Teammates unhappy with Bryant regime

[WayOutWest]

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.”

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.”

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.
 

[Guest]

:rolleyes:

Not that I can't believe that he is trying to push these guys ala Michael Jordan.  Nor is it that hard to believe that some guys could possibly not like it.  I mean the NBA is a league filled with guys who all believe they need to be treated like gods.  Kobe included.  So when they are expected to give 110% effort because they make 110,000 a frickin game I could see how they would get pissed. What sounds funny to me is the timming and the "agents".   They ran this same story last year towards the end of the year.  Almost the same exact wording.  Sounds to me like another grab for ratings, you know something to talk about.  Much like the blowing out of proportion the Karl Malone thing.  

[ziggy]

News flash

Laker President Kobe Bryant has announced that Mitch Kupchack is now officially "The Gopher", and Vanessa Bryant is now Laker GM and Director of Player Personnel.  Bryant was quoted as saying that "well at least now she can buy her own diamonds".

[spursfan101]

Sorry Laker fans, that is so disheartening to hear.  (seriously, not being facetious.) Jwest wouldn't have put up with the crap.

 

[Guest_Randy]

Kupchak is an idiot -- that isn't going to change.  The guy was hired for ONE reason and one reason alone -- he's a YES man -- he will tell Buss whatever he wants to hear and do whatever Buss wants him to do.  Not that there aren't a lot of other guys out there who don't do the same thing but Buss cares about ONE things -- his pocketbook!  Making a buck ALWAYS comes before having the best team with Buss -- now Buss DOES understand that he needs to have a good team in order to realize the kind of profit he wants (and GREATER

[Guest_Randy]

sorry, I wasn't done -- hit the wrong button.

GREATER profit comes with championship teams.  Buss DOES understand that -- so you do have to give him his props for that -- but Buss' profit margin is always more important to him than a championship, make no doubt about that.

The Lakers NEED to do something in the off-season.  Can they lure Peja to the Lakers?  I know I've heard a lot about the Lakers wanting to be in the next Yao sweepstakes but after watching Yao play -- I REALLY hope they don't make that move.  There are a LOT of other players that I'd like to see in purple and gold before spending a ton of money on a guy that can't get himself in game conditioning.  I would REALLY love to see Peja in purple and gold -- he is one of my favorite players (and it really hurts when he plays for the Kings -- lol).

[spursfan101]

Do you Laker fans out there wish to see Kobe Bryant leave the team??

[westkoast]

Do you Laker fans out there wish to see Kobe Bryant leave the team??

Nope.....I would like to see him keep his mouth shut but other than that I dont want to see him leave.  He is still the best all around basketball player in the league.

The media is just having a field day with all this and since we now have 50 stations doing news, 40 magazines, and 100 radio stations all covering the same news its going to be over covered.  Everything from LA LA Land is blown out of proportion.  Some of the same things Jordan did were not covered half as much as some of this bs.  I guess when you were expecting to be able to write about how the Lakers are such a horrible  sub .500 team because of Kobe and it doesnt happen you need something else to run with.

James Worthy, Magic, the Lakers organization,  and alot of fans are with Kobe 100% on this whole Karl Malone deal.

[JoMal]

Malone to Kobe's wife, "Sorry, honey, but the Mailman's package is too big to fit in your box".

Oh the joy!!!!

Whatever Koap Opera nonsense spews out of LA these days is music to the ears of those of us who soured on the whole "Lakers ARE the NBA" crappola years ago. BTW, you don't get to pick and chose players currently under contract with other teams, so Yao and Peja are not automatically thinking about how lovely it would be to play in the shadow of Bryant right now.

So what if this story sounds just like a previous story that came out last year? Here's a news flash. It probably sounds just like the earlier story because Kobe's issues with these teammates are exactly like they were with his previous teammates. He still is a Jordan wannabe, and he sees himself in the same light as Michael, who was known to get in the faces of teammates who did not perform up to his standards. But Jordan did not have to demand respect, he earned it with his clearly high level of leadership qualities that matched his performances. While Bryant's basketball skills are unquestioned, why is it always someone else on his team that hits that game-winning shot in the playoffs, like Horry or Fisher, and it is always Bryant who takes that last second shot in games the Lakers end up losing?

Oh, and of course your GM, Kupcake is the owner's yes-man. News flash on that. ALL GM's essentially are the owners yes-men. Even a basketball personnel genius like Geoff Petrie gets the final yeas or neas from the Maloofs, which is why a worn-down Vlade Divac is now playing for the Lakers. That certainly was NOT Geoff's choice. It also is why Chris Webber and Mike Bibby were resigned for more then they had to be. That came directly from the Maloofs as well.

But I can tell you one thing they all agree to. They will never broker a trade for Peja Stojackovic, nor will they willingly let him go in free agency, unless all efforts to resign him have totally failed. By the time he has to decide, Divac will have retired, so any incentive for him to join the Lakers will have to revert to just how enjoyable the general working atmosphere in LA would be for him.

Just how popular IS Coach Bryant with his teammates again?