Kobe: If West isn't back running Lakers I want out
- Thread starter AleksandarN
- Start date
I think he is as a good as gone.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/sports/20070530_Stephen_A__Smith____Bryant_fires_back_at_Lakers.html
While the NBA playoffs are going on, one of the main figures stuck at home watching like everybody else is busy ruffling feathers, naming names, and looking for the first ride out of Hollywood.
Even if he has to hitchhike.
Kobe Bryant has already let it be known that he's not interested in playing in Los Angeles any longer - not as long as general manager Mitch Kupchak and the rest of the Lakers' brass are making basketball decisions without the counsel of Jerry West, the team's former general manager, who was responsible for clearing his path from Lower Merion to Tinseltown.
Things would be significant were they to stop there. "Except I'm not about to," Bryant said yesterday. "I've been quiet long enough."
Just weeks after saying something needed to be done to improve the Lakers' roster, days after reiterating that point, and hours after suggesting that West's return to the organization might be the solution, Bryant went on an all-out assault after reading that a "team source" intimated in yesterday's Los Angeles Times that he was the reason Shaquille O'Neal was traded.
The Lakers' owner, Jerry Buss, "called a meeting with me after he spoke with Jim Gray [of ESPN] to talk with him about Shaq's future in the middle of the 2004 season," Bryant said yesterday.
"He met with me at the Four Seasons Hotel here across from Fashion Island, which is now the Island Hotel," Bryant said. "I went up to his penthouse suite. [Buss] looks me dead in the face and says: 'Kobe, I am not going to re-sign Shaq. I am not about to pay him $30 million a year or $80 million over three years. No way in hell. I feel like he's getting older. His body is breaking down, and I don't want to pay that money to him when I can get value for him right now rather than wait. This is my decision. It's independent of you. My mind is made up. It doesn't matter to me what you do in free agency because I do not want to pay [Shaq], period.' "
"Dr. Buss said that," Bryant said. "And I haven't said anything for years because I've always felt like folks were just looking to create controversy. Now I know. I realize what extent [the Lakers] will go to, to cover themselves."
And what does O'Neal think?
"I believe Kobe 100 percent," said O'Neal, reached yesterday while in Los Angeles on business. "Absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind Kobe is telling the truth. I believe him a thousand percent. I would have respected Dr. Buss more as a man if he would have told me that himself, because I know he said it. But he didn't [tell me]. He never said a damn word to me."
Now look where it's gotten the Lakers. And Bryant.
Buss, who was arrested yesterday in Carlsbad, Calif., for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol, was unavailable for comment. So, too, was Kupchak. But the Lakers' organization did not deny yesterday that such a conversation took place.
The Lakers were bounced out of the first round of the playoffs for the second consecutive season. And for the second straight season, it happened with Bryant as the league's leading scorer but still resembling the foot soldier going to gunfights with a pocket knife.
Bryant, saddled with Lamar Odom and little else to show for three NBA titles, said he wanted Baron Davis, then Carlos Boozer, then Jason Kidd and Ron Artest, each time being told the Lakers couldn't get a deal done.
Now, three full seasons after O'Neal's departure to Miami, Bryant appears to have lost all faith. The fact that he's keenly aware that most people feel he deserves to be miserable for helping to dismantle a potential dynasty - by provoking O'Neal's exodus - appears to have infuriated him now more than ever.
Never mind that O'Neal was traded on July 14, 2004, for Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant, and a first-round pick, or that Bryant re-signed for seven years at $136 million the very next day.
"The challenge is what it was all about for me," said Bryant, who negotiated a no-trade clause in his contract. "I told Dr. Buss - obviously, I was about to become a free agent - that I was interested in attacking the market. Chicago and the L.A. Clippers had better rosters. I was gone until Dr. Buss called me from vacation in Italy promising me he was not going to wait five years to rebuild, that he was going to rebuild right now. I trusted him.
"Sure, Shaq and I had our issues. So what! We always did and we won three titles. That doesn't change what was told to me. It doesn't change the fact I never, ever, said to get rid of him. And it damn sure doesn't change the fact that all these years later, promises made to make this team better have not been kept. So where does that leave me?"
Chicago? New York? Philadelphia, perhaps?
