Kobe "home discount is crap"

[OutlawImmortal]

Maybe so I just don't think you can fill roster with bad players and expect that to reel in free agents. What would even be the next big splash attempt, rondo, mark gasol? Most of these players want to be a finishing piece not a question mark of they can even get 8th seed. Again yeah they missed but kobes contract gets some of the blame for players opting to stay with teams or go another route

How do you know that?

 

[Inimical]

How do you know? His salary limited their ability. 15 mil per year would be 8 mil less than what he makes now. It's not enough to get a max guy but that's good chunk of cash to sign quality role players and low end starters. With better players like that you may have even been able to convince Pau to stay since the team would be a legit playoff contender. Think of the FA pool as a grocery store. Kobe's salary as it is only lets LA shop in only half the store. If they held firm and offered him less, now LA has many options to look at in the store.

Salary cap goes up. I think they only honestly wanted melo to set up for this offseason. By next year be a true contender. It hasn't nor will it effect the money situation for signing free agents.. Far as keeping gasol, there goes that extra cash. Came out recently the lakers offered gasol by far the most money.

 

[Inimical]

Maybe so I just don't think you can fill roster with bad players and expect that to reel in free agents. What would even be the next big splash attempt, rondo, mark gasol? Most of these players want to be a finishing piece not a question mark of they can even get 8th seed. Again yeah they missed but kobes contract gets some of the blame for players opting to stay with teams or go another route

I don't think that's fair but now we get into the pettiness of the players and that's a whole other piece of the pie.

 

[LogicMan]

Kobe criticizes other players and those owners for taking less, which many greats in many sports do do quite often

Then he mentions how jealous he is of those very same teams for keeping all the talent.....


And then goes off on why he is warranted that deal and that the players union is supporting him on why he should have taken that deal


Kobe has every right to the money. But he should stop talking to the press less he be viewed as a double talker who is only out for himself.

Btw his recovery is amazing. Shooting suffers but if he was on a decent team he could get another ring or two. He still has it.

 

[Davis_Mike]

Kobe sells a lot of jerseys and tickets, I think you may be undervaluing Kobe a bit in terms of nobody wanting to sign him.

This will soon fade into history, leaving the Lakers with multiple losing seasons in a row, an empty roster, & cap space to sign the fabled "next great Laker". Once Kobe is gone & that money starts drying up, what are Lakers fans, many of whom are casual fans, going to do? Will celebrities still show up to games or will they complete their migration over to the Clippers? Lakers fans don't see the bigger picture of what is happening to their franchise.

I find it hilarious that some Lakers fans are this delusional about the state of their team & Kobe's impact on that state.

 

[Hornsstampede2.0]

TAKE every penny.


There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It is the right move.


I challenge all these for the good of the team guys on here:


When your boss does your next annual review:


Will you take a pay cut, so they can hire a young talented new IT guy and improve the firms bottom line?


KOBE did exactly the right and correct thing.


That 100 of 100 of us on here would do as well....twice over...

 

[trojanfan12]

TAKE every penny.


There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It is the right move.


I challenge all these for the good of the team guys on here:


When your boss does your next annual review:


Will you take a pay cut, so they can hire a young talented new IT guy and improve the firms bottom line?


KOBE did exactly the right and correct thing.


That 100 of 100 of us on here would do as well....twice over...

^^^THIS^^^

Nothing more hypocritical than people who bitch about someone not doing something that they would never do themselves.

Kobe's contract left enough cap space that the Lakers could have added at least a top level FA and a mid-tier FA. They could have done this and still signed the guys that they wanted back from last year. They probably would have gone over the cap, but they don't care if it means putting a contender on the floor.

When the only 2 difference makers in the draft did what we all pretty much knew they'd do, then they put together the best roster they could, with an eye towards preserving cap space for the next off-season, when they will have even more cap space as Nash's $9.7 million will be off the books.

Meanwhile, they continue to make money off of having Kobe on the team. It's really not that difficult to figure out for those with at least 2 brain cells to rub together.

 

[OutlawImmortal]

This will soon fade into history, leaving the Lakers with multiple losing seasons in a row, an empty roster, & cap space to sign the fabled "next great Laker". Once Kobe is gone & that money starts drying up, what are Lakers fans, many of whom are casual fans, going to do? Will celebrities still show up to games or will they complete their migration over to the Clippers? Lakers fans don't see the bigger picture of what is happening to their franchise.

I find it hilarious that some Lakers fans are this delusional about the state of their team & Kobe's impact on that state.

That's some pretty wishful thinking.

 

[TurnUpTheHeat]

All of us would also take millions of dollars to go on ESPN for 90 minutes to announce where we are going to work next year ( if given the opportunity) like James did, yet some of the same people that crucified James are defending Kobe.

They both did the correct thing, which was taking what was offered.

 

[trojanfan12]

All of us would also take millions of dollars to go on ESPN for 90 minutes to announce where we are going to work next year ( if given the opportunity) like James did, yet some of the same people that crucified James are defending Kobe.

They both did the correct thing, which was taking what was offered.

Still trying to find someone to agree with you about "The Decision". I admire the tenacity.

 

[hockey878]

TAKE every penny.


There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It is the right move.


I challenge all these for the good of the team guys on here:


When your boss does your next annual review:


Will you take a pay cut, so they can hire a young talented new IT guy and improve the firms bottom line?


