The 'Kobe Bryant Will Leave The LA Lakers' thread

Note: The purpose of the quotation marks in the thread title is to designate the thread, not to insinuate that what is contained therein is a direct quote -- it is not.

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There's no way, IMO, that this thing is getting fixed.

And there's only one reason for that: Kobe doesn't want it fixed.

Forget about 'insiders,' Jerry West, etc. The bottom line here is that Kobe has taken 3 years of sub-.500, far-below-Lakers-frachise-standards seasons and he wants out, before his 'legacy' takes an even further hit. Better to leave with one's tail between one's legs than to see your myth utterly destroyed, after you pridefully thought all would be well for your team as the #1 guy.

Kobe wants out of the Western Conference, where he knows he has no shot at sniffing getting to the Finals. There is absolutely no chance his ego can handle the check his mouth and pride wrote, and he wants out. That is why Bucher the Puppet is doing his faithful rounds, as well as Bryant's agent, Rob Pelinka.

The Lakers didn't want to trade him. They still don't, supposedly. But after Kobe and Buss met abroad this past week, it is becoming increasingly evident that Kobe will do whatever he has to do to get out of the bed he was largely responsible for making.

Of course, any subterfuge Kobe can create to try to mask who's choice this is he will engage in, but that's not the important part here. What's important to Kobe is to get off the Lakers and out of the West, no matter what. By any means necessary. Hence the "Radio Whine Tour" of several weeks back.

The reason Kobe 'backed off' of his demand from one radio show to the next is for PR reasons. He wants to be able to say that he wanted to remain a Laker. I'm quite sure Pelinka let him know that after the Stephen A. Smith show, and thus the 'flip-flop.'

So now it's to Chicago, apparently. And a 'rebirth' (what version of Kobe will this be, 5.0? 6.0?) as the 'next Jordan' in Jordan's town.

Suffice to say, as weak as the East is, I don't think Kobe will achieve his ultimate aims. Wade and LeBron are both younger and have less mileage on their respective tires.

I guess we'll see.

It will be interesting to see how many 'Lakers' fans become Bulls, ... fans when Kobe leaves. Will the Kobe Guys, like Bucher, be able to come clean that the Kobe Lakers were a failure by any measurement? Will they try to place all the blame on Kupchack, or Buss?

One thing with Kobe - it's never dull. The soap opera continues.

As it always does when #8 or #24 is involved.

Oh, and Kobe will lead the league in jersey sales again next year. Count on that. Second straight year with a new jersey. The argument will be incorrectly made that this development represents how 'rehabilitated' his image is.

I'm guessing he will stick with #24. That is, #23 + 1. The 'next Jordan,' if you will.

Can't wait for the next chapter.

Apparently, Kobe posted more inflammatory stuff on his website today or tonight about the Lakers.

Stay classy, Next Jordan.

The most interesting corollary of this is that I think Phil Jackson stays on longer with the team than had Kobe come back. That extension isn't signed yet, I believe.

 

Re: The 'Kobe Will Leave The Lakers' thread

I liked Rob Pelinka when he played at Michigan...
I liked Rob Pelinka when he graduated from Michigan.
What the hell happened?

 

Re: The 'Kobe Will Leave The Lakers' thread

He learned the lesson of unmitigated, unrepentant mercernary greed from his teammates quite well, looks to me. Everybody has a price, everybody's for sale. Show me the money.

Every so often you hear if Kobe Bryant had gone to college, he probably would have gone to Michigan. Not hard to believe.

 

Re: The 'Kobe Will Leave The Lakers' thread

Pelinka does seem to be much more mercenary now. Totally agree.

Funny how money can do that to you if you're open to that.

 

Re: The 'Kobe Will Leave The Lakers' thread

He was much better when he was a role player...
And yeah, with the fact he came in with Robinson, Rice, Higgins and Mills and left with Webber, Rose, Howard et. al.,, Star, you are probably right.

 

Re: The 'Kobe Will Leave The Lakers' thread

You've got to be kidding me right? Kobe WANTED this to happen?

WHY THE HELL IS HE ASKING FOR A TRADE?

Did you see aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall those trades and signings Mitch Kupfuck and Buss "passed on"?
He's taken this team farther then anyone else could've taken them. They're lucky they got 2 playoff appearences in the west with that crap. Carrying a team on his back with LAMAR ODOM as your sidekick in the west on one knee? Give me a break.

You know he wants to stay in LA. He's been a Laker fan his whole life. But he's gotta go. Who the hell wants to stay and play for owners who DON'T WANT TO WIN. All they wanna do is sell tickets. Why do you think the Lakers haven't traded him yet? I'll tell you why. Because they CAN'T AFFORD to trade him. The Lakers-Kobe= Ticket sales will drop. No more $24523532454325 nose bleed seats.