"Keep talking," Bryant quipped. "Anything sounds good right now with the way I'm feeling."
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/sports/20070530_Stephen_A__Smith____Bryant_fires_back_at_Lakers.html
While the NBA playoffs are going on, one of the main figures stuck at home watching like everybody else is busy ruffling feathers, naming names, and looking for the first ride out of Hollywood.
Even if he has to hitchhike.
Kobe Bryant has already let it be known that he's not interested in playing in Los Angeles any longer - not as long as general manager Mitch Kupchak and the rest of the Lakers' brass are making basketball decisions without the counsel of Jerry West, the team's former general manager, who was responsible for clearing his path from Lower Merion to Tinseltown.
Things would be significant were they to stop there. "Except I'm not about to," Bryant said yesterday. "I've been quiet long enough."
Just weeks after saying something needed to be done to improve the Lakers' roster, days after reiterating that point, and hours after suggesting that West's return to the organization might be the solution, Bryant went on an all-out assault after reading that a "team source" intimated in yesterday's Los Angeles Times that he was the reason Shaquille O'Neal was traded.
The Lakers' owner, Jerry Buss, "called a meeting with me after he spoke with Jim Gray [of ESPN] to talk with him about Shaq's future in the middle of the 2004 season," Bryant said yesterday.
"He met with me at the Four Seasons Hotel here across from Fashion Island, which is now the Island Hotel," Bryant said. "I went up to his penthouse suite. [Buss] looks me dead in the face and says: 'Kobe, I am not going to re-sign Shaq. I am not about to pay him $30 million a year or $80 million over three years. No way in hell. I feel like he's getting older. His body is breaking down, and I don't want to pay that money to him when I can get value for him right now rather than wait. This is my decision. It's independent of you. My mind is made up. It doesn't matter to me what you do in free agency because I do not want to pay [Shaq], period.' "
"Dr. Buss said that," Bryant said. "And I haven't said anything for years because I've always felt like folks were just looking to create controversy. Now I know. I realize what extent [the Lakers] will go to, to cover themselves."
And what does O'Neal think?
"I believe Kobe 100 percent," said O'Neal, reached yesterday while in Los Angeles on business. "Absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind Kobe is telling the truth. I believe him a thousand percent. I would have respected Dr. Buss more as a man if he would have told me that himself, because I know he said it. But he didn't [tell me]. He never said a damn word to me."
Now look where it's gotten the Lakers. And Bryant.
Buss, who was arrested yesterday in Carlsbad, Calif., for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol, was unavailable for comment. So, too, was Kupchak. But the Lakers' organization did not deny yesterday that such a conversation took place.
The Lakers were bounced out of the first round of the playoffs for the second consecutive season. And for the second straight season, it happened with Bryant as the league's leading scorer but still resembling the foot soldier going to gunfights with a pocket knife.
Bryant, saddled with Lamar Odom and little else to show for three NBA titles, said he wanted Baron Davis, then Carlos Boozer, then Jason Kidd and Ron Artest, each time being told the Lakers couldn't get a deal done.
Now, three full seasons after O'Neal's departure to Miami, Bryant appears to have lost all faith. The fact that he's keenly aware that most people feel he deserves to be miserable for helping to dismantle a potential dynasty - by provoking O'Neal's exodus - appears to have infuriated him now more than ever.
Never mind that O'Neal was traded on July 14, 2004, for Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant, and a first-round pick, or that Bryant re-signed for seven years at $136 million the very next day.
"The challenge is what it was all about for me," said Bryant, who negotiated a no-trade clause in his contract. "I told Dr. Buss - obviously, I was about to become a free agent - that I was interested in attacking the market. Chicago and the L.A. Clippers had better rosters. I was gone until Dr. Buss called me from vacation in Italy promising me he was not going to wait five years to rebuild, that he was going to rebuild right now. I trusted him.
"Sure, Shaq and I had our issues. So what! We always did and we won three titles. That doesn't change what was told to me. It doesn't change the fact I never, ever, said to get rid of him. And it damn sure doesn't change the fact that all these years later, promises made to make this team better have not been kept. So where does that leave me?"
Chicago? New York? Philadelphia, perhaps?
"Keep talking," Bryant quipped. "Anything sounds good right now with the way I'm feeling."