KOBE did exactly the right and correct thing.


That 100 of 100 of us on here would do as well....twice over...

From a business/financial perspective Kobe is right. Players shouldn't take paycuts to save the BILLIONAIRE owners some money. It bizarre that we've been convinced to do that.

But realistically? There is a salary cap. And if you want to build a competitive team taking a pay cut is necessary. Duncan and Dirk both did this and they are now on great teams. I don't think either of these guys did it "to save the owners some money" it was simply because they are aware that in order to win a championship they need help and can't get that if they are making 25 million a year.


Also, the boss asking you to take a pay cut to hire someone else and improve the bottom line isn't necessarily the most accurate analogy. There is a huge difference in a general office job where you will receive no recognition, fame etc. People don't have a "legacy" and there is no hall of fame. There isn't a playoff at the end of the year between the top 15 office is in the country and the winner got bonuses etc.

I get what you are saying, but that analogy kind of has some holes in it.

I don't blame kobe for taking the money. But he also needs to sleep in the bed he has made because of it.

 

[Otis B. Driftwood]

Kobe criticizes other players and those owners for taking less, which many greats in many sports do do quite often

Then he mentions how jealous he is of those very same teams for keeping all the talent.....


And then goes off on why he is warranted that deal and that the players union is supporting him on why he should have taken that deal


Kobe has every right to the money. But he should stop talking to the press less he be viewed as a double talker who is only out for himself.

Btw his recovery is amazing. Shooting suffers but if he was on a decent team he could get another ring or two. He still has it.

This is why I laugh at his whole diatribe about not taking less. Don't say you have cap space to sign guys when the reality is you don't. And - he also states that the new NBAPA player rep will do something about it in the next CBA negotiation. This is the same woman who says owners like Cuban don't matter.

Any Laker fan (and for that matter any Laker player) worth their weight knows owners matter. They had the best one in the NBA and possibly the best one in sports for damn near 40 years.

 

[OutlawImmortal]

If you guys want to believe that 8 or so mil would have swayed Melo from NY, the place he forced his way to, or LBJ from his home state, then that's your opinion. I will wait and see what the future holds.

 

[DJ Fieri]

This will soon fade into history, leaving the Lakers with multiple losing seasons in a row, an empty roster, & cap space to sign the fabled "next great Laker". Once Kobe is gone & that money starts drying up, what are Lakers fans, many of whom are casual fans, going to do? Will celebrities still show up to games or will they complete their migration over to the Clippers? Lakers fans don't see the bigger picture of what is happening to their franchise.

I find it hilarious that some Lakers fans are this delusional about the state of their team & Kobe's impact on that state.

The Laker fans didn't migrate anywhere once Magic and Co retired. You're a knowledgeable poster for the most part but this just stinks of Suns homerism.

 

[DJ Fieri]

TAKE every penny.


There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It is the right move.


I challenge all these for the good of the team guys on here:


When your boss does your next annual review:


Will you take a pay cut, so they can hire a young talented new IT guy and improve the firms bottom line?


KOBE did exactly the right and correct thing.


That 100 of 100 of us on here would do as well....twice over...

Exactly, a lot of hypocrites on here.

 

[DJ Fieri]

If you guys want to believe that 8 or so mil would have swayed Melo from NY, the place he forced his way to, or LBJ from his home state, then that's your opinion. I will wait and see what the future holds.

It came down to NY and LA, but Melo stayed for the $.

 

[lakersrule]

This is why I laugh at his whole diatribe about not taking less. Don't say you have cap space to sign guys when the reality is you don't. And - he also states that the new NBAPA player rep will do something about it in the next CBA negotiation. This is the same woman who says owners like Cuban don't matter.

Any Laker fan (and for that matter any Laker player) worth their weight knows owners matter. They had the best one in the NBA and possibly the best one in sports for damn near 40 years.

They had cap space last summer but weren't able to land the big name. They'll have that same opportunity next summer. A few extra million to spend would be nice, but let's not act like it guarantees anything.

It amazes me that people can't seem to grasp the business aspect of professional sports. Businesses like to profit. The Lakers make a lot of money off of Kobe. He deserves every bit of the salary.

He's right about the new union chief. It's going to be hardball negotiation in a couple of years. The players union got raped last time. They'll come out of the next one in a better position.

 

[OutlawImmortal]

It came down to NY and LA, but Melo stayed for the $.

Just to clear things up, I meant 8 million off of Kobe's contract. The Lakers offered both FA every cent they could. NY offered more and let's be honest, Melo labored to get there in the first place. Does 1 mid-tier FA really make a difference for either of them though? And if they had signed, are the Lakers that afraid to go over the luxury tax in order to put a contender on the floor? The New Jersey Nets owner paid something like 100 mil in luxury taxes and I don't see him going bankrupt.

 

[BobGnarly]

I wonder what Lakers fans would say if the shoe was on the other foot... My guess is they'd go on and on about how bad said Owners are.

 

[LogicMan]

The issue is not whether he should take the money. He has that right.

The issue is his wishes that he could be surrounded with talent for many years as He stated makes him jealous of Tim Duncan and dirk. Yet he knows well to get that they gave up lots of,salary to put the best around them.

Which does he want. Championships or money . He gave his answer, so don't complain because those better teams and players had different values.

I think if he just stops complaining about the advantage of others this quiets down. He is not trying to win rings.