[ESPN] Kobe: I want Jerry West back or I want a trade

I wish Kobe would own his own team or better yet his own league. That way he'll stop finding excuses to point the finger at everyone else about something he requested in the first place goes wrong.

 

How's that old expression go? "Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it"? That sounds like Kobe's situation to me. If you want to be the man on your team and shoot 30+ times a game, then you have to live with the consequences of those actions.

 

Hahaha, Kobe, the Lakers made the most significant move BEFORE they resigned you. They traded Shaq. Remember?

 

Tell me about it. Kobe-lovers will deny he drove Shaq and PJ out of town but that's exactly what happened. He got what he wanted but didn't like the consequences. I expect the Logo to re-join the Lakers but that won't turn them into contenders. Logo and the Lakers had a good run during those championship and contending years but the Memphis experience proved West isn't a magician at being GM. He's better than Mitch but I don't expect the Lakers to become contenders next season just because he returns. The main thing is expectations will be ratched up several notches.

 

Heh...this is great. Back when it was Shaq and Kobe, West wasn't doing any better at finding talent than Mitch Kupchak did...but they had Shaq along with Kobe, so you could cover up for just about any deficiencies the team may have. Kobe ran Shaq out of town, and the team has suffered for it. But Kobe wants to blame the GM.

 

Kobe just can't handle the consequences of his own actions.

 

I'm not a Kobe lover, but nobody can deny his prime years are wasting away on a pathetic team. Plus, Shaq was too fat to play and it was causing his foot problems forcing th team to put him on the injured list to lose weight when it was his own fault. I ask you, would you want a 20 million dollar teammate like that? Maybe if that 20 million could have been spread out better with teammates not named Smush things would be different.

Kobe may and i stress may have missed out on 1 ring max considering Shaq's prime was just about already over and how strong the West is. Would Miami of made it through the Western Conference playoffs last year? Yes, they beat Dallas in the Finals. Could they have beaten SA, Phoenix, etc? Or even Dallas before Dirk got to the big stage and played his usual clutch games we know him for?

I know most people here hate Kobe, but i guarantee one day you will have a conversation with your son or an old friend (if you have one) how a guy named Kobe Bryant scored 81 points in a single game and could have possibly been even better than Jordan. People's opinions tend to change after a guy retires and they age themselves and the past was always the good old days.

 

He could have to Phoenix or the Clippers both had more talent then the LAkers at the time......

 

i'm not sure why people think having shaq would make them so good. aside from the fact he missed half the season and wasn't close to his old self in the other half, shaq has his own little kobe in wade and they just got swept out of the playoffs...in the east. now wade wasn't quite at top form, but the bulls aren't the spurs, mavs, pistons, or suns either and it was a sweep, not even close to a competitive series.

the fact is, most good things come to an end, and that's what happened with the 3-peat lakers like it does to most championship teams. shaq got older, the role players got older, and only getting payton and malone basically for free held them up for a while. with shaq around, he and kobe would be taking up 50 million of the cap by themselves and the role players would be even worse than they are now, b/c there's only so much any gm can do with no cap room, lower draft picks, and the lack of tradeable assets that the lakers role players would've represented. they were due to fall off and once you do, you don't have much to work with to rebuild. now the fact kupchak isn't very good doesn't help things, but they were going to not be good for a while, which kobe can't seem to accept (it can't always be 3-peats) and which people who want to blame kobe for the downfall can't seem to accept. only a miracle that turns odom, bynum and some scraps into kg would make them better quickly, but that isn't going to happen, so they'll have to build back up for another year or two.

 

Shaq won with Wade. I am pretty sure he could win with Kobe.

And, yeah, Kobe could have signed with the Clippers. They would be contending if he did.

 

tmac for kobe!

 

Who would want a max money maker with a bad back???

 

Kobe for Rafer + JHo?

Kobe got what he deserves. He got his wish with Shaq and everyone else out and this is just his way of showing regret.

 

if kobe forces a trade, then anything is possible.

 

Good for Kobe. He deserves a competitive team just as much as KG.

 

I feel for Kobe. The guy is one of the best players in the league but he has absolute trash around him. Hell, their PG might be worse than ours.

 

True, but most likely would have him in Philly or NY.

 

For the trifecta Kobe will demand that Shaq be returned to the Lakers.

 

Kobe might have won if Shaq stayed. but he would always be that second guy. Kobe's too good for that. He wants to be Mike. You can't fault him for that. I'm all for Tmac for Kobe. Yao's good enough to play the second fiddle to Kobe but not good enough to steal any credit from him, exactly what Kobe wants.