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Post by samadams10 on Oct 23, 2014 14:41:39 GMT -8
We are well into plan G at this point. After plan F for Fuck it.
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Post by samadams10 on Oct 23, 2014 14:55:38 GMT -8
I think at this late stage in the game, he might have, not different priorities, but MORE priorities. I think he views himself a an elder statesman of the league. I haven't seen him complain about just his salary but more about the give and take between players/owners and the burden superstars have. Maybe he knows he probably can't win another title, and one way for him to further advance his legacy is to be outspoken on players' rights. He's won titles and he's only got a few years left so he is more capable of taking a philosophical stand against the owners as compared to guys who want to be employed for another 10 years. I keep saying it, but the system we have designed oddly singles out the "greed" of millionaires wanting more money and to be paid their fair share from billionaires. In most other fields, we would side with labor. In sports for some reason we side with management. All fair points. The owners had leverage and used it to win the current CBA. A Kobe noted, the players need to hold out and win the fair deal at the next negotiating table. While Kobe's noble to make these remarks, it will be well past his era.
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l3bron
::| Loyal Member |::
Posts: 205
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Post by l3bron on Oct 23, 2014 15:01:11 GMT -8
Reportedly the players whose agent was speaking on their behalf of not wanting to play with Kobe were Kyle Korver and Spencer Hawes I was just thinking that: who the hell are these players? Lol what a joke. Sounds like Kyle Korver was scared of actually having to work hard and chose Atlanta to continue his 3point chucking with shit defense Hawks fans are used to Do you even watch basketball you buffoon? Korver has turned into one of the better swingmen in the league. His "chucking" is critical to Atlanta's offense and his shooting ability is enough of a threat to get his teammates open looks. Plus his defense is criminally underrated, NBA coaches have gone on record calling him a good team defender. Idiot.
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Post by history2b on Oct 23, 2014 15:10:12 GMT -8
Blah blah blah.
You and Korver suck dick
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hackashaq
::| Basketball Guru |::
Posts: 3,196
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Post by hackashaq on Oct 23, 2014 15:25:09 GMT -8
I'm reading through these remarks and comments, and I'm pretty much convinced that the winner is ESPN and this Abbott guy. This is exactly what they wanted. Heated debate, more attention spent on the ESPN site, radio, comment boards, etc. Increased traffic and the advertisers love it. I didn't even know Abbott all that well before this article, now I know too much about the dude.
Well played Abbott, well played.
BTW, my 2 cents. I agree with those who say that the Lakers demise is a combination of issues, but certainly, Kobe is not THE cause of the downfall. It's never one cause. The article Abbott wrote is intellectually dishonest by putting the blame on 1 person, while not citing specific people, at time contradicting himself, misquoting or misreading the intents and statements of some, and using examples from people of dubious character as NBA "professionals" as a piece of evidence to support his own claims.
To me, the Lakers downfall has many parents: 1) After their back-to-back wins, they could not add enough pieces to get to the next level, and I'm not sure they really tried that hard. The pieces they did pick did not really help, and they got old really fast (Gasol absolutely disappearing in the playoffs, and Bynum's implosion surely didn't help); 2) Jackson saw the writing on the wall and left. Jim Buss makes a huge mistake in hiring Brown. That made no sense, and another lost year. Everyone gets a year older, and still no help improving the team with good picks. Trades work for a little while, put doesn't bear fruit in the playoffs; 3) Knowing something big has to change, they trade for CP3......and get hosed by Stern. This is probably THE most important event in this chain. People blaming Kobe have NO idea how this killed the Lakers. They would have gotten younger, faster, with CP3. They would have switched to the PG centered offenses of today. They would have had a better defensive presence against faster teams....AND who knows who else would've joined this juggernaut. We might have still gotten Dwight to pair with CP3 and a healthy Kobe with decent fillers. This could have worked in a year or so. All that out the window becaue of Stern's duplicity and hypocrisy. After the trade was nixed, Odom had a nervous breakdown, and Gasol stopped trusting Laker management....this is the real turning point; 4) Dwight turns out not to have a winning attitude. Surely, his treatment of the Magic should have warned anyone of Dwight's lack of fortitude and extreme sensitivity. But he turned out to be a tool; 5) Finally D'Antoni. Trying to instill a type of offense to which the Lakers did not have the personnel, and did not want to change. Dependent on a PG in Nash that was a shell of himself. Dwight, by all accounts, did not want D'Antoni, and Kobe would have been justified to feel the same after the 1st year of that debacle. Not hiring Jackson is all on Jim Buss, not Kobe. If there is a 2nd most important reason for the Lakers' downfall, it's this one. This was the final nail in the coffin to the rebuilding plan.
Does Kobe's personality rub people wrong? Of course. But all the stories I've heard about Michael Jordan being an equally abrasive person doesn't seem to make him the target of as much vitriol that Kobe gets. Michael fought and punched out teammates. He gambled late into the night before games. He had a ego bigger that the city of Chicago. He was an "I eat first" person too. He has an extreme insecurity problem and a gambling issue to boot. Heck, he abandoned his team to play baseball. Why didn't he get flack like that? What would Abbott write about if Kobe went to play soccer for a year. I'm sure his head would explode.
Anyway, my two cents.
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Post by asweetcalamity on Oct 23, 2014 15:35:10 GMT -8
Good post^
I think we can summarize even more succinctly:
CP3 trade not vetoed, Phil hired instead of MDA.
No amount of poor management can sink a juggernaut with those 4 in place. Even if only one or the other happened, likely the franchise is in a drastically different place now. Probably looking at another title or 2 under the belt, and continuing to be challengers for the immediate future.
With both happening, it gave an opportunity for everyone's flaws to be exposed.
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Post by samadams10 on Oct 23, 2014 15:49:48 GMT -8
Yea good post hack. Like I said truth I somewhere in the middle. It would be asinine to blame all on Kobe as Abbott ust proved.
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Post by shaolinfighter on Oct 23, 2014 16:27:15 GMT -8
Good post^ I think we can summarize even more succinctly: CP3 trade not vetoed, Phil hired instead of MDA. No amount of poor management can sink a juggernaut with those 4 in place. Even if only one or the other happened, likely the franchise is in a drastically different place now. Probably looking at another title or 2 under the belt, and continuing to be challengers for the immediate future. With both happening, it gave an opportunity for everyone's flaws to be exposed. Yup. Specifically those two things. One of them was entirely Lakers managements fault and eff up. The other (trade vetoed), which came before that management eff up with Phil, was David Stern.
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Post by shopson67 on Oct 24, 2014 4:22:01 GMT -8
I'd rather pay Kobe an extra $10M than pay Nash his salary (and the lost draft picks used to acquire him). ...and now, Nash is done before the season even starts. 65 games in 3 years, and it only cost the team about $27M, 2 1sts and 2 2nds. $415K/game, what a bargain; that's prime Jordan money (plus the picks).
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