Henry Abbot: Lakers FO can't wait for Kobe to retire

[theforumblue]

not having read the article, i'm guessing whole lot of conjecture based on twisting people's words.

[LLcoleJ]

link?

[Cycklops]

Kobe is apparently now fully in the "Godfather III" phase of his Corleone-style career.

[TheKingofSting]

The whole story reeks of fishiness.

[RayBan-Sematra]

No Shaq flat out asked to be traded and Dr Buss obliged.

According to Shaq they refused to give him the extension he wanted (which he says they promised him) and then they proceeded to tell the media that they would consider trading Shaq (which is true and did happen).
At that point an infuriated Shaq made it be known that he wanted out.

So I would say it was more like the Laker's didn't wanna pay Shaq what he wanted so they let it be known they were willing to trade him.
Shaq feeling disrespected and wanting out at that point seems reasonable.

[Imon]

link?

Apparently it's an upcoming story entitled "And Kobe Won't Leave" by Henry Abbott in the ESPN Magazine.

[Blame Rasho]

link?

There has to be a link somewhere, but just as a talking point... it doesn't need to even need to be verified. The Lakers aren't going to have high level success with Kobe as the MAN anymore. It is impossible to have a contract as big as Kobe's and expect good players and good things even if he was playing at a ALL NBA 1st team level. It is kinda akin to when KG had that massive contract in Minny. The Lakers right now don't look good with no dependable outside shooting.

[LLcoleJ]

link?

Apparently it's an upcoming story entitled "And Kobe Won't Leave" by Henry Abbott in the ESPN Magazine.

That link asks me to subscribe to ESPN Mag. I guess if true it will be leaked eventually.

[Rob Diaz]

Signing Kobe to that massive contract was the correct move, and I say that as an avid Kobe hater.

I'll preface this by saying that it doesn't appear that the Lakers' organization has joined us in 2014, as it seems like they're still in "it's LA, we'll just sign any superstar we want" mode, along with signing a coach that it stuck in the 90s.

However, realistically, the Lakers didn't have any options to add in regards to contending. It's virtually impossible to win a title without a top-level elite player in the NBA(please don't say the Spurs, they are most innovative organization in the league, and arguably the biggest outlier in sports history), and the Lakers didn't have the option of adding a player of that caliber. What exactly is the point of signing a Carmelo and battling for 7th/8th and a 1st round exit while killing your future for the next 5-6 years, especially for a team with the Lakers' history?

So, they decided to stay on good terms with Kobe, they will still sell tickets, and they avoided killing their relationship with Kobe's fans. A lot of people are underestimating the power Kobe has in LA. If the Lakers' organization had let him walk and ended on bad terms, especially in exchange for a team that didn't have a chance at contending, the organization's relationship with a large number of the team's fans would have been destroyed. It's not comparable to Shaq, at all, btw, Kobe's popularity in LA is levels above Shaq's popularity at the time. Kobe has one of the most passionate cult followings in sports history, he's a God in LA.

Let Kobe chase records, let the fans enjoy it and buy tickets, end your relationship with Kobe on good terms, and then rebuild in 2 years when there will be better, more realistic options to rebuild your team(especially since Lebron will probably begin to decline, at that point, the Spurs should be done, and OKC's core could be broken up).

[LLcoleJ]

link?

There has to be a link somewhere, but just as a talking point... it doesn't need to even need to be verified. The Lakers aren't going to have high level success as the MAN anymore. It is impossible to have a contract as big as Kobe's and expect good players and good things even if he was playing at a ALL NBA 1st team level. It is kinda akin to when KG had that massive contract in Minny. The Lakers right now don't look good with no dependable outside shooting.

Kobe and Co. are not winning championships in the next 2 years. We all know this. I have a hard time believing the FO who signed him to this deal is looking to get into a battle with him before the next 2 seasons even start.

[Wonderllama]

I would love to see Kobe as a Knick. Love love LOVE IT. He could definitely make some noise in the Eastern Conference. It's a pipe dream tho

[John Long]

No Shaq flat out asked to be traded and Dr Buss obliged.

According to Shaq they refused to give him the extension he wanted (which he says they promised him) and then they proceeded to tell the media that they would consider trading Shaq (which is true and did happen).
At that point an infuriated Shaq made it be known that he wanted out.

So I would say it was more like the Laker's didn't wanna pay Shaq what he wanted so they let it be known they were willing to trade him.
Shaq feeling disrespected and wanting out at that point seems reasonable.

Shaq still had 2 years left on a contract paying him $29 million(the highest paid player in the league) per year the time he was yelling at Jerry Buss during preseason games for a contract extension. This rubbed Dr Buss the wrong way, but the Lakers FO still wanted to negotiate with him but Shaq did not conduct himself in a professional manner that would make a contract negotiation possible. While all these was happening Kobe was going to be a free agent and he was looking for the max and to have a team he could lead as well. Shaq can make himself look like the victim all he wants but in retrospect I'm sure he if he could go back he would have done things differently. He made the last years of his tenure with a lakers a tumultuous one. He has no one but himself to blame.

