Shaq: Ouch! So, Kobe, if you play selfish, it's all Phil's fault? I heard from the radio that Malone said something like: "I sacrifice all that money to come here for THIS?" Now if Karla gets mad, that'll bring it to another dimension. All we need now is Payton to start trash talking to his own teammates. Soap opera stuff. I love it!
There's Plenty of Blame to Go Around for Lakers Tonight, since the Lakers won't be receiving championship rings before their first game, it might be time to pass out the baby pacifiers. The Lakers already sent the kids to the locker room Monday with orders not to talk with the media, so we can only imagine the kicking and screaming that went on behind closed doors. Gary Payton, Karl Malone and Phil Jackson spoke in place of the babies. They each pretty much said the same thing: Everything is fine, and the team just needs to do a better job of covering things up when players don't get along. Imagine that, Jackson, the last of the flower children, making like Richard Nixon. "The organization is going to tighten up control of what guys say in the paper," Jackson said, and as you know, the Lakers already have an enemies list — keeping certain reporters away from the team for asking the wrong questions. THIS JUST in: Kobe vented to ESPN after practice — defying direct orders not to talk — and says he won't be playing basketball tonight for the Lakers, which is news to the Lakers. Sure, everything is just fine. A few hours earlier Malone was waxing poetic about the display of teamwork on the court and the laughs shared by Kobe and Shaq during practice. I guess we know who will play the part of Ron Ziegler in this Nixon saga. I BLAME Shaq. He tells Kobe he has to be a team player and in the same sentence announces, "it's my team." That's talking out of both sides of your big mouth. "Be a team player and then talk to me," Shaq says, and although everyone likes Shaq and jokes around with him, that doesn't make him a team player — especially when he acts like he owns the team, which has to be news to Jerry Buss. Shaq tells Kobe he needs to get in shape, and in the meantime should pass him the ball. A year ago Shaq let his team down by waiting to have surgery on his toe and never really getting himself in shape to make a championship run. Don't recall Kobe giving him a hard time for that. Knowing how important it is to Shaq that everyone think this is his team, I'm convinced that Shaq, as immature as he can be, took satisfaction in the fact that Kobe lost his shiny armor this summer. He made a point of listing his teammates and twice left out Kobe's name. And people think I'm good at delivering cheap shots. When he announces, "As we start this new season, [stuff's] got to be done right. If you don't like it, then you can opt out next year," he's telling Kobe if you don't do things the way I want them done, then you can leave. Makes you wonder who has a bigger problem being the team player, Kobe or the guy hellbent on making everyone know it's "my team." I BLAME Kobe. He acts like he has everything in control, and as we know now, he has nothing under control. His decision-making, at best, is suspect. He goes to Colorado for knee surgery and tells no one in the Laker organization, and since that ill-fated trip, the decisions haven't gotten much better. And now we know the two very best basketball players in the game might also be two of the game's most immature competitors. It's like two kids arguing who got the bigger piece of cake. Kobe tells the media he'll probably become a free agent at the end of the season, a turnoff for any Laker fan, and at a time when he really shouldn't be turning anyone off. Who is advising this guy? He talks to reporter Jim Gray hours after a team spokesman said that Jackson and General Manager Mitch Kupchak have told him to clam up, and then says if he leaves the Lakers, it will be because he can't coexist with Shaq. What does he want to do — play with Michael Olowokandi? I BLAME Jackson. He doesn't get along with Shaq. Shaq says he's mad at Jackson and Jackson never asks why. He doesn't get along with Kobe. He's known for years that Kobe and Shaq don't get along, and his way of handling all this is to say nothing and burn some incense. He said Monday he believed this team can win, and if things don't go well, "we'll have to make changes in the whole organization," saying later that doesn't mean trading Kobe, but making changes in the starting lineup. Well, I can't picture him benching Shaq or Kobe, but maybe that's the answer. Starting Shaq with his team, and then bringing Kobe off the bench with his team. I BLAME sports fans. When they announce Shaq's arrival on the court tonight, everyone will cheer and without qualification. When Kobe gets around to playing, the same thing will happen. Criticize Jackson, and die-hard Laker fans will point to all his success with the inference he can do no wrong. With Shaq, Kobe, Malone and Payton running up and down the court it certainly should be another championship in the making. "All four of my superstars," Jackson said Monday, and then he caught himself laughing … yes, around here everyone wants to stake an ownership claim to this team, which is odd considering its prospects for self-destruction. THE FOLKS at Staples Center announced they are going to erect a Magic Johnson statue. I can just hear Shaq now: "That's my building." http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-simers28oct28,1,2821516.column?coll=la-news-alert
