I lied
You also lie when you try to act like you know anything about basketball.
I lied
Eh...there's some truth to his reporting. That's not the first place you've heard some of that stuff about Bryant so its not like he made it up. There's no doubt there are players that would find him difficult to deal with. It's also 100% true he has no qualms about blasting teammates publicly. While a good portion of his rants are true (like Shaq being fat), it's sometimes best to keep some of that in house. So you can see how that type of behavior would turn people off. Kobe strikes me as someone that has a very high IQ but is also a bit of a sociopath. He doesn't really fully understand the emotions of other people and how what he sees as truths can be hurtful to others if taken a certain way.
Now how much of that contributes to the Lakers "downfall" is debatable. It seems ridiculous to pin it all on him. The story (conveniently) left out a HUGE reason for LA's current predicament; David Stern vetoing the Chris Paul trade. That was step 1 in the LA Front Office plan to transition into the next era. Had it gone through, it would have dramatically altered not only the Lakers, but damn near every team. Nothing we see today would be like it is. And if you remember, LA didn't include Andrew Bynum in that deal, meaning they still had the assets to bring Dwight Howard to LA as well. Suddenly that picture looks totally different if the Lakers have CP3, Howard, and Bryant on the team. Even if by chance both guys hated playing with Bryant, the way the contracts were set up, LA could have let Bryant walk in 2014 free agency and signed someone else (Melo, Lebron, Bosh, whoever) to play with Paul and Howard. So yeah, that's a pretty big detail to leave out.
WTF?.......I never implied Kobe had nothing to do with those titles
Why you trying to deflect?
Eh...there's some truth to his reporting. That's not the first place you've heard some of that stuff about Bryant so its not like he made it up. There's no doubt there are players that would find him difficult to deal with. It's also 100% true he has no qualms about blasting teammates publicly. While a good portion of his rants are true (like Shaq being fat), it's sometimes best to keep some of that in house. So you can see how that type of behavior would turn people off. Kobe strikes me as someone that has a very high IQ but is also a bit of a sociopath. He doesn't really fully understand the emotions of other people and how what he sees as truths can be hurtful to others if taken a certain way.
Now how much of that contributes to the Lakers "downfall" is debatable. It seems ridiculous to pin it all on him. The story (conveniently) left out a HUGE reason for LA's current predicament; David Stern vetoing the Chris Paul trade
:rollseyes:Then whats the point of mentioning Shaq and Phil?
Like I said, the key word was 'implied' and now you're trying to dig yourself out of that hole.
:rollseyes:
You're just being dumb. Take it like a man and move on.....
Who can't score when you're shooting 22 & 23 shots? I will never be impressed with a player scoring mid 20s on 20 something attempts......that's pretty bad.
Guys like bron & Durant would be approaching 40 nightly if they were chucking up nearly 25 shots every night. Calderon can score 20 something points on 22 or 23 shots
g1gga please. Stop embarrassing yourself.
I would love to see the fg percentage fron those 5 players in that time period. My guess is LeBron & wade blow those 3 out of the water while Durant is probably ahead of those 2.
You guys are missing my point. Kobe shot attempts is an issue. I just feel like in order for the Lakers to be successful, he needs to be more efficient. I don't think anyone would complain if he's shooting 22 shots in 45 or 46 percent....but if he's in the low 40s like 42 percent that is a problem.
Sessions opted out well before Nash was in the equation. Ramone chose free agency over opting in for 4.5mil guaranteed money for one more season with the Lakers.
What journey man opts out of 4.5mil guaranteed for 1yr?
Kobe was definitely part of his decision.
I would love to see the fg percentage fron those 5 players in that time period. My guess is LeBron & wade blow those 3 out of the water while Durant is probably ahead of those 2.
You guys are missing my point. Kobe shot attempts is an issue. I just feel like in order for the Lakers to be successful, he needs to be more efficient. I don't think anyone would complain if he's shooting 22 shots in 45 or 46 percent....but if he's in the low 40s like 42 percent that is a problem.
Laker fans, or rather, Kobe fans, will NEVER see this about kobe.
NOW you have agents writing articles about players not wanting to play with Kobe, and of course, the fact the Lakers really haven't been able to land any key FAs in a long while.
But NONE of this is evidence that people don't like playing with him. You guys can bury your heads in the sand better than most fanbases I've seen.
Kobe is arguably the greatest player of his generation.......but that very reason is why guys aren't lining up to play with him like they do Lebron. Kobe has a reputation of NEVER deferring to teammates......whether you think it is legit or not. And the PROOF is being played out every year he's out there running with scrubs.
Kobe is who he is. He believes he's better than every player on the court, whether its true or not. And he's going to play HIS way. That's not always very attractive to other guys.
NOW you have agents writing articles about players not wanting to play with Kobe, and of course, the fact the Lakers really haven't been able to land any key FAs in a long while.
Laker fans, or rather, Kobe fans, will NEVER see this about kobe.
NOW you have agents writing articles about players not wanting to play with Kobe, and of course, the fact the Lakers really haven't been able to land any key FAs in a long while.
But NONE of this is evidence that people don't like playing with him. You guys can bury your heads in the sand better than most fanbases I've seen.
Kobe is arguably the greatest player of his generation.......but that very reason is why guys aren't lining up to play with him like they do Lebron. Kobe has a reputation of NEVER deferring to teammates......whether you think it is legit or not. And the PROOF is being played out every year he's out there running with scrubs.
Kobe is who he is. He believes he's better than every player on the court, whether its true or not. And he's going to play HIS way. That's not always very attractive to other guys.
Kobe can be difficult to play with. Lakers fans fully understand this.
Tell me this though, what key FAs did the Lakers realistically miss out when they were winning titles on a team that was well over the cap? Which key FAs spurned the Lakers and signed minimum contracts with other teams?
The Lakers were never in a financial position to sign a major FA when Kobe was in his prime. To conclude that it was because nobody wanted to play with Kobe is disingenuous.
So his issues with other FA's happened very early in his career.