[ClutchFans] As Howard sacrifices minutes for wins, Bryant cripples Lakers’ future

Yea you can pull up all those examples superstars taking pay cut but propping up Howard to talk down Kobe is ridiculous. So what Kobe still wants as much money as he can get. He has won LA 5 chips, he deserves every penny the franchise is willing to offer. Howard hasn’t done anything to earn his 20.5M to be honest. If Kobe’s benched, bet he’s gonna ask coach to put him back in. Not because he doesn’t care about winning, but because he feels he has more to offer on the court. And I’m pretty sure if the team wins despite him being on the bench, he’d still be happy. Kudos to McHale riding the hot hands and Howard cheering on the bench, but this doesn’t mean Kobe doesn’t care about winning.

 

According to you, Kobe would still be a top 5 player in the league even when he returns to the NBA playing in a wheelchair.

Injuries and old age is an athlete's worst enemy. Kobe was not top 5 last year. He will not be top 5 this year. He never will be top 5 again.

 

howard is so dam selfish for wanting to win

 

Assuming that Carmelo signs with the Lakers next year for ~20 mil/yr.....

Lakers 2014-2015 Team Salary would be...

http://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/LAL.html

Kobe 24 mil
Carmelo 20 mil
Nash 9.7 mil
N. Young 1.227 mil
R. Sacre .915 mil
E. Harris .816 mil
~56.66 mil

If they plan on building a winning roster, it will be amusing to see how far they go over the tax threshold considering the new repeater tax being levied..

http://www.sbnation.com/2013/11/21/5126774/nba-luxury-tax-2013-repeater-chicago-bulls

 

Shaquille O'Neal?

 

Dammit, just look at the Duncan's salary in the article, then talk who really wants to win for the team.

 

I get what you said about D12, but everything you said about Kobe is wrong, crap even. You didn't see the Bulls paying Jordan stupid money well after the championship window was closed did you? No, They paid him stupid money for Championship #6 in 1998, then he was retired, again.

Kobe hasn't been anything close to the best player for the last 20 years and reasonable, and correct arguments could be made that his ridiculous contract has not only stopped helping the Lakers have the NBA's top player, it has actually cost them about $200 million the last 2.5 years and will cost them multiple times that amount in the coming years because he is single-handedly keeping them from being able to rebuild this side of 2020.

Kobe was probably the best player in the league for MAYBE 5 years of his career. He wasn't even in the conversation until Jordan retired, so that's 5 years right there. Lebron has been the better, more talented all-around since the season following the Spurs' sweep in the finals over Cleveland. Kevin Durant has been better the last 3+ years and you could argue since he set foot on the NBA court because Kobe NEVER WON ANYTHING without a top 2, ALL-STAR CENTER

 

sick of hearing people compare kobe to duncan and garnett. kobe at this stage of his career is far more productive than duncan and garnett, especially garnett. garnett isn't worth half the money kobe is getting.

 

And Lebron won by himself???? For their first championship DWade was arguably the 3rd or 4th best player in the NBA. That Bosh guy isn't half bad either.

 

The owners were right to give him his props, but Kobe was questionable in what he did to the team. I thought he wanted another ring. That won't happen now. Guess he gave up on the idea.

 

That's a pretty big assumption. Not enough basketballs to go around for Melo and Kobe on the same team. It's a safer assumption that Kobe does not want to play with Melo and Melo does not want to play with Kobe. This extension pretty much guarantees that Melo isn't going to LA.

 

Yep. This is a stupid article. The Lakers need to have Kobe retire a laker. As dumb as the move may seem, its what the Lakers do, and why theyre one of the most storied franchises in the sport. Trust me -- once Kobe leaves it wont be a long rebuilding process.

 

Well we can all agree that the Lakers are not going to be very good for the next three years.

 

Kobe is fleecing the Lakers. He's got them bent over a barrel, and he knows it. They aren't contenders, and the only way to keep their stupid fans distracted is with the Kobe Show. The fact that Kobe is getting this extension without even having to prove he can continue playing at a high level is all the proof you need that winning Championships is about as important to Buss as it is to McNair.

They should have shown Kobe the door, stockpiled high picks, drafted well, and then gone after Durant and Love in two years, but their fans would pee in their pants having to wait that long, so they take the easy approach, extend their fading ball hog star, watch him chase scoring records and laugh all the way to the bank.

 

We live in America, Kobe should get paid as much as he can. Why is everyone acting like a bunch of socialists here?

 

They could have played hardball. No team in the league would have offered him that kind of money, not even half that, but Kobe threatened to leave and they blinked. Now they're hamstrung for the next two years.