“Kobe Bryant, right, of the Los Angeles Lakers, maintains possession as Klay Thompson, of the Golden State Warriors, defends during a game on Sunday, October 12, 2014 at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, Ca. (Micah Escamilla/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin)”

Kobe Bryant went on the offensive. But it had nothing to do with going on a scoring binge. It had everything to do with challenging NBA players both to fight for their market value and expose the hypocrisy surrounding NBA owners.

“We are overpaid,” Bryant said Tuesday, shortly less than a year after signing with the Lakers to a two-year, $48.5 million extension. “But at the same time, so are the owners, and you have to fight for what your market value is.”

Bryant shared his frustration on Twitter last week shortly after the NBA announced a record-breaking nine-year television contract with ESPN and Turner Broadcasting worth a reported $24 billion, an amount the Lakers’ star saying is “almost being a billion dollars up over the previous one.” Bryant wrote on Twitter that “players are ‘encouraged’ per new CBA to take less to win or risk being called selfish+ungrateful.”

How so?

“You’re supposed to do what’s right. Business is business. I think people get that confused very easily and understanding that players should take less than their market value, substantially less than their market value in order to win championships,” Bryant said. “It’s very easy to look at the elite players around the league and look at the amount of money they get paid and compare that with the average. But we don’t look at what the owners get paid, how much revenue they generate off the backs of these players.”

Bryant’s extension with the Lakers ensured that he remained the NBA’s highest paid player, a move that both sparked criticism both toward the Lakers and Bryant. Some of the reasons included the uncertainty how Bryant would recover from a torn left Achilles tendon that sidelined him for eight months. Last season, Bryant only played six games before suffering a season-ending left knee injury. But the extension also sparked criticism because it weakened the Lakers’ ability to build a roster around Bryant. Per the NBA’s labor deal, the Lakers had only enough cap room to offer a max contract to one more player. Yet, the Lakers both offered the max contract to LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, moves that would have required the Lakers both to waive Steve Nash through the stretch provision and free up cap holds for a number of role players.

“I’m the luckiest basketball player in the league, because I got very fortunate to be with the organization that takes care of its players, rewards its players and has a long history of doing that,” Bryant said. “I think it speaks volumes, not only to me or this city but to other players around the league, as well. You look around at some of the other owners that try to milk their players or get rid of them or discard them, this organization doesn’t do that.”

Instead, Bryant put larger blame on the NBA for the league’s 2011 lockout, which instilled harsher penalties for high-spending teams such as Lakers.

“The cap is not a hard cap, but it’s pretty close to being a hard cap,” Bryant said. “Now it will be interesting to see what happens in this next labor agreement, because my understanding is that this TV deal kicks in in the last year of this current agreement, so I’m sure they’ll try to lock us out again and try to harden the cap even more.”

Bryant is right. The NBA and its players association could negotiate a new labor deal in the 2017 offseason. So how should the players union respond after conceding to a near 50-50 split in basketball revenue?

“As players you’ve got to hold your ground a little bit, not be afraid of what the public perception is,” Bryant said. “Instead try to educate the public a little bit and understand it’s not about complaining about how much you’re making.”

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter and on Facebook. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com