Yup. Things just got a whole lot uglier:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2886927
Bryant asks for trade; says Buss mastermined trading O'Neal
ESPN.com news services
The story lines that have engulfed the Los Angeles Lakers in the last week hit a crescendo Wednesday when Kobe Bryant said he would welcome a trade.
"I would like to be traded, yeah," Bryant said on 1050 ESPN Radio in New York. "Tough as it is to come to that conclusion there's no other alternative, you know?"
Bryant, interviewed by Stephen A. Smith, was asked if there was anything the Lakers could do to change his mind?
"No," Bryan said. "I just want them to do the right thing."
Earlier in the day, Bryant said team owner Jerry Buss masterminded the trade of Shaquille O'Neal -- and Shaq later confirming Kobe's account.
The issues between Bryant and the Lakers have reached a boil, beginning with Bryant voicing his displeasure with the club's direction, his suggestion that Jerry West should return to fix things, West's statement that he has no intention of undermining GM/good friend Mitch Kupchak, and, unrelated but bizarre in its timing, Buss' arrest early Tuesday for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol.
Bryant was left "beyond furious" by a report in Tuesday's Los Angeles Times that read, "as a Lakers insider notes, it was Bryant's insistence on getting away from Shaquille O'Neal that got them in this mess."
O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat after the 2003-04 season, and the long-held belief has been that the deteriorating relationship between O'Neal and Bryant was a factor in O'Neal's departure.
In response to the Times' story, Bryant, interviewed by Smith for a Philadelphia Inquirer column, said Buss "called a meeting with me after he spoke with Jim Gray [of ESPN] to talk with him about Shaq's future in the middle of the 2004 season.
"He met with me at the Four Seasons Hotel here [in Los Angeles] across from Fashion Island, which is now the Island Hotel," Bryant told Smith. "I went up to his penthouse suite. [Buss] looks me dead in the face and says: 'Kobe, I am not going to re-sign Shaq. I am not about to pay him $30 million a year or $80 million over three years. No way in hell. I feel like he's getting older. His body is breaking down, and I don't want to pay that money to him when I can get value for him right now rather than wait.
"This is my decision. It's independent of you. My mind is made up. It doesn't matter to me what you do in free agency because I do not want to pay [Shaq], period.' "
"Dr. Buss said that," Bryant told Smith. "And I haven't said anything for years because I've always felt like folks were just looking to create controversy. Now I know. I realize what extent [the Lakers] will go to, to cover themselves."
Reached afterward, O'Neal told Smith that be believed his former teammate beyond reproach.
"I believe Kobe 100 percent," O'Neal said when reached in Los Angeles. "Absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind Kobe is telling the truth. I believe him a thousand percent.
"I would have respected Dr. Buss more as a man if he would have told me that himself, because I know he said it. But he didn't [tell me]. He never said a damn word to me."
Buss was unavailable for comment Tuesday, as was Kupchak. Buss, 74, was booked early Tuesday for investigation of drunken driving and driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or above.
The Lakers missed the playoffs in the first season after O'Neal was dealt for Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant, and a first-round pick, and have been eliminated in the first round the last two seasons. O'Neal and the Heat won the NBA championship last season.
"Sure, Shaq and I had our issues," Bryant told Smith. "So what! We always did and we won three titles. That doesn't change what was told to me. It doesn't change the fact I never, ever, said to get rid of him."
While Bryant re-signed for $136 million for seven years the day after O'Neal was traded, he has pushed for trades -- he wanted Carlos Boozer, then Jason Kidd, then Ron Artest -- that the Lakers were unable to pull off. Meanwhile, Odom has undergone shoulder surgery but is expected to be ready for training camp in October, Kwame Brown has undergone reconstructive surgery on his left ankle and might not be ready for the start of camp.
And now Bryant, who reportedly has made it clear to the Lakers that he may see fit to terminate his contract in two years, told Smith he wouldn't continue to wait for Buss to build the roster around him.
"Promises made to make this team better have not been kept," Bryant told Smith. "So where does that leave me?"
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2886927
Bryant asks for trade; says Buss mastermined trading O'Neal
ESPN.com news services
The story lines that have engulfed the Los Angeles Lakers in the last week hit a crescendo Wednesday when Kobe Bryant said he would welcome a trade.
