybe $11 million on an extension, Hill probably $7 million and you have just $9 million to go with, plus your first round pick and entire team that needs to be filled.

Looking at this list: http://www1.realgm.com/article/229958/P ... gent-Class

Maybe a guy like Kyle Lowry would make sense for them, or bringing back Trevor Ariza. Either way, it wouldn't move the needle.

[semi-sentient]

Holy crap!

They must have lost their damn minds, or suck at negotiating.

Or both.

Oh well. I guess he can go guns blazing the next 2+ seasons and make a run at that scoring record seeing as how he'll be surrounded by role players.

[Rasho_libre]

When all else fails just say "5 titles"

[NaturalBuns]

He deserves the money.
A Healthy Kobe is a top 10 player.
You add the fact that hes a basketball Icon.
at the end of the day if his contract cripples LA (which it wont) people overreacting we are talking hollywood

he can only blame himself for not getting that 6th ring he so desperately wants.
Believe it or not if they didn't pay the man the money he wanted tons of other teams would just for getting a legend and a jersey seller.

and how would of that looked if Lakers let Kobe walk?
I could already see it now every laker great would be pissed with the way they treated a legend in LA. The media would be like "lakers are stupid" blah blah blah.

Its a win by the lakers management today and I'm not a laker fan by any means.
If there are any teams who can overpay and go deep into the tax the lakers are one of them

[TheBargnaniRule]

Given what's gone down, can Lakers fans really blame Dwight for leaving? Lakers current priorities are obviously not based on competing for titles. Good thing he got out of LA when he had the chance.

[derekc]

Cant blame Kobe

[An Unbiased Fan]

Does Zach Love know who the two Max players are that LA was gonna sign.

That's called making an assumption and attacking your own assumption in a brutal way, which is the ESPN school of journalism.

Lakers can't get two max players alongside Kobe but it makes it hard to sell a max or near-max player on a team that comprised of Kobe, yourself and bunch of scrubs. Right now the Lakers options for the next couple of years have been severely limited. It's essentially the Kobe show for the next two years. That might be great in the East but in a brutal West conference it will get you an early playoff exit at best.

Here are the Top impact FA list from RealGm. i don't see much to be had...

1. LeBron James (29), Early Termination Option
2. Derrick Favors (23), Restricted Free Agent
3. DeMarcus Cousins (24), Restricted Free Agent
4. Greg Monroe (24), Restricted Free Agent
5. Carmelo Anthony (30), Early Termination Option
6. Ed Davis (25), Restricted Free Agent
7. Luol Deng (29), Unrestricted Free Agent
8. Eric Bledsoe (24), Restricted Free Agent
9. Chris Bosh (30), Early Termination Option
10. Avery Bradley (23), Restricted Free Agent
11. Dwyane Wade (32), Early Termination Option
12. Gordon Hayward (24), Restricted Free Agent
13. Chandler Parsons (26), Potential Free Agent
14. Andrew Bynum (27), Team Option
15. Andrew Bogut (29), Unrestricted Free Agent
16. Greivis Vasquez (27), Restricted Free Agent
17. Marcin Gortat (30), Unrestricted Free Agent
18. Pau Gasol (34), Unrestricted Free Agent
19. Rudy Gay (28), Player Option
20. Kyle Lowry (28), Unrestricted Free Agent

LA can still pick up a Lowry easily to upgrade PG

[Striders]

Kobe got paid. Good for him. Though I hope this ends the narrative of, "He'll do whatever he takes to win." For him, it's always been about winning HIS way, on HIS terms.

[USA]

When all else fails just say "5 titles"

It is more than any other active player. Also more than any other organization in Kobe's tenure.

[Gugna]

Well I believe the Lakers just threw the towel for the next two years and get to be the good guys by signing a declining legend to that deal. Maybe they thought that not making Kobe happy and signing Anthony who has shown he can't be the man in a championship team was not worth it when the West is so strong, so they just prolonged the rebuild for a couple years. Maybe then they sign Love or Durant or whoever is a FA then while catering to their TV contract in the mean-time. Financially I don't blame them at all and of course I don't blame Kobe AT ALL who has brought so much more to the franchise in his career.

[richboy]

i like him as a player but he comes accross as a greedy so and so

no way should he be the highest paid player in the league and dirk and tim duncan all took less money so their team can make room for other players

very greedy imo

Well you're talking about two guys who actually have real "will" to win. When have they ever put individual agendas ahead of team? There's a reason TD was in the finals last year. The other guy will to win is just another thing that's been overly mythafied so he looks like Jordan. , another myth busted. Still a damn great player though and still wanna see him return. League sucks without him and rose.

Kind of hard to say the guy doesn't have the will to win when he has 5 rings.
One more ring then the guy you are comparing him to and like 3-4 more final appearances as well.

The Fakers are by far the richest team in the NBA. Not too sure on how the new CBA works but if there allowed to go over the cap and pay the penalties Im pretty damn sure there pockets are deep enough to afford it.
I know for a fact paying luxury penalties never stopped Jerry Buss from making title teams before.

Well your not understanding the new CBA. Which makes it extremely difficult for teams to pay the tax multiple years in a row. Makes it tough to even add salary to your roster when you get in the luxury tax. The penalties are so tough many say its really a hard cap. The Lakers had deep pockets for 30 million dollar luxury tax bills. 100 million luxury tax bills is on a whole new level.

[Rasho_libre]

When all else fails just say "5 titles"

It is more than any other active player. Also more than any other organization in Kobe's tenure.

True, I don't really blame him though. End of the day it's only two years and we knew he was gonna get a high contract.

[RatherUnique]

the Cap has been at 57-58 mil for the past 4 years.

You snag Melo and you're right at 50 mil in the next off-season with Kobe's deal and this year's pick.

A 2nd max deal is out of the question until Kobe retires.

So they miss out on max players in the '15 free agency class which includes Kevin Love, Rondo, & Aldridge

[Shot Clock]

He deserves the money.
A Healthy Kobe is a top 10 player.
You add the fact that hes a basketball Icon.
at the end of the day if his contract cripples LA (which it wont) people overreacting we are talking hollywood

he can only blame himself for not getting that 6th ring he so desperately wants.
Believe it or not if they didn't pay the man the money he wanted tons of other teams would just for getting a legend and a jersey seller.

and how would of that looked if Lakers let Kobe walk?
I could already see it now every laker great would be pissed with the way they treated a legend in LA. The media would be like "lakers are stupid" blah blah blah.

Its a win by the lakers management today and I'm not a laker fan by any means.
If there are any teams who can overpay and go deep into the tax the lakers are one of them

His Jersey sales mean the same to every team in the league. It's split evenly.

Yes this will cripple LA

No they can't just go deep in the tax because they can.

Kobe was not leaving LA.