Kobe is to blame for the Lakers lacking a foundation for the future

Epic rant man

I'm not defending Kobe's contract but I am putting things in perspective, it was signed 2 years ago when the Lakers came out and decided to rebuild. The article is titled 'Kobe is to blame for the Lakers lacking a foundation for the future' and goes onto to complain about Kobe's salary with out including the torturous run of coaches and players the Lakers have had none of which is Kobe's fault. If the article was titled 'Was Kobe's 25 million this season worth it?' the answer would in fact still be yes. The amount of seats sold for final Kobe games has been insane not to mention Lakers fans going to games knowing they'll lose but being ok with it because Kobe was playing. That's definitely worth 25 million dollars to any team but especially meaningful to the Lakers. I don't like the Lakers really don't like them, and have always seen Kobe as a villain. But things went downhill for the lakers long before Kobe signed his 47mil 2 year deal. Kobe got the Lakers 47mil when no one else in the league wanted the Lakers 47mil? You can't really say Kobe is greedy as there was never a scenario in which the Lakers had the issue of 'how can we fit all these guys under the cap.... maybe kobe will take a hit'... because there were no guys....... In terms of foundation? Lakers have some pretty decent youth and hold the bird rights on Hibbert. They have the projected 2nd pick in the draft and while it's weak either Ingram or Simmons will be a huge asset in the Lakers future. It's not all doom and gloom and it's pretty impressive that while the Lakers have been pushing for rings for the past 10 years they have been able to hold onto alot of their first rounders which will pay dividends in a few years.

But by that thought process why do multigenerational wealthy families reinvest and get wealthier, why do people in well paying jobs continue to work after they've accumulated enough wealth to live comfortably etc. Remember he's taking money from billionaires here. I remember a Tom Hanks interview when he was asked about getting paid 8 digits for a movie and he said something along the line "Sure there is no way I can defend what I earn. But when I look at that it's either going to me or Rupert Murdoch I get comfortable with it." The "how much money does he need" argument just doesn't really survive when it's compared to any other field with incredible wealth.

Fair point Knick... I suppose my view is I'm not blaming Kobe in a sense. He's one of the greatest ever... hands down. And it's players like him that make me watch this game I love. I suppose I'm just disappointed in him that this is how it ended. I'm not a millionare sport's star... and at my age I'll never will be, even if I had that sort of talent. But seriously how many houses, boats, planes can you own. And let's face it Kobe's made a heap of dough through-out his career yeah? Or am I just dumb... and the value of a gold watch is now worth a 100 million of US green?

I think that this has been written without much investigation around evidence supporting the statements. LA Lakers for the past 2-3 seasons having been looking to rebuild their team via free agency and trades. In the past this has worked for Mitch Kupchak but unfortunately for some of the major destinations players are looking more for the teams competitiveness rather then a teams location. If you look back to the Lakers decline its been less about Kobe then it has with the lack of direction the organisation has had. If you look back until just after the Phil era and introduction of Mike Brown and the princeton offence, Lakers went 41-25 roster remained largely unchanged. Next 2012-13 season the lakers shambles, signed Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, fired Mike Brown and hired D'antoni mid season. While D'Antoni is one of the greatest offensive minds in the NBA however D'Antoni's offence is quite limited in how it works well (pick and rolls all day). Lakers ended up with 45-37, but we learnt the D12 didn't like questions and Steve Nash was old. 2013-14 Lakers went 27-55 D12 left as LA was too stressful and Steve Nash was still injured. No other significant signings and D'Antoni had no one playing for him that fit his offence. 2014-15 Lakers deciding to rebuild. D'Antoni resigns. After a massive FA list (Melo, LBJ and others) Lakers could only claim Boozer off waivers (as no one wanted him) and trade the Rockets for Lin (who wanted to get rid of him). They hired Byron Scott as head coach, Lakers were awful and Kobe was injured. 2015-16 Lakers added Roy Hibbert and Lou Williams, expectations werent that high given the roster and it shows, Now in the past few seasons they've had the Princeton Offence, D'Antoni's Offence with no point guard... Dwight Howard, Boozer, Lin And you want to blame the current state of the Lakers on Kobe because he takes up too much cap when they can't even get someone to use the cap on. You wouldn't find too many people would agree with you on that.

