Definitely not, just walk through LA. It will always be Lakertown, no matter what the teams are doing.
The Anaheim Clippers? Nah. LA will be Kobe town for a while to come. Same goes with Manila and Beijing.
Wrong. Only wants a ring if he's the best player on the team, which means it will never happen. I actually respect that mindset, it's refreshing compared to the mentality that Lebron sort of started by wanting to assemble all the best guys on the same team to beat up on everyone else. The hope is that LA feels they have to re-sign KB for big dollars, something his ego will command. I don't see him ever taking less money to benefit his team.
The only reason they were a Laker town was because that was the team that was winning. Now that the Lakers are a joke and the Clippers are legit, you can expect a front running fanbase like the Lakers to flip to the Clippers within a year or so if they haven't completely done so already.
Kobe screwed his own "legacy" over by running Shaq out of town. Instead he wasted his actual prime getting eliminated in the first round by Nash while playing with Smush Parker and Kwame Brown. That's why he never got as many MVP's as he should have, nor did he win any Chips during his prime.
Too much buddy buddy like getting Howard (you faced him in the Finals), Nash (you faced him in the playoffs and he played for a division rival) and Karl Malone (you faced him in the playoffs) to come play with you in LA?
LeBron wasn't the first to initiate the "team-up" trend. If the Celtics and Lakers didn't "get together", and LeBron was the first, people would have a point and I'd agree. These were two teams that didn't make the playoffs (or barely made it) and in less than a year put together teams that would 1) win what appears to be an average of 60+ wins over a few seasons, 2) make multiple finals appearances. One could argue that these guys stole championships from LBJ/Duncan/Dirk by teaming up. Their age is irrelevant - they came together to win at the cost of others. Give Kobe Gasol, Bynum, and Odom (all of these guys were in their prime) and then make ringless jokes about LBJ while he plays with Mo Williams/Z/Hughes. After the Lakers/Celtics age out, maybe others would have teamed up. LBJ would have been a fool to stay in CLE.
I wish that was true, but unfortunately it isn't. The legacy of the Lakers is imprinted and immovable.
(Kobe fan response) That wasn't teaming up. That was management making good decisions to build LA and Boston up. Those guys didn't choose to be in those situations. It doesn't matter that they had more talent on those teams than what the Heat have. They didn't choose it. (Reality) Guys have been teaming up forever. Magic only left college because LA had the top pick and he wanted to play with Kareem. The Celtics had two HOF players come team up with their already 3 HOF players on Bird's teams (DJ and Walton). Aguirre teamed up in Detroit right after he led the Mavs to G7 of the WCF's in 88. Magic tried to get LA to get him. Jordan and Pippen didn't mind Rodman teaming up with them. Kobe didn't mind Artest teaming up with him right after they played us in the playoffs. Kobe didn't mind Howard and Nash teaming up with him either.
Doesn't matter if he can still play at a high level or not. Kobe will forever live on in OUR HEARTS. And for that, he's invincible. That's why he's the Black Mamba, and Mamba's do, what Mamba's do. and if you don't know, now you know ******
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I just don't understand why people keep acting like Kobe is the most competitive player in NBA history. The guy was whining, crying, throwing teammates under the bus for an entire year when he couldn't get past the first round. Apparently, him yelling at teammates and openly disrespecting ownership, coaching staff, etc. makes him more of a competitor. The Duncan/KG/Kobe/Dirk/Nash era coming to an end is gonna suck, but Kobe alone isn't that big of a loss. If I want to see someone put up 10/24 stats while licking their lips, I'll watch Carmelo. Melo should start calling out his teammates and it'll be like Kobe never left (kind of JK'ing here) It's the LBJ era now - something that should have started in 2008. At least Kobe gave Gasol, Bynum, and Odom career years in the offensive-rebounding department.
I'd imagine it is because they are too young to remember the better players before him and too stubborn to recognize the better players since him.
Furthermore, you can make the case that he hasn't been the best player at any point during his career - before LeBron became clearly better, Shaq and Duncan were better.
