Kobe interview
Here's a link to Kobe's interview with Petros Papadakis and Matt Money Smith this afternoon in which he calls the Lakers' front office situation ``a mess'' and says he's got ``serious trust issues'' that may or may not be reparable with the club now that a ``Lakers insider'' has come out in the LA Times saying that Kobe was the driving force behind the Shaq trade, when Kobe contends that Dr. Buss told him during the 2004 season that the club had already decided to trade Shaq because of his contract demands.
Kobe was so livid after reading that, he sent a text message to coach Phil Jackson Tuesday morning, asking him to call him immediately and tell him exactly what the club said when he left the team in 2004. Jackson told Kobe that the club had said it was letting him go because it had a long-term cost-cutting plan to get under the salary cap and didn't need such a high-priced coach for that. Kobe got even madder after hearing that because the club had never said anything of the sort to him about cost-cutting, in fact, just the opposite was conveyed to him by owner Jerry Buss, when he was deciding whether to re-up witht he Lakers or go to the Clippers or Bulls. Kobe says that Buss promised the team would do whatever it took to get back to a championship level ASAP. So, when potential free agents or tradeable players would call him, asking whether they should come to LA, Kobe would call Mitch Kupchak all excited, like ``OK Mitch, let's get this done.'' Little did he know, Kobe says, that those moves were never going to happen because they didn't fit in with the team's long-term cost-cutting plan.
Other highlights:
Listen carefully to find the part where he talks about wanting to play for the Bulls or the Clippers when he was a free agent, only to be talked out of it by Jerry Buss and Jerry West.
He also talks about how disappointed at the trades his club did (Caron Butler) and did not (Baron Davis, Carlos Boozer, Ron Artest) make.
``They called me in to talk about it,'' Bryant said of the Caron Bulter trade. ``But when I went in there, they'd alread traded him.''
So, Kwame Brown had reconstructive ankle surgery today?
The guy was playing with a serious injury all along and what does he get for it? He gets belittled for it by Phil Jackson at the end of the season. This is why Jim Buss took Jackson to task.
mike
I can feel Kobe's anger. I'm as pissed as him!!!
The Laker FO has been beyond stupidity.
All the good deals were turned down for stupid reasons.
And that fantasy "07" plan, then probably 08, 09, 10 plan.
They lied to Kobe and used him to sell tickets, yet at the same time let Kobe take all the blame.
The Laker FO has to do something now to actually build a contender around Kobe. If not, you don't deserve Kobe. Let him go to another team and win several more NBA titles for that team
i dnt know if the lakers FO do know about business, basketball and about winning...they better do their jobs...i think they better get magic and get him fully involved to stop all this stupidity...
gdchild,
you said it right, man...really, really, really right...it looks like its more business in the lakers management right now...more money to the cash drawers than about basketball...do we have some mafias in there?...kobe watch out, pls...look at mike...