Kobe's been rubbish for most of the last two seasons - but, so what? Take Kobe out of the Lakers line-up in the past two seasons and they wouldn't be any better off than what they are at the moment. Bloke did more than enough to earn a 'Disney' farewell. Probably cheered up a lot of Lakers fans who are otherwise exasperating on a 17-65 season....

Yes I did enjoy Kobe finally receiving some love outiside of Laker fans and being recognised as a true great of not just LA but the game. What Dirk has done is admirable and I'm a big fan of his. But I'm sorry you can't compare Kobe to Dirk - you just can't. Dirk is amazing but he is not Kobe - he does not command the money Kobe does. Beyond that the Mavs have tried to continuously re-tool on the go - something the Lakers have done and succeeded at better than anyone in the past. And what has it brought Dallas? Deron Williams and Chandler Parsons... Bully for Dallas. Yes they made the playoffs but they're heading for a first round exit. The Lakers barring a crazy drop are heading for a top three pick - to add to their 4 or 5 legitimately exciting prospects. I would honestly rather be in the Lakers position. I think it's impressive the Lakers finally realised hey we aren't going to come close to competing for a ring no matter what we do, accepted it and made moves to get better in the future. They refused to take up cap with second string talent and brought in some great prospects. So yes thanks for the legacy Kobe, the five rings, the memories and the distraction during some down years. Nobody has ever or will ever do it like him. Which maybe you see as a positive Machooka but ask anyone that knows ball and they know how great he was.

Elliot... you obviously enjoyed the movie. Fair enough... but for mine this continuing saga that went on for 82 matches up and down the length and breadth of the US of A was just too much. Plainly. Simply. And this is not a blame game... more so an acid test. One that ironically has eaten through to the very foundation of the St Andreas fault line. LA doesn't do 'down periods'... they only do downers. They're only about winning... period. Full stop. Like... you're fired money. There's an old saying... no one is bigger than the game itself except if you come from LA. Then you are the game! I'm reminded here of Durk from the Dallas Mavericks... who for the past few seasons has been taking pay cuts so his team can buy players to be competitive. Good old Durk. Good for him. Good for Dallas. Good for Cuban. Good for the fans! So let's look at the regular season that's just ended... MAVS finished 6th with an injury plagued squad, and now get to play the Thunder in the first round of the play-offs. They'll probably be swept... but they're in the Play-offs. . While those la la Lakers finished this season stone motherless last in the West. Like WTF?? When has that ever happened? Has it ever happened? Should it have ever happened? Some legacy eh Kobe!

I really enjoyed this article. May get a bit of heat for raining on parades. But some things need to be addressed

