remember when kobe.....
i dont think kobe wanted to leave. When the lakers traded shaq and started to rebuild, KObe and Odom were the only two guys on the roster who had contracts longer then 2 years. They told him the rebuilding process would take 2-3 years, but they would be able to go after top free agents and bring in talnet around him. He was cool with that and did the best he could with little help.
But after 3 straight years, the lakers hadnt brought in any top talent and they were turning down what kobe thought were solid offers for andrew bynum that would have got them either Kidd or Jermiane Oneal. But managment believed in the young guys and knew they had somehting good.
Then that week he asked for the trade, an annonymous inside source from the lakers blasted kobe saying he got everything he deserved when he forced them to rebuild. Kobe heard that and popped off about wanting out. But i honesly dont think he really wanted out. He stopped pressuring the team almost immediatelty and just focused on basketball and didnt make any more comments to the media.
Then that season, bynum and ariza really exploded onto the scene as solid starers while bench guys like farmar, turiaf and vujacic all had career seasons and the lakers were in first place in the west and kobe said he admitted he was wrong and wanted to remina a laker, all of this BEFORE they ever traded for Pau Gasol.
thank you llperez people hate on kobe to much she couldnt even keep her story straight and she a bad history with men her friends said she bragged about having sexual intercourse with kobe she got amd when she found out he just use her for sex so she said he raped which was a big lie.
i've read lots of stuff about the rape case. Lots of things dont add up. After she left his room, the first person she saw was a coworker and she smiled and waved and said have a good night and didnt even seem upset. She said she later decided to confide in a close frined of hers as well as her ex boyfrined what went down while every single adult who saw her said she seemed fine and didnt mention anything. That seems a little fishy like she wanted attention. Plus she had been in and out of hospitals for attempted suicide and depression and many stories popped up of her having been with men left and right and her friends dimed her out as a freak. On top of that, she admitted to lieing about some of the minor details in her orginal statment. Her case was falling down left and right and kobe threw her some cash to basically setlle it before it all went to court and every little detail became public becasue that was probably in his best interest to just make it go away.
I honestly think he just gave it to her rough and she was probably upset that she got used and was hoping it would have been special or somehting. She then used the opportunity to twist the details to get some attention.
I don't hate Kobe Bryant at all.
But there has been people close to that whole situation who knew that Kobe was one player away from being a Bull. Guys like Bill Simmons in the past said " It was so close, he went to sleep a couple nights think it was going to be announced in the morning"
Before I get the " WHAT DO THEY KNOW? WHAT IF THEY WERE LYING?" or any other stupid reason, you have to take account that this was not some smucks. They were people who had people on the inside.
i thnk he was pissed and seriously considered being traded when he was emotionally heated. BUt in his mind deep down inside he just wanted the team to make moves to keep him happy. He could have pushed a lot harder then he did if he truly wanted out. The whole trade talk ended after a week and kobe never mentioned it again.
On a side note, i also heard the bulls trade almost went down but the bulls backed out becasue they didnt want to include loul deng. The same luol deng that they refused to give up for Pau Gasol when they could have had him. The Bulls fricking love them some luol deng and as a laker fan, i must thank them.
It was more then a Week. Kobe had been asking out behind the scenes due to some stupid moves made by Los Angeles. I remember hearing that from Ric Bucher and Marc Stein before. I do think he didn't want to leave but he wanted to win. I can agree with you there.
Yea, LA wanted Deng but Kobe wanted Deng to join him in Chicago. Had Chicago been smart enough- They should have throw more picks toward LA.
doubt too many of you remember, but ill never forget when kobe had asked for a trade, Isiah thomas was asked about putting something together for kobe and he said of course he would be interested but in no way would he ever include eddy curry for kobe. Im not making that up, i was laughing my a.ss off. Just reason #174 why Isiah Thomas was the worst nba gm of all time.
Kobe wanted to be traded and the Lakers did shop him around. At the end, there was never a deal that made sense for the Lakers while the team that Kobe might have gone to would still remain competitive. That's how the LA Lakers managed to keep Kobe. It worked out for the best since Chris Wallace sent the Lakers a mid-season gift of Pau Gasol.
I think the Lakers played the card right by showing to the disgruntled Kobe that it wasn't that they wouldn't be able to meet his demand. It just unrealistic to trade a super star for less than 80 cents on a dollar.
Back then, Deng was the center piece of the deal and everyone was so high on him. However, he can't even shoot a 3 and I was never that high on Luol Deng to begin with. Lakers got lucky and dodged a serious bullet.
I think he either wanted to go (if they couldnt get better) or stay if they could. So if possible he really wanted to stay and he was putting pressure on them because if they couldn't show him, he definitely would have wanted to leave. he was already in a good organization and in a great city so he didn't want to leave but he wanted more reason to stay. i believe it was all to gain leverage because he always wanted to be a laker for life.
asked for a trade in 2006-07, do u really think he really wanted a trade, or do u think he was puttin pressure on the front office to make moves... personally, i think he was puttin pressure on the front office to get better players, i dont think kobe really wanted to go imo.
thoughts...