[quote=atidere][quote=anabolic][quote=phAZE][quote=twenty2020][quote=phAZE][quote=anabolic]it's ok to honor kobe but giving him all that money is just retarded,that's what fucked them up this season[/quote]

Kobe's contract did not have an effect on their ability to acquire any big name free agents this past offseason.[/quote]
true

it was all kobes toxic personality rofl[/quote]

If you mean his unparalleled desire to win then ok. Dwight was too much of a pussy to handle it but if you can man up and put in the work he'll show you what it takes to win a championship.[/quote]
kobe said to dwight that he will always come second as long as he is on the team and that he will "teach" him how to win championships,dwight didnt like that(+lifestyle and press??) and he left,btw everyone is calling howard a pussy but in he puts up always big numbers in playoffs...[/quote]
i feel like you don't know shit about the nba or anything and the fact you can't write proper english also makes me assume it also. as phaze said dwight has always been the soft guy who doesnt care, hes just there for the money, and thats why they'll lose every year and never win a championship. thats why he lost in the finals with the magic also. kobe did not drain the money from the lakers, they have a huge tv company as phaze said and the west family is fucking loaded with money, i dont know what the fuck you're talkig about it is the front office that is screwing up and kobe can't control that, he gets payed to play and that's what he does.[/quote]
yeah the fact that english is not my native language is a clear statement to my knowledge of the nba.The fact that they get so much money from tv deals doesnt mean that they wantto spend it in luxury taxes,imo paying luxury taxes is just retarded even if you are a championship team.Not gonna bother with the rest of your argument.You can't see that kobe right now is dragging the lakers down,so that sums up your knowledge about bbal

[quote=fargobawlers]this thread is exactly why kobe gets away with being such a bad teammate

since phil jax left kobe has ZERO accountability to anyone in the lakers organization, coaching him is impossible because he doesnt respect anyone

ever since kobe entered the league hes used the media to turn LA against his teammates, it was always others that got lit up in post game interviews (Shaq, Bynum, Gasol, Dwight), no one rips on their teammates more than kobe. when anybody else does it its giving up on their team, but when kobe does it its just his "intense competitive fire"

rofl

i know this attitude towards kobe just wouldnt exist if he didnt have the EASIEST first couple years in the league, he got to play in the triangle with a physical freak. shane battier said it best "shaq has strength like your dad had when you were a kid"

then he got two more championships with pau gasol and andrew bynum being coached under one of the greatest coaches of all time and playing in a league that was weaker than in the years around it and suddenly kobe is considered one of the top ten players of all time. ridiculous

what makes it all worse is that people like to defend kobe with michael jordan (people tend to try to defend EVERY douchebag in a competitive setting by comparing them to michael jordan)

michael jordan was not only one of the greatest teammates of all time, but he got away with being an aggressive dick because he knew how to use it. it was a motivating tool for him to build others up, not break them down and run them out of town. where kobe never hangs out with teammates, michael would always be there with them whether it was gambling (lol) or just shooting the shit.

where michael is a basketball genius, kobe plays like an overconfident idiot. where michael is an athletic freak, kobe is just not all that.

dwight didnt leave because he was soft, he left because he was forced to play in an offensive system that kobe had the pleasure of seeing as a suggestion. and that when the media started to gang up on him towards the end (while he was playing thru an injury...) kobe continued to add fuel to the fire instead of defending him, because kobe will NEVER defend anyone else.

o and kobes also a shit defender because he surprise surprise is incapable of playing help defense, i guess if someone else gets beat he just sees that as their fault[/quote]
finaly someone who understands

Sometimes you have to rebuild. The basic strategy is you have to tank a few seasons, pay some risky people very little money, and see what rises to the top - you'll keep them when the time comes. Then you have a team later on down the road. Sometimes mistakes happen there and you're bad for a long time, but the Lakers have too much money for that to be the case long-term (unlike perennial underdogs who have to rely pretty much strictly on their scouts and developmental system). The few Lakers games I've caught have been basically par for the course of a team in a rebuilding phase.

They won't be making the playoffs, but a year or two down the road they'll find a cheap replacement for Kobe (draft pick or d-league find), and then put 1-2 similarly young players around him and make a run.

The Lakers pre-Kobe weren't a bad team by any means, but they were also a team on the mend from the early 90s primarily, and they managed to snatch Kobe right out of high school and stick some good players around him, and even then success didn't come right away. It takes time to build something really good.

Instant success is always short lived because you end up with a huge tangle of contracts and pieces try to leave for greener pastures - and then you're screwed.

I grew up watching the Pacers turn from the team with Reggie on it, to a team that was pretty decent until the fight, and then they were bad for a while again - it's just the way of things. The Lakers have enough money they won't likely turn into the old clippers or the T-wolves though any time soon.