Why Kobe Bryant deal is worth it for the Lakers, and then some

Bob,

The Lakers are not the perfect organization. I'm not sold on Jim Buss, in particular.

But I remember some of the situations you mention differently, particularly Ariza. Ariza's agent, David Lee, overplayed his hand by asking the Lakers for a deal starting at $7-8 million per season. The Lakers offered a mid-level exception deal starting at $5.8 million per season, and Lee rebuffed that offer. Even though it was a substantial pay cut, Artest jumped at the same offer that Ariza turned down. The Lakers decided that they didn't like their prospects dealing with Lee and signed Artest instead. Ariza wound up signing for the same mid-level exception money with Houston that he turned down with the Lakers.

Whether it was Artest or Ariza, signing for that mid-level exception money gave the Lakers the room they needed to re-sign Lamar Odom. Signing Ariza at what Lee was asking would likely have meant not being able to sign Odom. The party I fault most in that whole situation is Ariza's agent, Lee. I don't blame the Lakers for Ariza's agent blowing the deal.

Yes, they amnestied Artest with a year left on his contract, but they weren't going to win a championship this year and needed to move in another direction. The Lakers traded Fisher in 2012, but Fisher left for more money as a free agent in 2004. It's a business.

The fact that the Lakers don't act completely out of loyalty in every situation doesn't mean that loyalty doesn't factor into their decisions. The Celtics do the same. Just because the Celtics didn't re-sign James Posey and Leon Powe and traded KG and Pierce doesn't mean they have no loyalty as an organization. They clearly do, and the same applies to that other team as well.

Kobe Bryant refused to allow NBA to cheapen his superstar value

By Adrian Wojnarowski
13 hours ago
Yahoo Sports



WASHINGTON – For 24 hours, Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant listened to the residue of culture created out of the genius of commissioner David Stern and his owners. Between the incompetence of Players Association executive director Billy Hunter and an indifferent and uninformed union membership, the NBA skillfully rigged a collective bargaining agreement to devalue and defang the superstars responsible for driving the game to unprecedented popularity and profitability.

The disdain delivered to Kobe Bryant for signing a two-year, $48.5 million contract extension had left him surprised, but ultimately understanding of how the conversation has conspired to turn this way. Bryant hadn't come to apologize for his deal on Tuesday night, but hold it up and tell the rest of his peers: Bleep this system.

"Most of us have aspirations for being businessmen when our playing careers are over," Bryant told Yahoo Sports in a corridor of the Verizon Center. "But that starts now. You have to be able to wear both hats. You can't sit up there and say, 'Well, I'm going to take substantially less because there's public pressure, because all of a sudden, if you don't take less, you don't give a crap about winning. That's total bull----.

"I'm very fortunate to be with an organization that understands how to take care of its players, and put a great team out on the floor. They've figured out how to do both.

"Most players in this league don't have that. They get stuck in a predicament – probably intentionally done by the teams – to force them to take less money. Meanwhile, the value of the organization goes through the roof off the backs of their quote, unquote selfless players. "It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

As the franchise player for one of the most profitable franchises on the planet, a glamour organization that has historically been able to recruit top free agents, Bryant accepted an offer presented to him. "One meeting," he said, "and it was basically done."

For Bryant, this extension punctuated the transformation of an uneasy relationship with late owner Jerry Buss' son Jim into something that surprised him. When Jim gained power over his sister Jeanie – with whom Bryant had held a long, close relationship with – Bryant had never been sure of his intentions.

Did Jim Buss want to stay the course with Bryant as the centerpiece? Did they want to give into Dwight Howard and marginalize Bryant, even push him out?

"You hear rumors," Bryant told Yahoo Sports. "You hear innuendo. You're never sure."

Eventually, Bryant started to build more of a relationship with Jim Buss, a trust, and ownership came to Bryant and his agent Rob Pelinka to award him an extension before he had ever played a minute on his repaired Achilles tendon. Through everything, though, Bryant insisted to Yahoo Sports: "I tried to insulate myself from all that, block it out. I needed to focus on my recovery, on getting my ass back out on the court."