"I would like to be traded, yeah," Bryant said on 1050 ESPN Radio in New York. "Tough as it is to come to that conclusion there's no other alternative, you know?"
Bryant, interviewed by Stephen A. Smith, was asked if there was anything the Lakers could do to change his mind?
"No," Bryan said. "I just want them to do the right thing."
Earlier in the day, Bryant said team owner Jerry Buss masterminded the trade of Shaquille O'Neal -- and Shaq later confirming Kobe's account.
The issues between Bryant and the Lakers have reached a boil, beginning with Bryant voicing his displeasure with the club's direction, his suggestion that Jerry West should return to fix things, West's statement that he has no intention of undermining GM/good friend Mitch Kupchak, and, unrelated but bizarre in its timing, Buss' arrest early Tuesday for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol.
Bryant was left "beyond furious" by a report in Tuesday's Los Angeles Times that read, "as a Lakers insider notes, it was Bryant's insistence on getting away from Shaquille O'Neal that got them in this mess."
O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat after the 2003-04 season, and the long-held belief has been that the deteriorating relationship between O'Neal and Bryant was a factor in O'Neal's departure.
In response to the Times' story, Bryant, interviewed by Smith for a Philadelphia Inquirer column, said Buss "called a meeting with me after he spoke with Jim Gray [of ESPN] to talk with him about Shaq's future in the middle of the 2004 season.
"He met with me at the Four Seasons Hotel here [in Los Angeles] across from Fashion Island, which is now the Island Hotel," Bryant told Smith. "I went up to his penthouse suite. [Buss] looks me dead in the face and says: 'Kobe, I am not going to re-sign Shaq. I am not about to pay him $30 million a year or $80 million over three years. No way in hell. I feel like he's getting older. His body is breaking down, and I don't want to pay that money to him when I can get value for him right now rather than wait.
"This is my decision. It's independent of you. My mind is made up. It doesn't matter to me what you do in free agency because I do not want to pay [Shaq], period.' "
"Dr. Buss said that," Bryant told Smith. "And I haven't said anything for years because I've always felt like folks were just looking to create controversy. Now I know. I realize what extent [the Lakers] will go to, to cover themselves."
Reached afterward, O'Neal told Smith that be believed his former teammate beyond reproach.
"I believe Kobe 100 percent," O'Neal said when reached in Los Angeles. "Absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind Kobe is telling the truth. I believe him a thousand percent.
"I would have respected Dr. Buss more as a man if he would have told me that himself, because I know he said it. But he didn't [tell me]. He never said a damn word to me."
Buss was unavailable for comment Tuesday, as was Kupchak. Buss, 74, was booked early Tuesday for investigation of drunken driving and driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or above.
The Lakers missed the playoffs in the first season after O'Neal was dealt for Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant, and a first-round pick, and have been eliminated in the first round the last two seasons. O'Neal and the Heat won the NBA championship last season.
"Sure, Shaq and I had our issues," Bryant told Smith. "So what! We always did and we won three titles. That doesn't change what was told to me. It doesn't change the fact I never, ever, said to get rid of him."
While Bryant re-signed for $136 million for seven years the day after O'Neal was traded, he has pushed for trades -- he wanted Carlos Boozer, then Jason Kidd, then Ron Artest -- that the Lakers were unable to pull off. Meanwhile, Odom has undergone shoulder surgery but is expected to be ready for training camp in October, Kwame Brown has undergone reconstructive surgery on his left ankle and might not be ready for the start of camp.
And now Bryant, who reportedly has made it clear to the Lakers that he may see fit to terminate his contract in two years, told Smith he wouldn't continue to wait for Buss to build the roster around him.
"Promises made to make this team better have not been kept," Bryant told Smith. "So where does that leave me?"
Between the power picks at the top of the draft, and the huge names potentially floating around in Kobe, Jermaine, Randolph, Pau, KG etc., the early part of this summer is going to be very interesting to say the least.
