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

La La Land's drama continues.....

Kobe blasted Lakers are trying to save money instead of signing talents like Ron Artest, Baron Davis, Carlos Boozer.

radio link to listen:

http://www.xtrasportsradio.com/main.html

 

No. He wants to be the most controlling of all time. Anybody he doesn't like gets driven off. Eventually he'll get around to biting the ones that remain. It's just a matter of time before he turns on a player/coach/GM. Your statement is correct if you define greatness this way: Kobe wants to be bigger than the Lakers organization, "at all costs". So much of what's happened is indefensible and people look ridiculous trying to take his side.

 

Absolutely. Jordan did it by winning 6 championships and embracing his teammates. Jordan got the spotlight by being the best player on the court and winning.

Kobe wasn't good enough to dominate the spotlight by himself, so he throws Shaq and the possibility of another championship out the window.

Ironic isn't it? Shaq goes to Miami, they win a championship. Everyone knows that Miami couldn't have done it w/out Shaq. But that year everyone also knew that Wade was the main leader and superstar of the team. Too bad Kobe couldn't let good basketball take care of itself.

 

kobe had to. his rep was on the line.

 

if you look at that way, fine. Harsh , but fine.

 

I despise Kobe but if what he says is actually what happened, I just have to side with him on this one. If they told Kobe and Phil opposite plans, that's just wrong.

 

ur hearing this from kobe. it's one side of the story. u'll hear another one from phil and shaq.

 

Well from Kobe, Phil's side would actually back his story. Management told Phil they were building long term while telling Kobe that they were trying to win now. If I were Kobe, that would tick me off.

 

That means nothing really. They were telling Phil that they didn't want him back so what they told him didn't matter anyhow.

 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-lakers30may30,0,6234083,print.column?coll=la-home-sports

Bryant states case
He plays defense in the media, insisting that he had nothing to do with O'Neal's departure and voicing displeasure with Lakers front office.
By J.A. Adande and Mike Bresnahan
Times Staff Writers

May 30, 2007

By J.A. Adande and Mike Bresnahan, Times Staff Writers

Cut to another scene of the Lakers' soap opera, where Kobe Bryant's future becomes that much more blurred.

Tuesday somehow managed to differentiate itself from the tumultuous days of the holiday weekend, with the Lakers' cornerstone continuing to drop hints about what lies ahead by expressing increasingly deep dissatisfaction with upper management and providing a two-word answer when asked if the franchise was "on the clock" with the knowledge he could terminate his contract in two years.

"For sure," Bryant said in a phone interview with The Times.

It was one of many revelations on a day that included the arrest of Lakers owner Jerry Buss in Carlsbad on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, and reconstructive ankle surgery for center Kwame Brown, who will be out at least four months but might still return in time for training camp.

Bryant said over the weekend that he would be more comfortable with the team's direction if Jerry West returned to the front office, but West, who is under contract with the Memphis Grizzlies for another month, said in a statement he "has no plans to seek employment with any organization."

Bryant, who will be 29 in August, will leave $47.8 million on the table if he terminates his contract in 2009.

He was incensed when he read a story in Tuesday's editions of The Times that included a passage that read, "Nevertheless, as a Lakers insider notes, it was Bryant's insistence on getting away from Shaquille O'Neal that got them in this mess."

Bryant, via phone with The Times and later on his website and in a radio interview, voiced his disenchantment with the Lakers' front office.

"Their trying to put this Shaq stuff on me is [wrong]," he told The Times. "Jerry Buss told me he didn't want to pay Shaq $30 million a year. I, not once — not once — went to them and said, 'Trade Shaq or else.' "


Later, in an interview with AM 570, Bryant took aim at the state of the front office by saying, "That place is a mess."

"If we're not making any strides here to improve this team right now, to be aggressive in that nature, then what's the point of having me here?" he said.

Bryant said he was unhappy that the Lakers did not make stronger plays in the past to acquire Golden State guard Baron Davis, Utah forward Carlos Boozer or Sacramento forward Ron Artest. He also expressed unhappiness that the Lakers traded Caron Butler as part of an August 2005 deal that brought Brown from the Washington Wizards.

It has all left Bryant with the belief that "there's nobody on this planet that thinks we have a team that can contend for a title right now," he told AM 570.

When asked for comment on the events of the day, among them Bryant's perceived threat to terminate his contract in 2009 as well as his radio interview, Lakers spokesman John Black said, "We're not going to respond."

