Civil War for Lakers Fans

[Axel]

A civil war is brewing in LALA Land, as die hard Lakers fans and die hard Kobe fans are beginning to draw lines in the sand. Should be interesting to see how this progresses.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/pos...yant-civil-war


Personally, I thought Kobe should have taken less money since he made it clear he wanted to win, which will be difficult to do while paying him $30M. If Kobe just wanted the money, he should have been honest like Nash and not expected to have a championship calibre supporting cast.

So what side of the line do you fall on?

[BigCamB]

I certainly wouldn't be siding with hardcore Kobe fans, that's for sure they are unbelievably annoying. That article does really sum up lakers fans very well though, at least from what I've seen on twitter.
He should've taken less if he wanted to win, surely.

[slaw]

Kobe was right to take all the money he could get. However, having taken the money, he has to realize that imposes certain obstacles to bringing in other players. Kobe's problem is that he has no real leverage. He would be very, very difficult to trade with that salary and that's assuming he's ever 100% healthy again, which seems improbably at this point.

The Lakers are stuck with him and he's stuck with them. Couldn't happen to a nicer set of guys.....

[Axel]

Kobe was right to take all the money he could get. However, having taken the money, he has to realize that imposes certain obstacles to bringing in other players. Kobe's problem is that he has no real leverage. He would be very, very difficult to trade with that salary and that's assuming he's ever 100% healthy again, which seems improbably at this point.

The Lakers are stuck with him and he's stuck with them. Couldn't happen to a nicer set of guys.....

Kobe is entitled to the money, agreed, but he then can start making demands of the team and leveraging the fans to try and force the team to make decisions that are short-sighted.

[BobLoblaw]

In the big picture, Jim Buss shouldn't have given Kobe that extension. No reason to do it before you even see if Kobe is healthy. That's a management screw up. So, someone is right to call them out. For that someone to be Kobe, it does look a bit weird, but in the end Kobe is not the GM and he's not the one who screwed up here.

If you run a business and you hire me and pay me salary that you can't afford to pay, and you go broke, would I be wrong to say that you are a bad businessman?

I don't like when players think they are GMs a la Dwight Howard in Orlando. So I can't really turn around and blame Kobe for not getting involved. Besides, it doesn't seem like Jim Buss wants him to be involved in the first place. They came to him with an offer, they even said that they'll have enough money to add players from what I remember, well, now he's calling them out.

The whole situation is weird but in the end it's a management screw up.

In general, I think they'll be ok. They could target someone like Lowry or Stephenson this year, win some games, then target Marc Gasol or Love or such next year. Then third year Kobe's contract expires and they can add some depth. They will also have a good rookie from this draft, or they could move the pick for a star veteran. They have options. Kobe's contract looks atrocious but it's just two years and they can add pieces in the meantime.