The day after the season ended, O’Neal demanded a trade. “The team wasn’t going in the right direction, and it wasn’t something I wanted to be a part of, so I asked to be traded,” O’Neal said at the time. After the trade, Shaq would end up signing a five-year, $100MM extension with the Heat in 2005. O’Neal was still the highest paid player that year, with Chris Webber coming in a close second, earning $19.12MM in 2005/06

http://www.hoopsrumors.com/2014/08/trade-retrospective-heat.html

[theforumblue]

with all the bridges he's burnt over the years, with all the trash he piled on FO and ex-teammates at every stop, people still believe shaq's version of things?

[kingkirk]

If this is true, this says more about them than about Kobe. Why in the world did they sign him for $48 million if they don't want to keep him?

Came into same the same thing.

If the despise Bryant so much, why give him 48m over 2 seasons?

[RayBan-Sematra]

He has no one but himself to blame.

I wouldn't go that far.
I don't think the Laker FO really treated Shaq with the respect he deserved after all he did for them.
He really revitalized the franchise after a decade of nothingness.
Them telling the media they'd be willing to trade him when they promised to never do that was pretty much the last straw. I don't agree with them having done that.

Now Shaq obviously wasn't completely innocent either.
Him yelling at Buss was immature (though Buss said he took it jokingly and wasn't offended) and he was being very hard headed when it came to negotiations.
I am not sure exactly what the Lakers offered him but it does seem like Shaq was asking for either too many years or too much money. Hard to say how wrong he was though without knowing what they were offering him at the time.

[JellosJigglin]

He has no one but himself to blame.

I wouldn't go that far.
I don't think the Laker FO really treated Shaq with the respect he deserved after all he did for them.
He really revitalized the franchise after a decade of nothingness.
Them telling the media they'd be willing to trade him when they promised to never do that was pretty much the last straw. I don't agree with them having done that.

Now Shaq obviously wasn't completely innocent either.
Him yelling at Buss was immature (though Buss said he took it jokingly and wasn't offended) and he was being very hard headed when it came to negotiations.
I am not sure exactly what the Lakers offered him but it does seem like Shaq was asking for either too many years or too much money. Hard to say how wrong he was though without knowing what they were offering him at the time.

Dr. Buss always took the high road but you'd be naive to think it didn't bother him. I remember his daughter Jeannie in a radio interview said he was hurt by it. Shaq was the highest paid player in the league and still had 2 years remaining on his contract yet he publicly called Dr. Buss a MF'er for not extending him. Just classless move by Shaq who was always treated like royalty with the purple and gold before that.

[John Long]

He has no one but himself to blame.

I wouldn't go that far.
I don't think the Laker FO really treated Shaq with the respect he deserved after all he did for them.
He really revitalized the franchise after a decade of nothingness.
Them telling the media they'd be willing to trade him when they promised to never do that was pretty much the last straw. I don't agree with them having done that.

Now Shaq obviously wasn't completely innocent either.
Him yelling at Buss was immature (though Buss said he took it jokingly and wasn't offended) and he was being very hard headed when it came to negotiations.
I am not sure exactly what the Lakers offered him but it does seem like Shaq was asking for either too many years or too much money. Hard to say how wrong he was though without knowing what they were offering him at the time.

The FO treated Shaq with all the respect in the world, Shaq did not return the favor and got dealt with accordingly. Shaq was playing a game of power struggle that he could not win. He should have gone about his contract negotiations the right way through his agent and should have not made any fuss about it until the Bryant situation was settled but he didn't, he demanded a trade knowing the Lakers wouldn't get equal value, he wanted to stick it to the lakers, that he succeeded in doing. But I wouldn't point the fingers at the Lakers FO and say they messed up or they treated Shaq with disrespect because they didn't.

[HotRocks34]

No surprise. Seems fairly clear, from the past, that Jim Buss is not the biggest Kobe fan in the world.

[laploutocratie]

In ESPN Magazine, Abbott cites multiple Laker sources claiming that the Buss family are finally done with Kobe and are waiting for him to retire. Claims his ego has rotted the Lakers brand and nobody wants to play with him (also cites multiple agents). Kobe is basically hurting the Lakers ability to rebuild.

If the Buss family really thinks that, then they're even dumber than I originally thought. They deserve this for being foolish enough to give Kobe that asinine contract. They dug their own grave.

But hey, since he's so good for the Lakers brand and delivers such box-office revenue, they should have given him a 5 year contract instead! Morons.

[patagonia]

If this is true, this says more about them than about Kobe. Why in the world did they sign him for $48 million if they don't want to keep him?

Came into same the same thing.

If the despise Bryant so much, why give him 48m over 2 seasons?

klinnsman was pretty much correct. we pay people for past performance.