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

[Slava]

Jim Buss is a problem, but so is Kobe. Jim is crippling the team with his poor decisions and letting his ego get in the way of how the team should be running and he isn't open-minded about anyone else's ideas, but his own. Kobe is crippling the Lakers because he doesn't plan on taking a backseat to anyone even at his age and other players have big egos too, they don't have or want to put up with all that drama when they have the option to play somewhere else and play with players who will take backseats to them.

Who should Kobe be taking a step backwards for?

I can't think of a better way to exemplify the problem in Lakerland than to highlight this question. It's like no one can envision a scenario where Kobe isn't the alpha dog. So that's what the Lakers are stuck with until he retires: a team where no player can be better than Kobe. And as his skill set declines, so does the team's ceiling.

Kobe alone has more titles than your favorite franchise has accumulated in all of its existence, may be there isn't any problem at all. Being likable never brought anyone any titles, what he's done has proven effective, now trying to downplay his legacy and trying to drive him out of the game is quite frankly primitive and pointless.

[StocktonShorts]

Above timeline is now complete

I wonder what the next step is in all of this. Does Kobe take a shot back at them? Does it all just go away? Could be very interesting because it seems ESPN is engaging with Kobe by putting this article on the front page.

ESPN is putting Kobe on the front page for the same reason the Lakers signed him to a two-year max deal: $$$. Page views/TV ratings.

[HotRocks34]

Above timeline is now complete

I wonder what the next step is in all of this. Does Kobe take a shot back at them? Does it all just go away? Could be very interesting because it seems ESPN is engaging with Kobe by putting this article on the front page.

It will be interesting to see. Who knows?

[StocktonShorts]

Who should Kobe be taking a step backwards for?

I can't think of a better way to exemplify the problem in Lakerland than to highlight this question. It's like no one can envision a scenario where Kobe isn't the alpha dog. So that's what the Lakers are stuck with until he retires: a team where no player can be better than Kobe. And as his skill set declines, so does the team's ceiling.

Kobe alone has more titles than your favorite franchise has accumulated in all of its existence, may be there isn't any problem at all. Being likable never brought anyone any titles, what he's done has proven effective, now trying to downplay his legacy and trying to drive him out of the game is quite frankly primitive and pointless.

You sure love to bring any kind of rational discussion about your team down to a pretty base level, don't you?

[Slava]

I can't think of a better way to exemplify the problem in Lakerland than to highlight this question. It's like no one can envision a scenario where Kobe isn't the alpha dog. So that's what the Lakers are stuck with until he retires: a team where no player can be better than Kobe. And as his skill set declines, so does the team's ceiling.

Kobe alone has more titles than your favorite franchise has accumulated in all of its existence, may be there isn't any problem at all. Being likable never brought anyone any titles, what he's done has proven effective, now trying to downplay his legacy and trying to drive him out of the game is quite frankly primitive and pointless.

You sure love to bring any kind of rational discussion about your team down to a pretty base level, don't you?

Ignorance begets ignorance. I cannot make strawberry smoothie out of dog crap logic.

[StocktonShorts]

Kobe alone has more titles than your favorite franchise has accumulated in all of its existence, may be there isn't any problem at all. Being likable never brought anyone any titles, what he's done has proven effective, now trying to downplay his legacy and trying to drive him out of the game is quite frankly primitive and pointless.

You sure love to bring any kind of rational discussion about your team down to a pretty base level, don't you?

Ignorance begets ignorance. I cannot make strawberry smoothie out of dog crap logic.

So you're sticking with the "This is Henry Abbott's masturbatory fantasy" angle and there's absolutely no truth to anything in this story? Nothing worth discussing without disparaging the author?

[Sixerscan]

There are so many reasons why this story is BS but I'll just name 2 since there's already a thread on this:

1. Revenue from the Lakers' TV deal is tiered based on ratings. Imagine this current Laker team without Kobe on it. Yeah. No ratings, no dollars, no sense (pun intended). In other words, management knows he's making them a whole lot more than he's costing them.

Is this deal really that much different than most of the other NBA TV deals? This sounds like something that seems like a big deal at first before it turns out to be an industry standard.

If so, why did the Lakers sign such an uncertain contract when they should have more bargaining power than arguably any other team in the league? Seems pretty stupid.

[Slava]

You sure love to bring any kind of rational discussion about your team down to a pretty base level, don't you?

Ignorance begets ignorance. I cannot make strawberry smoothie out of dog crap logic.

So you're sticking with the "This is Henry Abbott's masturbatory fantasy" angle and there's absolutely no truth to anything in this story? Nothing worth discussing without disparaging the author?