Privately, Lakers officials were stunned and disappointed by Bryant, who has four years and $88.6 million left on his contract. Numerous team sources said that however irritated they were, trading him was not an option.

Not even a discussion with Coach Phil Jackson earlier Tuesday could soothe Bryant, who posted on his website his most detailed explanation of his role in the July 2004 trade that sent O'Neal to the Miami Heat for Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant and a first-round draft pick that eventually turned out to be Jordan Farmar.

"The fact of the matter is that many people don't know what really went down when I was approaching free agency because I have stayed quiet about it this whole time," Bryant wrote on kb24.com. "The real facts are that Dr. Buss requested a meeting with me during the '04 season long before I opted out of my contract, and he told me he had already decided to not extend Shaq, as he was concerned about Shaq's age, fitness and contract demands. Dr. Buss made it clear that his decision was final, his mind was made up and no matter what I decided to do with free agency he was still going to move Shaq.

"I've heard many people say 'the Lakers are letting Kobe take the bullet for the Shaq trade' but I always just let that go. But now when I hear 'Lakers insider' it makes me feel so unsupported that a Lakers 'insider' is tryin' to spin Dr. Buss' decision about Shaq on me."

He went on to suggest that his trust in the Lakers had been damaged, recounting what he said he was told three years ago while mulling a six-year, $100-million offer from the Clippers before ultimately signing a seven-year, $136.4-million contract to stay with the Lakers.

"Laker fans should know that when I was a free agent Dr. Buss called me from his vacation in Italy on the eve of my decision and promised me that the Lakers would do everything to build a contender NOW," Bryant wrote. "I told him at that time that my fear was the Lakers waiting to save cap room to sign a top notch free agent in 3 or 4 years, so that was why I was leaning toward other teams like the Clips and Bulls, both of whom had a cast of good young players.

"But Dr. Buss promised me he would rebuild right away, and I believed him. That is why I put my trust in the Lakers.

"But, when stuff like this is coming from the 'inside' all I can do is hope that someone from the 'inside' comes forward to support me and set straight the facts of what really happened. This is the TRUTH."

 

Some of those words look paraphrased.

Anyhow, Kobe wanted Shaq out. He said things like "im tired of being a sidekick" and how he wanted his own team because his peers kept telling him he only won because he had Shaq.

Maybe he didn't say it outright, but maybe someone else said it for him, or he just wasn't going to sign without being the clear #1 guy on that team because he sure as heck didn't lobby for Dr Buss to keep Shaq.

They gave him exactly what he wanted. That said, Shaq said how screwed up the management was and how they were liars, how Dr Buss never communicated with him, and how he was the Gm when he was there because the front office didn't know what they were doing.

Nobody listened to him from being angry at him, but it turns out Shaq was right. I remember Shaq's specific quote when a lady on the street asked him to stay, he said "it's not me"

Now we can see clearly that Kobe is nothing more than "The Big Ticket lite" to Jerry Buss.

 

u mean to tell me if shaq backed down from his contract a lil bit, kobe would resign? please.

and i repeat, shaq has 2 yrs left on his contract. we all know shaq wanted his money. so keeping him one yr would keep him motivated. and we knew they didn't want to wait. hell they didn't wait for the best deal. miami robbed them. that's how bad that wanted to unload shaq.

 

Kobe to be on Stephen A. Smith shortly-big announcement.....

 

This thing is getting ugly, here is an article from SAS that include some of Shaq's quote:

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports..._A__Smith____Bryant_fires_back_at_Lakers.html



Bryant fires back at Lakers
By Stephen A. Smith
Inquirer Columnist
RELATED STORIES

While the NBA playoffs are going on, one of the main figures stuck at home watching like everybody else is busy ruffling feathers, naming names, and looking for the first ride out of Hollywood.

Even if he has to hitchhike.

Kobe Bryant has already let it be known that he's not interested in playing in Los Angeles any longer - not as long as general manager Mitch Kupchak and the rest of the Lakers' brass are making basketball decisions without the counsel of Jerry West, the team's former general manager, who was responsible for clearing his path from Lower Merion to Tinseltown.

Things would be significant were they to stop there. "Except I'm not about to," Bryant said yesterday. "I've been quiet long enough."

Just weeks after saying something needed to be done to improve the Lakers' roster, days after reiterating that point, and hours after suggesting that West's return to the organization might be the solution, Bryant went on an all-out assault after reading that a "team source" intimated in yesterday's Los Angeles Times that he was the reason Shaquille O'Neal was traded.