I think it's pretty shortsighted to blame Kobe for the current state of the Lakers. If I had to pick then I'd 100 per cent say the front office holds greater accountability - but even then it's unfair to say the current situation (which by the way I think you make out to be a lot more dire than it is) is wholly on them. The Lakers are suffering a down period - every team has them, it's normal - they won the championship only six years ago, they have an opportunity now to quicken the turn around let's see what happens. Back to my original point - you can't blame Kobe, he's only human. The $48.5 million contract was the first the Lakers offered - there was no negotiating. Are you going to turn that down? No, nobody would. For those that say he should have and that it was selfish to accept it - it wasn't some deliberate attempt to hamstring the franchise. He had just finished a season averaging 27, 5 & 5 and then the Achilles happened. Yes nobody knew how he would return but I see Kobe accepting that contract as huge self-confidence that he could return that strong. We know he's confident - you can't be the best player in the world and not be - that doesn't make him selfish or evil. 48.5 mil is perfectly reasonable for a 27, 5 & 5 player that also brings in potentially the most off-court business league wide. To steal a somewhat simple but effective ranking from Stephen A. And Skip - there's stars, superstars and box office. Kobe has been box office since about 2005. This past season I would argue there were only 3 box office players in the NBA - Lebron James, Steph Curry and the 37 year old Kobe Bryant. He deserved that contract. Kobe came back to have 2 more season ending injuries - nobody could predict that. It was just really, really unfortunate. The Lakers as a whole have suffered from a fair amount of misfortune lately. For the two seasons prior to this one they had the most games missed to injury in the league. Also a lot of your claims are based in hindsight - hindsight is 20/20 - nobody could predict the unfortunate outcomes that eventuated. At the time of the Nash/Howard trade Mitch Kupchak was hailed as a genius - it was another Pau for Kwame. Yes Nash was old but he had avoided serious injury remarkably well - that ended in LA. But who could have known this? It was worth the risk at the time. Dwight Howard is a clown. His unceremonious exits from Orlando and LA show this and he's probably going to add Houston to that list sooner rather than later. But again he was a coup for the Lakers - the best center in the league was coming to town. It wasn't Kobe's fault he didn't want to work hard enough and embrace Lakers culture only LA culture. The Lakers gave up a lot for those two - too much looking at it now - at the time? Potentially not enough. The unfortunate end to those trades are more to blame than anything else as far as I'm concerned - but hey gambles don't always pay off. The Lakers, however, have done some fine work in the last couple years to re-build though - the fruit just won't show for a couple more. Yes there has been the whiffs in free agency but can you blame them? The Lakers aren't currently constructed to appeal to free agents - at least they gave it a go with everything they had to offer. They pulled off one of the best drafts in recent history in my mind with Clarkson at 46. Randle has so far proven to be the best player from his class not named Wiggins or Parker - he's rebounding at all-time levels for a rookie (and this was his rookie year). And Russell, even with the unfortunate filming incident, has legitimate superstar potential. Add to that another smart low pick in Larry Nance Jr. and you have a really really positive core group moving forward. Also all of those guys have gone out of their way to say that Kobe has been brilliant at mentoring them and passing down his decades of knowledge. So he should too but you can't say he refuses to help the youth movement. Look I'm a massive Lakers and Kobe fan and I know my comment is probably longer than the article. But I am so sick of this retreaded line that Kobe is selfish and has ruined everything for the Lakers. I'm fully aware his contract didn't help at all, that his final season was a massive distraction. But it was a distraction us fans could enjoy during a down time. It was also something the man deserved - nobody has given a franchise more years, passion or performance than that man. Yes he's been rewarded ridiculously for that - but that's the NBA it's not your normal workplace. He deserves his time in the sun for everything he gave his fans and he gave us everything. To keep blaming him for what is essentially a long line of unfortunate circumstances is unfair and unnecessary.

the lakers will be fine post Kobe; him retiring (great player that he was and all) actually significantly improves their chances of landing an impact free agent; both in terms of being able to pay them and also sell them on the concept that the lakers will be 'their team' not Kobe's. If OKC dont win it all before Westbrook is a free agent, I'd say he'll bolt for the Lakers.

Kobe is a star, one of the best to lace them up. He's declined the last couple of years though and should have taken a pay cut to allow the Lakers to pick up some free agents and build a team ready for the post Kobe era. Sure, Kobe deserves respect and to be appreciated, but the front office needed to look into the future and build a team instead of paying an aging, often injured superstar a chunk of the salary. I don't blame this on Kobe, rather the Lakers front office screwing up. It will be interesting however to see where the team goes from here

Connor... the whole Kobe Retirement Inc Show was just so so La La Land! If it was a movie you'd be reading reviews that said it so crap and cheesy... and further that it definitely should have had several scenes edited out as it was way too long. But that would be unfair to the star of show. Kobe was unquestionably one of the greatest to tie boot laces up on his own named sneakers and play the game... but what about the way he went out? Retired? Said farewell for a whole season? And visited every stadium across the nation, and Canada, for some serious Kobe appreciation time. And what was with the previous two year extension he got on his contact that enabled him to plan, direct, star, and perform in all this. And like how much did they pay the star? WTF? You're jokin'... naah you gotta be jokin' money. Like how are they gonna buy other players? I'm not a Laker's fan... but I know a lot that are, and most of them feel like they've taken one up the backside. Although, they inform me, they didn't really feel anything, so therefore it didn't happen. Yep... they don't call the place the 'dream factory' for nuffin' !

Kobe is a great player no doubt, but he has seriously hurt the Lakers in the past few years. He's taken up half the bloody teams salary and successfully held his own sides player developmental system up by leaving no room for young talent in the roster. He'll be remembered as one of the greatest but the end of his career was a year or two elongated and sunk the franchise he helped to build to such heights.

To be fair the reasonability lies with the front office not the player. Which is why the lakers would be amongst the worst in US sports at present.

Surely there's another parade you could be raining on? Jog on.