Ok, I've posted quotes directly from Ramon Sessions in the previous thread but I'll do so again:

“It was one of those situations I looked at like, ‘If I do come back what if they trade me?’ ” Sessions said. “There were talks about getting Deron. They always wanted the bigger-named guy. What if I get traded to a team and it’s my contract year? It was one of those things that I can’t say if I opted in, [Nash] wouldn’t have come. They still might have tried to get him. You just never know.”

NBC Sports

Abbott says Sessions left because of Kobe, so that's dismissed.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Yg_Trece/status/524297654570713088[/tweet]

Abbott: No player wants to play with Kobe. Paul George goes out of his way to throw his support behind him. Chris Paul threatens to sue the league over botched trade.

Pau Gasol

We have a true friendship. We talked. He told me he will always support me. Our relationship goes beyond basketball. Our friendship is for life. He said he will always be there for me as I will be for him.”

Marca

Aboott: Kobe never batted for Pau and Pau suffered because of Kobe. Debunked again.

If you pull the strings slightly his whole premise and questionable sources falls off. Now tell me why I shouldn't question his credibility once again.

[Slava]

*Crickets*

[NashtyNas]

So in summary. The first year the Lakers actually have cap-space. Bosh and Carmelo choose to take more cap-space form their current teams as opposed to taking less to come play with bitter Kobe. ( Also, they only had cap-space for 1 of them)

Copy pasting your response more than once doesn't mean your right.
Do it once more, or 50 more times, or a 100 more times - you're still wrong.

[MistyMountain20]

You sure love to bring any kind of rational discussion about your team down to a pretty base level, don't you?

Ignorance begets ignorance. I cannot make strawberry smoothie out of dog crap logic.

So you're sticking with the "This is Henry Abbott's masturbatory fantasy" angle and there's absolutely no truth to anything in this story? Nothing worth discussing without disparaging the author?

Have you read the article, do you see have flimsy it is. George has openly mocked the story.

On Ramon Sessions: He says he was evasive as to why he left? Was he?

"It was one of those situations I looked at like, 'If I do come back what if they trade me?' " Sessions said. "There were talks about getting Deron. They always wanted the bigger-named guy. What if I get traded to a team and it's my contract year? It was one of those things that I can't say if I opted in, [Nash] wouldn't have come. They still might have tried to get him. You just never know."

His agent had this to say about his decision making process:

"Ramon has carefully considered this decision," Sessions' agent, Jared Karnes, said in a statement. . "He had to make a career decision and ultimately decided to do what was best in providing stability and longevity for him in the NBA, and this could only be achieved through a multiyear contract."

The Lakers explicitly wanted Sessions to pick up his option.

So Abbott just tosses Sessions being evasive as a sure thing, even though it's clearly not. Then he quotes part of a statement he made about playing with Kobe, using just the words "definitely different". So Abbott robs the context of the quote which can be seen below.

"It's definitely different playing with a guy like him, a guy that's real competitive," Sessions said of Bryant. "On any night he could score 50 points. It was definitely an experience I will remember and learned a lot from."

What does that mean? The hell if I know, but Abbott apparently does. In his next sentence, without any quotes or citations, in his own words says that the Lakers were internally upset by this and thought Kobe was responsible. Internally as in who? Did Abbott get lazy and forget to write anonymous sources say.

Then he brings up Bynum asking about reining in Kobe. The same Andrew Bynum who was openly challenging their head coach by launching three pointers was talking about another player reigning it in? Good one.

Then we have Howard. Great, Abbott proved that one player does not want to play with Kobe.

[StocktonShorts]

This is the point where I realize this discussion has probably been raging in that other thread for awhile now and everyone is probably pretty firmly entrenched on their side of the argument.

So rather than try to wade calmly through this war zone I'll just go see if the Grizzlies are truly legit this year.

[Slava]

This is the point where I realize this discussion has probably been raging in that other thread for awhile now and everyone is probably pretty firmly entrenched on their side of the argument.

So rather than try to wade calmly through this war zone I'll just go see if the Grizzlies are truly legit this year.

If you put logic on one side and a finish line on the other you might just beat out Usain Bolt in a sprint.

[MistyMountain20]

Slava beat me to it. I'd really like for Abbott to clarify on at least Paul George. Forgot that he's openly rebuked the story, he was a restrictive free agent, even if the Lakers and George were mutually interested, the Pacers would have matched any offer.

[Slava]

Slava beat me to it. I'd really like for Abbott to clarify on at least Paul George. Forgot that he's openly rebuked the story, he was a restrictive free agent, even if the Lakers and George were mutually interested, the Pacers would have matched any offer.

I'm hoping the Lakers release a statement debunking the article once and for all. This has gone on far too long and its reached the point where it is tarnishing the legacy of a legendary athlete at the end of a stellar career. Its character assassination at its finest.

