Kobe says he's willing to wait on extension

[miggs]

Kobe Is Willing To Wait On Extension
Jul 07, 2009 4:00 PM EST

Kobe Bryant is willing to wait for an extension from the Lakers as the team looks to pile more talent around him.

"Mitch has a lot on his plate," Bryant said, referring to Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak. "I'd rather him take care of those pieces first. He'll get around to me."

Bryant is under contract next season for $23 million

Nice hopefully this means he may take a bit less to create a roster set up for multiple championships for the remainder of Kobe's career.

What are your thoughts guys?

[mikedeezy2k9]

If he really wanted the team to put those pieces around him he coulda took a deal at like 19 mil, thats 5 extra mil that coulda went to lamar or even trevor

[Magic Mamba]

Does this mean we can offer more to Odom??

[lakersfanatic]

maybe he's waiting to see how much of LO's money he can get
LOL just playing

I'm glad he's waiting... that'll leave kupchak time to eventually offer LO a good deal so that he'll resign with us. I just wish kobe would come out and say he'll take a discount of some sorts so that we can resign our pieces.

Kobe is also smart by holding back.. that way after everything is done.. he can demand whatever and lakers can't do anything but give it to him. The guy, himself fill seats to the roof during home games. There's no way they won't give him that super extension

[Dexmor]

See this is why I have so much respect for Artest. He said he would play for nothing. He never got a huge contract but he is signing for the midlevel. Now I know with the Lakers he will probably have a very good chance at making more money then lets say 10 million on the Rockets cause of endorsments but i don't think that is why he did it. Once everything is settled Kobe and Artest will be my favorite players and it's not Kobe over Artest because of this.

If Odom leaves I blame Buss and Kobe. Kobe could easily say I will take less. He could and should opt out and sign for alot less. He got paid how much by the Lakers over the 13 years in the league plus endorsments? He probably has a billion dollars already. It's different with Odom taking less (which he should cause he said he would) and a guy like Kobe. KG took less in Boston and Kobe should do the same.
Imagine if the Lakers won 3 championships how much Kobe would make in endorsments? If I was Kobe and I think he should opt out and then take the min. That's right the min. He's still getting paid 2 million dollars to play basketball. If it's 5 years it's still 10 million dollars to play basketball and he will get 100 million dollars in endorsments anyway.
If he does that he can do it with the condition that since he is saving the Lakers 23 million dollars a year they have to spend the bulk of it on players so they can give Odom his 5 years 45 million and then they can try and trade some contracts and Farmar and picks for a Kirk. Can you imagine Bynum/Gasol/Artest/Kobe/Kirk 6th man Odom. Also they can use there midlevel and use there picks. There will be alot of good players who are getting old who want to jump on our coatails to win a ring so we would be able to sign them.
All Kobe cares about is winning. He works so hard, best work ethic ever possibly but not enough to go from having 900 million to 882 million dollars in the bank? Come on.

[StarneyBinston]

I also think Kobe should opt out and ask for less money, but isn't there some agreement by the players association that doesn't allow them (or maybe star players, even if I wouldn't know how to decide who's who^^) to take a big paycut like the mininum?

Anyways, I think LO deserves his money, as much as Kobe does, but Kobe makes so much more money with all his sponsors and stuff...

[LAKESHOW]

i think thats an open invite. send the house to whoever else is needed. and send kobe a couple mil short on his contract. he wont mind. and i think he is actually stating that right now. get in the guys around him.

[The Laker Kid]

The Ballhog label has finally been lifted from Kobe, but alas - his new nickname is "Salary Hog"

[Joe Kleazy]

How much of your salary are you willing to give up to your co-worker in the next cubicle?


EXACTLY!

[iQon]

Kobe is not going to sacrifice money to keep anybody. Yeah, he SHOULD sign for about 16 a year. But he won't. Because that's Dr. Buss' commitment to take care of. This may hurt the team in the long run, but what can ya do?