For god sakes Rok, you can't be this dumb. You bring a lot of good stuff about everything else except for this topic because your hatred against Kobe. It's really amazing.

He would've went to Duke. Kobe and Krzyzewski have said this many times.

Kobe was a better as a role player?
lmfao, are you serious? I understand that you hate Kobe and all, but you gotta seperate your fantasies from the truth.

 

Re: The 'Kobe Will Leave The Lakers' thread

And we're off. You two have fun. One thing before I exit what is sure to be the same debate you've had 30 times before.

Chuck, ticket sales won't suffer without Kobe. I think it was Plaschke who wrote a story about the Lakers and other LA teams continuing to raise tickets prices. In it he mentioned that there's a waiting list of something like 1,600 people for Lakers season tickets. So even if the Lakers suck, they'll still sell-out, even if the actual attendance on game nights doesn't make it seem so.

 

Re: The 'Kobe Will Leave The Lakers' thread

Chuck, Kobe wants out. Period.

Now, it can be said that he wants out because he believes the front office is incompetent. But he wants out. There is no way around that.

The Lakers have withstood their worst 3-year stretch since the woeful 1990's, the abyss of a decade to this proud franchise. That's a fact, one that I've documented here before. Kobe is consumed with his legacy, and he doesn't want any more of that anchor while he's trying to swim to higher ground.

Kobe is conceding here. And for that I give him credit. But make no mistake - it's a concession. It's over, and he's using his Bucher's to push this thing. There is no other reasonable conclusion. Jerry West? West doesn't want to come back and make himself look stupid by usurping his hand-picked successor, Kupchack. This is all very clear, but you have to get past the hype.

I think Kobe is a morally dubious, repugnant-personalitied person. That is true. But I'm not making his career choices. He is. If he chose differently, I'd say it differently. He hasn't, I'm not.

He wants out. And as he is the only player in the league with a no-trade clause, he will get out to the team he wants. Right now, that team appears to be the Bulls.

 

Re: The 'Kobe Will Leave The Lakers' thread

nooo, Pelinka was.
Kobe wouldnt have played with Michigan's 89 class or the Fab Five... Pelinka did, hence the reference to "Star, you are right"...

 

Re: The 'Kobe Will Leave The Lakers' thread

No, I have to get some other stuff done tonight.

The only reason I'm bringing this up and starting a new thread about it is because it is quite clear after the last few days that Kobe wants out, regardless. That is, his ranting, IMO, is not an effort to try to use his position to improve his current team; he wants a new team. That's a new development, and hence a new thread. I also hope to contain all Kobe trade speculation and updates on where he might/will play next year to one thread. There is a lot of Kobe news these days, and I hope to contain the purely-basketball-related aspect of it to one, manageable thread.

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Also, I slightly tweaked the thread's first post to correct a couple of errors and to explain the thread's title a bit, in case anyone had taken it in a way I hadn't intended.

 

Re: The 'Kobe Will Leave The Lakers' thread

If the Lakers trade Kobe, there'd be no reason to come to watch the Lakers. No reason=no more high ticket sales. I don't think anyone else in the NBA charges that much money for tickets. Let's say they trade Kobe for Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich. You think fans are gonna pay that much to see them play(and lose)?

Kobe's consumed with his legacy? Riiight. Which is why he played second fiddle to Shaq and won 3 rings(and stop the "Kobe drove him out" stuff. Shaq has already admitted that he was wrong).
This has nothing to do with Jerry West. Nothing. When Kobe mentioned Jerry West, he was just saying it hypothetically. You know Kupfuck has done a terrible job. Passing up on Baron Davis, Carlos Boozer, and now this trade? Come on now Rok.

There was no "flip flop". He said he wanted to be traded. But in a perfect world, he wouldn't leave. Hell, if you really do believe this "Kobe wants to be like MJ" stuff, wouldn't you think that he WOULD want to stay because Jordan stayed his whole career with the Bulls even though he feuded with Krause all the time?

 

Re: The 'Kobe Will Leave The Lakers' thread

A couple of things. First, don't say Buss doesn't want to win, Chuck. The guy wouldn't have 8 championships (if I'm counting right) under his belt if he didn't want to win. He wouldn't have brought Phil Jackson back for ridiculous money if he didn't want to win. You can say Kupchak and Buss made some bad decisions, but don't say that Kobe is playing for ownership that doesn't want to win.

Second, Kobe should stay right where he is and give the Lakers more time to put some quality help around him. They know they've got to build a winner in a hurry or he'll opt out in '09, so he's got plenty of leverage. Meanwhile, any team that trades for him is going to have to gut its roster to do it, so he's going to be playing out the same story in a new city. What sense does that make?