[kingkirk]

I can't think of a better way to exemplify the problem in Lakerland than to highlight this question. It's like no one can envision a scenario where Kobe isn't the alpha dog. So that's what the Lakers are stuck with until he retires: a team where no player can be better than Kobe. And as his skill set declines, so does the team's ceiling.

I'll ask the question again, then.

How should he take a step back for?

Fair enough if a legitimate option was there, but that isn't the case.

Wade took a step back for James. A sound decision.

Who is Bryant moving over for? If you want him to resign his post on the ivory tower, give a justifiable reason as to why he should move over for anyone, especially now on that absymal LA squad.

[JohnsHopkins]

So in summary. The first year the Lakers actually have cap-space. Bosh and Carmelo choose to take more cap-space form their current teams as opposed to taking less to come play with bitter Kobe. ( Also, they only had cap-space for 1 of them)

Copy pasting your response more than once doesn't mean your right.
Do it once more, or 50 more times, or a 100 more times - you're still wrong.[/quotee


IMO Melo did not come to LA because of phil's being in NY and Bosh was already comfortable in Miami to leave. These players are post 30 and do not want to be part of a rebuild.

However, are you telling that you know for sure with concrete evidence that if the lakers went after parsons, stephenson, hayward, bledsoe, monroe, gortat, etc with the effort they put in to lure LBJ and Melo they wouldnt come? The point im making is if any of those young players had the lakers wine and dine and show them all those non-basketball possibilities they wouldnt consider to come? (i know 4 of the players i listed are RFA,but assume they were not and the lakers are not stupid enough to offer parons, hayward a max contract)

Lakers struck out this year, but they target players who were already in winning situations and less money compared to their current teams, but dont say they have nothing to offer. Being a star athlete in LA or NY > other cities

[Exodus]

I can't think of a better way to exemplify the problem in Lakerland than to highlight this question. It's like no one can envision a scenario where Kobe isn't the alpha dog. So that's what the Lakers are stuck with until he retires: a team where no player can be better than Kobe. And as his skill set declines, so does the team's ceiling.

I'll ask the question again, then.

How should he take a step back for?

Fair enough if a legitimate option was there, but that isn't the case.

Wade took a step back for James. A sound decision.

Who is Bryant moving over for? If you want him to resign his post on the ivory tower, give a justifiable reason as to why he should move over for anyone, especially now on that absymal LA squad.

Kobe is the best player on the Lakers.

[spacemonkey]

I don't have ahorse in this race, but the below quoted post should be required reading for everybody lumping in on the Blame Kobe Bandwagon.

There are so many reasons why this story is BS but I'll just name 2 since there's already a thread on this:

1. Revenue from the Lakers' TV deal is tiered based on ratings. Imagine this current Laker team without Kobe on it. Yeah. No ratings, no dollars, no sense (pun intended). In other words, management knows he's making them a whole lot more than he's costing them.

2. If Kobe had signed on to play for the minimum, which free agent(s) this summer would've signed here? Melo got more money to stay put and keep his wife happy. Lebron went to a better team in a weak conference. Bosh signed for more and gets to stay put (again, in a less competitive conference). Love is the only one Laker fans thought might've been a possibility but he couldn't pass up the opportunity to play with Lebron while both in their primes. Can't blame him.

I'm still struggling to find a single free agent that Kobe has costed the Lakers. I mean there's a whole article on it so it must be true. But who are these free agents? I keep asking but can't seem to get a reply. Just a bunch of haters kicking dirt on a legend's grave for no real reason.

[Sofa King]

I remember saying that Kobe wouldn't play second fiddle to any of the top FA's and some of y'all[Lakers fans] thought he'd take a backseat to LeBron if LeBron had wanted to joined him. Kobe's an egomaniac. He's great at what he does for a living, but he's not a guy that players would want to hang around with off the court like they would with, LeBron, Wade, Durant, etc.

He wants the spotlight. He cares about shooting 30+ times if he's having an off shooting night. He's just really grumpy. No current superstar in his right mind would want to play second fiddle to a shot Kobe Bryant. He's so one dimensional at this point and has been for years since after 2010. He's still a box office draw and he got paid, but if the Lakers FO ever thought they had a chance of landing a big name FA while Kobe's still under contract, then they're more delusional than i thought they were.

I'm fine with this. Jordan and Magic had the same mentality. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. Not join up and beat everyone else.

I respect more for what Jordan and Kobe did.

Lakers tried to swing for the fences with Nash and Dwight. Hell Lakers had Chris Paul in before the veto. Can't blame them for trying.

The front office just screwed things up by hiring the absolute wrong coaches in Mike Brown and Mike D'Antoni.