Teammates unhappy with Bryant regime
By Chad Ford
ESPN Insider
What were the Lakers thinking this summer when they let Kobe Bryant dictate whom the team acquired in the offseason?
Everyone knows they were desperate to re-sign Bryant, but once you give up that type of power to a player, he isn’t giving it back.
Since making his free agent power play this summer, Kobe already has helped exile Shaquille O’Neal , Gary Payton and Derek Fisher. Kareem Rush was given away last week for two second-round picks.
Tuesday, Bryant nailed the door shut on a Karl Malone return to the Lakers. In a radio interview, Bryant said he didn’t think Malone was coming back, then criticized the Mailman for leaving the team up in the air. “It’s not really fair to hold it over the guys’ heads that are here,†Bryant said.
Thursday, December 9, 2004
“The guys that we have here are working hard, practicing hard every day. It’s kind of tough for them to be looking over their shoulder, wondering if he’s going to come back and then everybody is going to disappear. “It’s really not fair for us to sit around and speculate how long this is going to go on. I mean, you can’t sit up here and speculate for the remainder of the season whether or not he is going to come back. I mean, that’s not fair to the guys that are working here.â€
Oh, the hypocrisy. Wasn’t it Bryant who held his impending free agency over the heads of the entire organization last year? Wasn’t everyone looking over
their shoulders wondering if Bryant was going to bolt to the Clippers? Maybe Malone isn’t the player the Lakers need right now, but Bryant shouldn’t be the one making that decision or delivering the message. But that’s not the worst of it. What left Bryant’s mouth after that speaks volumes about whose team this really is. “They are here giving me 110 percent,†Bryant said of his teammates.
Really? The Lakers are playing for Kobe now?
That wasn’t a slip of the tongue. Two player agents who represent players on the Lakers and one league source told Insider that Bryant was ruling the Lakers with an iron fist, getting in players’ faces and acting as if he owned the team. According to one agent, Bryant even threatened to trade his client if he didn’t do things The Kobe Way.
“I get the feeling that everyone there is pretty miserable,†one agent told Insider. “I know [my client] wants out, and he claims others do too. It’s hard Insider. “I know [my client] wants out, and he claims others do too. It’s hard enough to have a coach on you all the time, but then when a player is doing it, too, it’s just too much.â€
The Lakers need to be careful. Word is spreading quickly around the league that while Bryant is an awesome player, he’s a terrible teammate. When the Lakers finally have some cap room to go out and lure free agents, what top - tier player is going to want to play there?
The Lakers responded to the whole Malone mess by stating that Bryant wasn’t “speaking on behalf of the Lakers management or organization.†Bryant has a $136 million contract that says otherwise.