Life Gets a Little Too Real for Kobe and the Lakers Before their season from hell came their preseason from hell. Not even Coach Phil Jackson, who'd warned his team what was coming, expected a circus like this, as proceedings in Kobe Bryant's sexual assault case dragged into their fourth week without a trial date, and the strung-out Laker organization barred members of the media on media day, then lifted the credential of another for asking the wrong question. Like everyone else, Jackson had come to rely on the old Bulletproof Kobe, but this wasn't that prodigy anymore, emerging from a summer of seclusion. Meanwhile, lest anyone forget Shaquille O'Neal, he had issues too, starting with management's refusal to extend his contract, which runs three more seasons at an average of $29.3 million. This turned out to be a misunderstanding. After O'Neal stalked out of an exhibition in Hawaii bellowing "Pay me," the Lakers said they were willing, but at something like $50 million for two seasons, rather than the $68-million maximum. Shaq then announced his willingness to "sacrifice." Of course, as soon as that was cleared up, O'Neal suggested his displeasure with the usual suspects: Jackson, who was challenging him through the media, and Bryant, whose mere presence now complicates Shaq's life. Jackson laughed it off, but he's an old hand at this and has nothing more to worry about than the imminent season. Bryant, on the other hand, has bigger problems than O'Neal, and is holding himself together with baling wire. So it wasn't that considerate of Shaq to declare, "The full team is here," when Bryant reported late, or to say he was resting his sore heel because "I want to be right for Derek [Fisher], Karl [Malone] and Gary [Payton]." Nor was it the optimal time to help Bryant with his shot selection, especially since their problems have as much to do with Shaq's defense as Kobe's shooting. Bryant once ignored O'Neal as a duck ignores dew, but that was then and this is now. In private, Kobe fumed about Shaq's comments, vowing to opt out of his contract and leave, and finally fired back as he never had — "He can worry about the low post." Then O'Neal said what was on his mind as he never had — "If it's going to be my team, I'll voice my opinion. If he don't like it, he can opt out" — and the Lakers were in disarray. Not that this continuation of their long-running soap opera was anything more than a sideshow. Read the rest here: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-heisler28oct28,1,6998522.column?coll=la-news-alert
Good news for us that they'll be fighting with each other...It'll be very hard for us them to focus and concentrate on winning...To many chiefs, not enough indians... I agree with Kobe take...
This is good news for Fantasy owners that have Shaq (like me ). He will be on a mission to prove its "his" team.
Kobe's kind of a nutjob. We already knew he was a loner, didn't hang out with the team, and ignored friends and family when getting married. And now I think he totally blew Shaq's comments out of proportion. Yeah, what Shaq said was harsh, but it was still somewhat measured. Kobe has brought everything except the kitchen sink in now.
It's all conjured up to deflect from the rape case. Just last season Shaq called Kobe "The best player in the world" now all of a sudden he's a sycophant for the devil? It ain't April, but we may be the fools.
This entire kobe/shaq issue, is a farse...have any of you guys noticed that for the first time since the incident, kobe is not being asked about the rape trial, but about his fued with shaq...the lakers are used to dealing with power struggle issues, its been in their blood for the past 5 years. This whole mess is all fabricated. somewhere in LA the majority of this team including shaq and kobe are sitting at someone's mansion lauging it all up at how easily everyone has been fooled... I usually dont give phil jackson a lot of credit, but chances are he is the mastermind behind all of this...
This isn't a harmless argument, this is getting ugly REAL fast. This isn't something used to deflect heat off the trial, this is geting personal.
Same exact post for two threads. I guess you copy/pasted just in case someone missed it the first time?
let me ask you this: 1. in the past 5 years has it ever gotten this intense? they were always subtile before 2. why such drama after a practice as opposed to even a meaningful regular season game? 3. why so soon after shaq last week, when responding to media questions about fan distractions with the rape issue with the comment that if any fan crossed the line with kobe, shaq would be on sportscenter beating their a$$. 4. the team can better deal with a fake power struggle as opposed to a real rape case.
It makes for good conversation, but I do not believe for one minute that this war of words is fabricated. You have two individuals with enormous egos clashing and thats the bottom line. IMO Kobe is gone at the end of the year and well see who was carrying who.
Both. Neither of them can win anything without the other. If Kobe goes to a team with only him as the star, he'll prove that he can't win by himself, ask T-Mac. Shaq is in better shape because he still has Payton, and maybe Malone.
