Jim confirms, Howard wanted both MDA and Kobe out

[dockingsched]

looks like bucher keeps releasing more quotes that jeanie and jim really opened up to him with last week, this time its jim confirming reports that howard wanted both d'antoni and kobe removed from the picture

http://sulia.com/channel/basketball/f/d ... ce=twitter

Talks with various people close to the situation make it clear there were two prerequisites for Dwight Howard to remain a Laker: fire Mike D'Antoni and amnesty, or at the very least muzzle, Kobe Bryant. As audacious as that might sound, it doesn't come without precedent in Lakers' history. When Kobe re-upped in 2004, it coincided with Shaq being shipped to Miami and Phil Jackson being let go. Of course, Kobe didn't have to pressure the team braintrust -- Mitch Kupchak and Jerry and Jim Buss -- to make those moves, since Dr. Buss, in particular, was done with both Shaq and Phil at the time.

The Lakers apparently asked Dwight to be patient on both fronts for at least another season, telling him "hey, you're going to have to gut this out another year," a source said, although it sounds as if VP of basketball ops Jim Buss isn't ready to abandon Kobe anytime soon. "Dwight didn't want to play with Kobe for 2-3 more years," Buss said. "I'm going to stand behind Kobe because of his history with the franchise."

[FLIPT]

Oboy!!!

[One Love]

STFU Howard... How is the weather is Houston...

[ROballer]

I'd rather suck ass for another 2 years until the man (Kobe ) calls it quits his way than seeing him removed cause a drama queen bitch wants it...we're talking about 17 yrs of work here

Even if we'd won a ring or two with Dwight (no chance it would have happen btw) at the expense of Kobe being amnestied because of his wishes,I still wouldn't do it.....

Not to mention we weren't in a much better position to contend with Dwight and no Kobe to begin with

[Brapman]

Pistons fan here. You guys dodged a major bullet, here. Howard is NOT the kind of man or player that you want to have as the face of a franchise. He's more clown than serious player. And he's a team and coach killer. It's NEVER his responsibility when things don't turn out. The fact that he's never done the work necessary to develop his skills isn't something that just goes away in his 10th year in the league. He can work with The Dream and McHale all he wants, but if he doesn't put in the personal work over the summer, than what they teach him will be wasted - just like it has for years and years and years.

He's a "funny guy" - and people laugh at his jokes because he comes in a big super athletic package. But his joke is running thin now, and he's had a serious back surgery and simply is at the stage of his career where his developed skills were supposed to take over for his supreme athleticism.

Houston just maxed out a guy who is going to break their hearts and their spirits.

I'm no Laker fan, and I'm not hoping your team does what it always does: raid the league for its outstanding talent and rebuild into a power again. So, your losing Howard was not what I wished for you. You guys seriously lucked out here. Now you can and will move onto better things and players.

[leeprettyp]

SMDH!!!! Man Dwight Officially has become my most hated Laker player ever smh... Originally that position was held by Doug Christie

[iamworthy]

let it go.

[DEEP3CL]

While I agree with what my dawg iamworthy said..."let it go", fact is us fans have but the media and outside lurkers yeah I said it lurkers ....seem to think we haven't moved on. I'm getting tire of seeing stuff about this limited ass player. You can't win big time with this dude. And even if the Lakers had kept him we still would've needed more pieces around his limited ass to win games seeing as you can't put the ball in his hands at the end of quarters or in situations when an absolute bucket is a must.

Now tell me what dumbass is going to come in here and tell me this team could have won a championship with a player like that supposedly wanting control?

Heed my words that dude or the Rockets ain't winning NOTHING no time soon. Book it

[Beethoven]

F Dwight I am always going to have allegiance with Kobe a million times out of a million even with a bum Achilles and at 35 yrs old along w mike dantoni.

I will go to the Laker grave with Kobe even if it means no championships with him.

[dub81]

Cry me a river....let it go

[MAMBAEMD]

D12 never wanted to be here.
He knew that those requests would not be accepted by the Lakers brass. They may have agreed to let MDA go.
But he damn well knew Kobe would never be amnestied or muzzled, just for him.

Go miss your free throws in Houston.
I'll take a 5 time champion with a heart of a lion, over a over-hyped center who has no leadership skills what-so-ever.

[Danny Darko]

i can't wait for basketball to start so people are not so bored that this still matters.

That being said I am encouraged by the brass not being dumb enough to pander to the requests of a limited player who i rarely enjoyed watching the entire time he was here and would never build a team around.

I'm also glad for Jeanie being the overly gracious classy voice that her dad was. Jerry might have wanted to put a hit on Dwight, but he would not have slandered him even for a second publicly.

[Kalidogg24]

I'm just not sold on this being the complete truth. (No Disrespect to Doc who posted this)

Mainly because it's being reported by Ric Puker and a owner in Jim Buss who is basically at a crossroads with the Laker Fans and could possibly trying to save his rep.