The flipside is this though: it could make it very hard for us to get any deals done, picking up extra picks, moving up in the draft etc. because frankly what is out in the market is better than what we have to offer. Danny Ainge isn't goign to listen t o our overtures to get #5 when on the other line he's talking to Portland about Randolph, Indiana about Jermaine, and the Lakers about Kobe (hopefully not because of the Boston/Lakers rivalry (now ancient history actually). Teams that might put a superstar up on the block aren't going to do that deal until they make sure they can't bring in Kobe to play next to KG or whatever.
P.S. Kobe's petulance is simply amazing. Not quite as easy as you thought eh kid?
The flipside is this though: it could make it very hard for us to get any deals done, picking up extra picks, moving up in the draft etc. because frankly what is out in the market is better than what we have to offer. Danny Ainge isn't goign to listen t o our overtures to get #5 when on the other line he's talking to Portland about Randolph, Indiana about Jermaine, and the Lakers about Kobe (hopefully not because of the Boston/Lakers rivalry (now ancient history actually). Teams that might put a superstar up on the block aren't going to do that deal until they make sure they can't bring in Kobe to play next to KG or whatever.
P.S. Kobe's petulance is simply amazing. Not quite as easy as you thought eh kid?
This is a dream come true besides the Kings winning it all.
You get what you deserve L.A.
You get what you deserve L.A.
Or egomania and petulance?
They should trade him to Denver for J.R. Smith and Nene...just for kicks.
They should trade him to Denver for J.R. Smith and Nene...just for kicks.
Also he has a full no trade clause.
Oh, po baby need a little huggie wuggie?
I mean seriously. Grow up (him not you). Kobe has this amazing self absorbsed sense of entitlement. Obviously with him in town building a title team would just be a snap right? I compare this to KG, who has just hung in there doggedly year after year for his franchise as it wallows -- maybe even stupidly. Loyal to a fault. Not in Kobeville. He's going to throw a tantrum and take his $20 million a year toys with him.
There was no problem there until Kobe starting opening his yapper. You didn't see Lakers management suddenly popping up mid-playoffs, terrified that the world wasn't talking about them and only them, and say, well 3 years into the experience we're just not happy that Kobe hasn't taken us further.
I mean seriously. Grow up (him not you). Kobe has this amazing self absorbsed sense of entitlement. Obviously with him in town building a title team would just be a snap right? I compare this to KG, who has just hung in there doggedly year after year for his franchise as it wallows -- maybe even stupidly. Loyal to a fault. Not in Kobeville. He's going to throw a tantrum and take his $20 million a year toys with him.
There was no problem there until Kobe starting opening his yapper. You didn't see Lakers management suddenly popping up mid-playoffs, terrified that the world wasn't talking about them and only them, and say, well 3 years into the experience we're just not happy that Kobe hasn't taken us further.
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I would agree with you (I honestly would) had he not been signed with a promise. He didn't sign solely on the love for the lakers, he signed with a promise too. Whether he should've known better or not is irrelevant, they told him one thing and told Phil another and did what they told Phil they would do. They flat out lied to their franchise player to get him to re-sign. I know it's hard for you to feel sorry for a guy who makes that much money but he gave up great potential opportunities with the clippers and the bulls because Jerry Buss lied to him. Me personally, I think that's just flat out wrong. I don't see how you can complain about a lack of loyalty when they're deceiving him and they're doing nothing to console him of this stuff right now. I think they just planned to use him to make money while they take years (many) to rebuild their franchise.
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I mean, what world has he been living in since the Shaq trade? Isn't it obvious the Lakers are rebuilding? Isn't it obvious he was thrown under the bus for the Shaq trade? What in the world has changed to prompt all this ridiculousness?
And how about how the organization stuck behind him during the rape trial? Some loyalty for that.
I'm glad Kobe isn't going to be traded to the Kings because I'd have a hard time being a Kings fan.
And how about how the organization stuck behind him during the rape trial? Some loyalty for that.
I'm glad Kobe isn't going to be traded to the Kings because I'd have a hard time being a Kings fan.
I think he knows the lakers haven't been doing what they promised they would do when they signed him, what has changed now is that he found out (just yesterday) that they knowingly lied to him about what they were planning on doing. He was thrown under the bus for the Shaq trade but he written it off as just media talk until a lakers insider told the LA times that it was Kobe that got Shaq traded which isn't true. These are the things that prompted all of this.