Here's the thing that Bryant has learned with the long, uncertain and frightening rehabilitation process for his torn Achilles: In some ways, it may have saved his career. Across the past two or three years, thoughts of retirement had crept into Bryant's mind. And never once did those have to do with his desire to compete, to play the game. They always had to do with the offseason regimen that he pushed himself through, the hellacious summers that extended from his teens and 20s and into his 30s.

"The Achilles, the rehab, it relit a fire in me, that's for sure," Bryant told Yahoo Sports. "I had been going so long, so long, putting in work – 17 years – and never taking a break, never taking time off. That's a long time to push your body, especially the way I pushed mine.

"Every time I had to find that drive, I would eventually find it … somewhere. But it took a toll. Every summer, I'd finally find that push that would get me there. But it was getting harder to do."

And then Bryant laughed: "But with this one, this challenge, it was low-hanging fruit for me."

The Los Angeles Lakers still believe in Kobe Bryant, and this means the world to him. Of course, the money matters, and it always will to him. He hadn't come to Washington, D.C., to make a concession speech, only to thank the Busses for the leap of faith and declare himself closer to his return. Between a news conference and the next steps in his rehab on Tuesday night, Kobe Bryant was still raging over the response to his contract extension. This wasn't a noble gesture to awaken his peers, but simply a visceral reaction to the way the NBA has slowly, surely eroded the superstar's standing in the sport – and the way the players have allowed it to happen.

"Bull----," Kobe Bryant finally again said on his way back to the locker room. "Pure bull----."

---


KJ

TJ,

As I said to Swish, I'm well aware of the facts. One fact you may not be aware of is that, when the Celtics couldn't make their payroll, Walter Brown mortgaged his home in order to do so. I hadn't heard of any current day owner being reduced to anything approaching that recourse. The pie is obviously bigger now, so the stakes are bigger now. But, ignoring the technicality that gluttony really refers to food, not to money, I believe the excess associated with the term can be applied to at least the most highly paid strata of players in the NBA.

Moreover, I'm not particularly impressed with the values that seem to creep into the lives of many of those players who can afford a lavish lifestyle. I guess as long as there are enough diamond rings on the market, they can find ways to avoid complete disruptions of their lives, even if they can't mitigate the impressions their choices may make on young people who want to copy them, often including their values.

Perhaps what I see as penurious gluttony at the top is just an extension of the exalted adulation paid to the individual player nowadays. I see that as a negative trend in the quality of the game just as in the finances of the game. These guys make more money because they stand out as individuals in a game geared to showcasing them as individuals. I just don't happen to like that type of philosophy.

Outside correctly identified some of the antecedents of my thinking. For example, I wish old-time legends hadn't had to form an independent organization to establish a way that younger retirees could get insurance funded by low-fee or free appearances of the legends at merchandising shows. That somehow strikes me as more altruistic among previous players of relatively modest means than the values of many of today's filthy rich superstars.

I'm not talking about actors or musicians. I believe their salary structures are very different from those in basketball. For example, I bet the vast, vast majority of people who work in those industries make peanuts compared to the NBA minimum salary. In addition to questioning whether two wrongs make a right, I could look through the Standard Industrial Classification and cite many, many occupations that have far more modest income structures than the NBA and yet probably do far more good in the name of humanity than the NBA.

Whatever the dynamics of my thinking, there must be thousands of issues I think are more worthy of my attention than whether Kobe Bryant (or any Celtic, for that matter) makes several million dollars more or less in a given year. Player salaries concern me mainly in terms of how the cap may affect the Celtics' ability to win more championships.

I understand all the rationalizations. I'm not trying to change anyone else's mind; and any attempt to change mine would be beyond fruitless.

I am glad the Lakers organization and fans are displaying loyalty toward a long-term, very talented, valuable player. I'll be interested in how this manifestation of that loyalty works out for them.

Sam