Lakers and Kobe Bryant agree to terms on a contract extension.

what a team player to leave 19.4 million on the table to stay as a lakes!

 

The Lakers had to decide between rebuilding and Kobe, and they chose Kobe. As I said, LeBron and Carmelo weren't walking through their door. For them, it's all about Durant, in three years, and watching Kobe chase scoring records will be an interesting diversion until then.

 

Lakers just crippled themselves for the Kevin Love hunt.

 

By the time Kobe retires, the Lakers will be so devoid of any good role players that they might not even be attractive to Durant.

Jim Buss is running the organization to the ground.

 

Kobe is arguably the greatest Laker in its great history. Sometimes you gotta pay homage by overpaying the guy at the end of his career and take a loss. You don't see that too often in sports.

 

Too bad Kobe doesn't reciprocate that same sentiment, seeing as he can't even take less for the sake for the team.

I think Kobe is a great player, but he is as selfish as they come. Kobe doesn't want to win as much as the media portrays him out to be.

Would be funny if Kobe asks Pau to take a paycut for the sake of the team.

 

Kobe is greatest Laker for promoting brand and business profit because of his world wide popularity.

In the heart of long time fans, the greatest Laker will always be Magic. Only the younger generation will take Kobe over Magic.

This extension is purely for business purpose and not for basketball reasons.

 

So Kobe is no longer eligible for amnesty ?

 

I love what the lakers did

I love that lakers signed Kobe to a fat contract, it more then likely dooms lakers for awhile. The next best thing is for us to sign Durant when we can. Then we can be the team that lakers hope they could be with Durant, harden and d12 as our core. They would be so envious and have so much hatred for us if that happens.

 

Kobe, Durant, and K Love all become FA the same off season. It's obvious what the Lakers want to do, but they're going to have to wait almost three years to do it. That's where Kobe's scoring record comes into play. It offers fans the ultimate distraction from the fact that their team is going to be spinning in circles for the next 30 months.

 

#1: Kobe Bryant – $327.5 million
#2: Kevin Garnett – $327.4 million
#3: Shaquille O'Neal – $292.2 million
#4: Tim Duncan – $234.7 million
#5: Dirk Nowitzki – $204 million
#6: Joe Johnson – $198.6 million
#7: Jason Kidd – $193.8 million
#8: Ray Allen – $181 million
#9: Chris Webber – $178 million
#10: Paul Pierce – $169.5 million

0.1 mil. I don't think this is an accident. Jim Buss probably just decided to show the love and make Kobe the highest paid of all time.

 

I love Kobe but I hate the Lakers.

I am glad Kobe made a stupid decision to go after the money and not the ring.

Next couple of years they will dabble in mediocrity.

 

Do you know what Kobe really wants? His sight is set on becoming the all time scorer.

Kobe knows he has little chance of winning his 6th ring, which is totally not within his control. He might even have to take a second or even third fiddle and it's totally against his ego, pride and fame.

No cap room? No problem. They don't need other stars. The fastest and probably the only way to achieve his milestone in history is to have no other scoring threats on the same team. If he comes back within a couple of weeks, he will need to score about 30 points/game for next 2+ seasons to surpass KAJ on the all time list. If not, he will surely be second behind Kareem. You think Kobe was a chucker before injury? Wait until he comes back. He will chuck like there is no tomorrow and give a whole new meaning to "black hole" offense.

Even if Lakers are in the lottery, they will still able to draw audience. This will make Lakers fans proud for the next two years--witnessing one of the biggest achievements in NBA history as it is done by one of their own!

 

But he did take less.

 

from r/nba

 

Hmmm, according to the numbers it appears he did take a pay cut.

They can still re-sign Gasol if they choose to. It's the addition of another max player or a better supporting cast(once Jordan Hill, Farmar, etc hit FA next summer) that will be a problem.

Hmm, well if the team he was negotiating with was willing to pay the 67.9 M then perhaps he did leave money on the table.
Maybe some day we will find out if the Lakers were willing to pay him that amount or not.

Still doesn't mean he didn't leave money on the table regarding his negotiations with THIS TEAM in question.
It doesn't "Kill" them the next two years financially off the court. On the court in terms of product yes it doesn't give them a great opportunity to provide the best possible supporting cast and make them contenders but it also doesn't make them a lottery team. Regardless, "24" will be on the court and drawing fans to Staples while the cable money rolls in. I'm sure the Lakers will somehow survive the next two seasons and retool after that.

 

Technically. Yeah he took a paycut from his current salary. But he basically extorted the Lakers by taking a salary that no other team would even consider, knowing they would have to pay him due to the huge negative publicity hit if they didn't resign him.

We already have a model of the right course of action for an aging star who allegedly wants to contend and that was only last year when Duncan took a real paycut to help his team. Of couse Kobe doesn't have to be the same way but his greed has ensured that the Lakers will be mediocre for his remaining years.

 

Yep. That's all he wants right now. He doesn't care about rings. If he did,he would've done what duncan,parker,garnett did to try at another ring. I highly doubt he would've gotten half of that on the open market.

 

When you think of lakers,there are a few that comes to mind before kobe. Magic,Logo,KAJ to name a few.

 

LOL at Joe Johnson being on this list.