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Originally Posted by Pillow Pants
Wow. Kobe has been blamed for Shaq's departure and now this is revealed? This is going to be very interesting in the coming days.
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Let me explain why this is bullshit. First, I don't believe Kobe when he says that Buss told him that. Why? Because it doesn't make sense. Kobe says Buss told him they weren't going to pay Shaq that money and would rather trade him.....but why then did Buss offer Shaq a two-year addition to his contract for close to $23 million per year? Does that sound like a guy u are not trying to keep and want to get rid of? Not to me. Shaq was upset because he wanted another year and more money. Buss was willing to commit to two years but not the three Shaq wanted.
The next part is that, while Kobe didn't publicly say that if they keep Shaq, he's not resigning, it was pretty much public knowledge. Everyone knew that the two of them didn't get along and more importantly, everyone knew of Kobe's desire to be the main man on a team. Everyone knew it because HE TOLD EVERYONE THAT! He made it very clear that he wanted to test himself to the fullest and see if he could lead a team to a title. While he was a part, albeit an integral one, he was still a PART of a team that won titles, a team that was led unquestionably by three-time finals MVP Shaq. Kobe wanted the challenge of seeing what he could lead a team to. As an athlete, that's totally understandable. But then he shouldn't be acting now like he had nothing to do with it. Technically, he didn't ask them to trade Shaq. But he made it very clear that he wouldn't be coming back here if Shaq was.
The next part is that Kobe is complaining that Buss told him to his face that there would be no rebuilding period, that the team would try to win "NOW"! But that's not true either. Buss was very public in the media after the Shaq trade, as were other team officials. They clearly said that they had a plan for the summer of 2007. This was when the team would be free of the Brian Grant contract and were going to try and go after some of the possible free agents that would come up. It was the primary reason why they hired Rudy Tomjanovich. Yao Ming had said he had a very close relationship with Rudy T and obviously, Los Angeles has a much bigger Chinese population than Houston. The Lakers brought in Rudy T thinking that it would be enough to entice Yao to not accept Houston's extention offer and jump ship to LA. But Yao did accept Houston's offer. Same thing with Amare Stoudamire in Phoenix. Also, all of the top players from LeBron's class resigned with their teams and wouldn't be on the market anytime soon. The Lakers were anticipating getting one of the big stars of those two classes but it didn't happen. But the main point is that Buss and Kupchak were very public that this was a process with a plan for the summer of 2007.
The next thing to touch on is Kobe and Phil's conversation about what happened. Kobe says he contacted Phil and asked him what he was told after the 2004 season. He says that Phil told him that they were getting rid of Shaq and that they were also getting rid of him (Phil) because they were trying to reign in salaries and didn't want to pay a coach that much money for a team that was in rebuilding mode. Really? Let's see. Phil was making $6 million a year at the time. How much did they bring Rudy T in for? Five years, $30 million. Umm, that's $6 million a year. Now, I do remember Phil saying at the time that it would take closer to $10 million at the time in order for him to stay and there was plenty of speculation that he only went with that figure in order to force the Lakers to drop him, knowing they wouldn't go that high. Funny how just a few years later, they did anyway.
Kobe is saying now that he feels like a fool. He says that guys around the league would call him, specifically mentioning Baron Davis, Carlos Boozer and Ron Artest, and that he would go to Kupchak excited saying "we can get this guy" only to be turned down. He says Kupchak told him that Davis was too injury prone, the Boozer couldn't guard power forwards, and that Artest was too much of a headache. He says now that he knows they were just excuses because the Lakers had no intention of spending any money to get better. He says he feels lied to because he was never told of any rebuilding. But everyone else knew this is exactly what was going to be going on with them. How come he didn't?
U have Jim Buss going on the radio saying things about Phil. U then have Jeannie Buss defending her man and talking about her brother. Then u have assistant coach Kurt Rambis talking about Jim Buss. Then Jerry Buss is arrested for DUI. Now Kobe's saying it's over and nothing can be done to make this right. What a sorry ass mess.
