Jeanie Buss thinks you're a loser if you don't want to play with Kobe
The scuttlebutt around the league this week has been whether or not the assertion that Kobe Bryant is the cause for the downfall of the Los Angeles Lakers is a fair one. Following an article in ESPN The Magazine about Bryant being blamed for the reason Jim Buss and the Lakers have been unable to put a halfway decent team around him the last couple of years, people have been discussing and debating how much credence goes with this theory.
Whether or not Kobe was the cause of Dwight Howard leaving the Lakers after one season for the Houston Rockets or players like Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James never truly considering signing with a once proud organization, it's clear that if you're not coming to the Lakers because of Kobe, part-owner and president of the Lakers Jeanie Buss believes you're a loser.
Maybe this is a shot at Howard as much as it's a personal and business feeling by Jeanie about the biggest Lakers' star of the past decade. Bryant has accomplished just about everything you could want in this league and will go down as one of the best basketball players in the history of the sport. He's always been a divisive character in this league and his style of play certainly puts the onus on him, which can detract away from individual and team goals of others at times. But it's also led to an incredible and historic run of success in the NBA.
With the Lakers being so down now as a franchise, it's left the team and Bryant in particular open as targets. There is a seemingly insurmountable vulnerability with the last couple years of a contract that will pay him more than anybody in the league that also happens to coincide with the team being near the cellar of the Western Conference. Bryant can still be a spectacular scorer but whether it will mean anything in the landscape of this season outside of being a good show to watch and adding even more accolades and records to his résumé seems far-fetched.
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24764673/jeanie-buss-thinks-youre-a-loser-if-you-dont-want-to-play-with-kobe