The Lakers' owner, Jerry Buss, "called a meeting with me after he spoke with Jim Gray [of ESPN] to talk with him about Shaq's future in the middle of the 2004 season," Bryant said yesterday.

"He met with me at the Four Seasons Hotel here across from Fashion Island, which is now the Island Hotel," Bryant said. "I went up to his penthouse suite. [Buss] looks me dead in the face and says: 'Kobe, I am not going to re-sign Shaq. I am not about to pay him $30 million a year or $80 million over three years. No way in hell. I feel like he's getting older. His body is breaking down, and I don't want to pay that money to him when I can get value for him right now rather than wait. This is my decision. It's independent of you. My mind is made up. It doesn't matter to me what you do in free agency because I do not want to pay [Shaq], period.' "

"Dr. Buss said that," Bryant said. "And I haven't said anything for years because I've always felt like folks were just looking to create controversy. Now I know. I realize what extent [the Lakers] will go to, to cover themselves."

And what does O'Neal think?

"I believe Kobe 100 percent," said O'Neal, reached yesterday while in Los Angeles on business. "Absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind Kobe is telling the truth. I believe him a thousand percent. I would have respected Dr. Buss more as a man if he would have told me that himself, because I know he said it. But he didn't [tell me]. He never said a damn word to me."

Now look where it's gotten the Lakers. And Bryant.

Buss, who was arrested yesterday in Carlsbad, Calif., for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol, was unavailable for comment. So, too, was Kupchak. But the Lakers' organization did not deny yesterday that such a conversation took place.

The Lakers were bounced out of the first round of the playoffs for the second consecutive season. And for the second straight season, it happened with Bryant as the league's leading scorer but still resembling the foot soldier going to gunfights with a pocket knife.

Bryant, saddled with Lamar Odom and little else to show for three NBA titles, said he wanted Baron Davis, then Carlos Boozer, then Jason Kidd and Ron Artest, each time being told the Lakers couldn't get a deal done.

Now, three full seasons after O'Neal's departure to Miami, Bryant appears to have lost all faith. The fact that he's keenly aware that most people feel he deserves to be miserable for helping to dismantle a potential dynasty - by provoking O'Neal's exodus - appears to have infuriated him now more than ever.

Never mind that O'Neal was traded on July 14, 2004, for Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant, and a first-round pick, or that Bryant re-signed for seven years at $136 million the very next day.

"The challenge is what it was all about for me," said Bryant, who negotiated a no-trade clause in his contract. "I told Dr. Buss - obviously, I was about to become a free agent - that I was interested in attacking the market. Chicago and the L.A. Clippers had better rosters. I was gone until Dr. Buss called me from vacation in Italy promising me he was not going to wait five years to rebuild, that he was going to rebuild right now. I trusted him.

"Sure, Shaq and I had our issues. So what! We always did and we won three titles. That doesn't change what was told to me. It doesn't change the fact I never, ever, said to get rid of him. And it damn sure doesn't change the fact that all these years later, promises made to make this team better have not been kept. So where does that leave me?"

Chicago? New York? Philadelphia, perhaps?

"Keep talking," Bryant quipped. "Anything sounds good right now with the way I'm feeling."

 

He traded himself...LOL

 

^ again, kobe never said to keep shaq either. if kobe really wanted shaq to stay, he would plead w/ buss. but obviously he didn't. he let buss speak, then he didn't talk back.

not talking is as loud as talking.

it's like les saying to yao, "i'm gonna trade tmac b/c of his back concerns."
u don't think yao would say something to back tmac up.

obviously kobe did not.

 

The breaking news on ESPN says Kobe wants the Lakers to trade him...

 

Rome is saying that apparently Kobe (I think he said Kobe) did an interview with a NYC station and things are "getting worse" not better.

And the never-ending Kobe saga continues

 

Kobe = egomaniac.
Him getting rid of Shaq didn't work out so now he wants a trade. He was behind pushing shaq out the door.
I bet he won't want to go to Memphis or Toronto.

 

this is what SHOULD happen

kobe says he wants houston (he did say one team) is his team

les trades tmac for kobe => kobe + yao => a new duo

tmac goes to LA. we all know tmac has a lot of friends. now KG and jermaine o'neal would love to play with the lakers now. tmac + KG/o'neal => a new duo.

bam, everyone is happy