[iamworthy]

While I agree with what my dawg iamworthy said..."let it go", fact is us fans have but the media and outside lurkers yeah I said it lurkers ....seem to think we haven't moved on. I'm getting tire of seeing stuff about this limited ass player. You can't win big time with this dude. And even if the Lakers had kept him we still would've needed more pieces around his limited ass to win games seeing as you can't put the ball in his hands at the end of quarters or in situations when an absolute bucket is a must.

Now tell me what dumbass is going to come in here and tell me this team could have won a championship with a player like that supposedly wanting control?

Heed my words that dude or the Rockets ain't winning NOTHING no time soon. Book it

Deep, I get what you are saying. And trust me if this was a different NBA I would be on board. But D12s game has completely been under valued. In this NBA he is the Defensive player of the year, In this NBA is is first team all NBA, In this NBA he is a 20/10 guy. Dude is entering his prime. Would we win with him as our best player...who knows, but even Shaq had kobe, then D-wade. The notion that you cant win big with D12 to me is so far from the truth imo. He's just not smart enough to realize that the lakers could have put a team around him to help him win. Look like kobe is going to weed out the B****** and not give up the throne until a worthy player comes through who can handle it physically and mentally....Thank you Kobe. My dude is looking out for the lakers now and for the future. And the lakers are coming off as bitter. We are better than that.

[tugs]

Off season + media + nothing exciting going on

[Durins Baynes]

How is it conceptually different to 2004, when Kobe did virtually the same thing? Sure, you can talk about how you think the front office did the right thing in both cases, but conceptually what's the difference in terms of judging Dwight?

Take the legacy aspects out of it, and 30/30 franchises would take Dwight going forward over Kobe given their respective ages and skill sets, for all Dwight's faults. Mike D ain't no Phil Jackson either. Was Dwight's demand any more/less unreasonable? He didn't have 3 titles he could look back on to see the partnership was working either, or a long standing loyalty to the franchise.

[EiRON]

How is it conceptually different to 2004, when Kobe did virtually the same thing? Sure, you can talk about how you think the front office did the right thing in both cases, but conceptually what's the difference in terms of judging Dwight?

Take the legacy aspects out of it, and 30/30 franchises would take Dwight going forward over Kobe given their respective ages and skill sets, for all Dwight's faults. Mike D ain't no Phil Jackson either. Was Dwight's demand any more/less unreasonable? He didn't have 3 titles he could look back on to see the partnership was working either, or a long standing loyalty to the franchise.

The difference is/was Kobe Bryant was already a multiple time NBA champion and the best perimeter player at the time whereas Dwight was never close to 2004 Kobe in terms of impact on and off the court. Not only was Kobe was the best perimeter player at the time, but he was also the most popular player at the time (still is).

[jigga_man]

Call it fanboyism or hyperbole but Kobe on his last game against GState was the most impressive and heart wrenching performances I have ever seen. Seeing him get hurt twice before the final Achilles injury and then coming back hitting those free throws. doing all this while playing close to 48 minutes over the last stretch just for the team to make the playoffs...

Call me a Kobe fanboy but after all that if he ever got amnestied just to keep Dwight I would be done with this team, at least for a little while.

[GeorgeDillion]

Dwight knew there was zero chance of the team amnestying Kobe, the only reason he said that is so he wouldn't look like the bad guy for just leaving without giving the team a false chance of adhering to his wishes. If he would have just demanded that D'Antoni be fired it would have been a reasonable request but according to reports he also wanted Nash and Pau traded along with the Kobe amnesty.

He has the audacity to complain about Kobe and Nash not having his back about being injured, Nash was injured as well and still stayed professional while the fans and media bashed him, where was Dwight's support for Nash? The guy is a hypocrite, Nash even offered to help with shooting free throws and Dwight wanted no part of it , he claims he wants to work on his post game while he had two of the best post players in the league on his team in Kobe and Pau but failed to utilize the assets he had available to him.

I wonder how long it's going to take him to complain about touches when Harden is iso-ing at the 3 point line 30 times a game.

[Durins Baynes]

How is it conceptually different to 2004, when Kobe did virtually the same thing? Sure, you can talk about how you think the front office did the right thing in both cases, but conceptually what's the difference in terms of judging Dwight?

Take the legacy aspects out of it, and 30/30 franchises would take Dwight going forward over Kobe given their respective ages and skill sets, for all Dwight's faults. Mike D ain't no Phil Jackson either. Was Dwight's demand any more/less unreasonable? He didn't have 3 titles he could look back on to see the partnership was working either, or a long standing loyalty to the franchise.

The difference is/was Kobe Bryant was already a multiple time NBA champion and the best perimeter player at the time whereas Dwight was never close to 2004 Kobe in terms of impact on and off the court. Not only was Kobe was the best perimeter player at the time, but he was also the most popular player at the time (still is).

That only affects the question of how we judge the correctness of the front offices decision. And I think that can be debated either way. It has nothing to do with how we judge the correctness of Dwight's decision. A healthy Dwight was a proven top 5 player in terms of impact, and was the best 5 in the NBA. Indeed, Lakers fans reminded people of this fact all season. Why is Dwight's demand more unreasonable than Kobe's was at the time?