Kobe Bryant Asked for Trade

[erpowers]

Kobe Bryant has asked the Lakers to trade him. He is now saying that nothing can be done to change his mind. He also has said that he decided to ask for the trade after feeling betrayed by the Lakers insiders. Anyone looking for a link can look below.


http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6864820?MSNHPHMA

[Moses2SandyKoufax]

1. Maybe its for the best.

With Bryant the Lakers seem to be stuck in a funk, finishing 7th every season. Maybe the team can rebuild and get back to the top of the west. They aren't going anywhere with this current core.

[Awsi Dooger]

2. They would be idiots to trade him

You never get full value trading a superstar, especially when he has demanded a trade and the rest of the league cuts the return price. Kobe just turned 29 so he's got many big years left.

The Lakers' problem was the previous superstar trade. They got several serviceable players for Shaq but no one who is special so now they are stuck in a mid level range where they aren't good enough to contend for a title but better than the lottery teams. The solution to that is a bold move for another superstar to pair with Kobe, not getting rid of Kobe and looking like the Bulls after Jordan and Pippen left.

[TSIAS]

6. As a Heat fan, I love the Lakers management

I understand that O'Neal is pretty much a part-time player anymore and isn't much more than a 20/10 guy at best. Still, there's no way Wade wins that title without O'Neal. At the time of the trade, I liked the future with Odom at the 4 spot and Butler playing the 3. Still, that team would never have been good enough to beat the Pistons and certainly wouldn't have gotten past Dallas last year.

The Lakers worst problem stems from their division. In the East, I still like this Lakers team as a Top 3 team in the conference. But out West, this team isn't getting into the Top 5 without some major changes. I don't see Dallas/Phoenix/San Antonio declining any time soon. Utah appears to be a team on the rise, and Houston will be a solid regular season team as long as they have T-Mac and Yao. Teams with a single-star just can't win in this league today. Even Wade without Shaq makes Miami a mediocre team. We saw for years how Iverson didn't do much in Philly, with the exception of the one year (I think it was 2002), that they lost in the Finals.

When I look at this Lakers team, all I see is Odom, Bryant, and maybe Luke Walton. The rest are pedestrian players at best. There's a chance for Bynum to develop in a few years. At the age of 19, I don't see him able to be a physically dominant center for years to come. If I were LA, I'd package Bynum/Odom (or both) and draft picks to bring in a legitimate #2 option. Smush Parker obviously isn't a starting PG. I do like the kid Farmar out of UCLA, certainly better than Parker.

[Awsi Dooger]

10. Yeah, I saw the other end of a major trade when I was a kid

As a Bucks fan I was crushed when they dealt Jabbar to the Lakers. That was a blockbuster trade and Milwaukee got many excellent players -- Brian Winters, David Meyers, Junior Bridgeman and a shot blocking center named Elmore Smith. That was the nucleus of an excellent team especially once they added Marques Johnson and Bill Lanier. But the Bucks never got over the hump, blowing a couple of big playoff series in the final game and not even reaching the finals. They were very much like the mid '90s Heat with Mourning and Hardaway. In fact, the Lakers in the early '80s had tons of trouble with the Bucks and always whispered they matched up poorly with Milwaukee, but Milwaukee was always eliminated before getting to the Lakers.

Anyway, it was an early lesson to prioritize the superstar and not the volume of lesser players. Same thing when Seattle traded its pick in the '77 NFL draft to Dallas and allowed them to take Dorsett, and the Colts giving away Elway's rights for premier offensive lineman Chris Hinson and some other goodies.

I don't agree that the West is so special. Take the Spurs out of there and all I see is vulnerable mush. They may look fancy in the regular season but I think several Eastern teams could compete with and perhaps defeat the likes of Phoenix and Dallas, etc. in the playoffs. Just like Detroit destroyed the Lakers a few years ago when the Lakers were 5/1 favorites. If these Lakers were in the East they would be a transplanted second level team, losing in different fashion to lower scoring teams. Stuff like that is always wildly exaggerated, like when a baseball player is traded to a more favorable home field and all of a sudden you get claims he'll hit 30 more home runs, yada yada. Then the season starts and not much has changed. It's like what Bill Parcells says, "You are what you are."

[ProfessorGAC]

3. He's Already Backed Off

On Dan Patrick's show (i heard it in the car) he was singing a less assertive song. Then, he said he talked to Phil and now is waiting to see if they can make it right.

This trade won't happen. He just used his popularity and leverage to draw a line in the sand to tell the front office to do something.
The Professor

[Tektonik]

4. He has backed off the demand; however if nothing trades I'm positive he's gonna demand to leave

http://www.bobschmidtproductions.com/clients/bob/Kobe.mp3 is an interview he made after the trade demand he made when Stephen A. Smith asked him if he wanted to be trade and said yes

He sounds sad and depressed with the way the front office is running, and it's very understandable. Really ever since Buss's kids have taken over the operations of the organization, they have run it down to the ground.

The radio interview is also an eye opener about the Shaq-Kobe situation of a few years back. Buss told Kobe that Shaq was going to be traded no matter what he wanted or said because Buss didn't believe Shaq was worth 90 million for 3 years; hence debunking what Kobe haters stated about Kobe being a part of Shaq being traded.

Kobe wants this organization to get help around him so they can be competitive and for the front office to be more upfront with Kobe and the public.

It's really great to hear him be so candid.

[TSIAS]

5. Further illustration on why I dislike Kobe

Bryant wanted to be the #1 player on a team, be it the Lakers or Clippers. Whether or not he forced the Shaq trade, it doesn't appear he stood up for Shaq or quite frankly wanted him back. As great as Bryant has been, on his own his team isn't even in the Top 5 in the West.

That being said, LA's front office has done a terrible job. The O'Neal trade only brought them Butler, Odom, and Brian Grant. With the subsqequent trade with Washington, the net result has been a solid but not spectacular #2 in Odom, a marginal starter/6th Man in Brown, and Brian Grant's contract shipped off to Phoenix.

There isn't much of a chance of LA getting equal value in the short term. It's not like Miami would part with Wade, Cleveland with James, or Denver with Anthony. The best they could get is one or two starters and draft picks. LA couldn't even get Dirk Nowitzki from Dallas when Shaq still had some gas left in his tank. As we saw with the Allan Iverson trade, it's nearly impossible to trade big name players and get proportionate value. The last time I saw this happen in a major sport was in the NFL, when Washington and Denver swapped Champ Bailey and Clinton Portis. The last true blockbuster trade I saw in the MLB was a decade ago, with Texas and Oakland trading then superstars Jose Canseco and Ruben Sierra.

While O'Neal is in his latter years, I'd still take him over the combination that they got in return. I'm still scratching my head over the money paid to Radmanovic, who barely was on the postseason roster, passed on in favor of a journeyman like Shammond Williams. Mitch Kupchak has to be the worst GM in the NBA. They could have had a tremendous PG like Jason Kidd, but were afraid to give up Andrew "Freaking" Bynum.

My belief is that Kobe will remain a Laker. He just wants to basically run the franchise and install his former GM, Jerry West to run the team. While I admire Kobe's talent, I deplore him as a person.

[Tektonik]

7. ...

Kobe should have stuck up for Shaq? He left the decision to be made by the management however they pleased it to be done, and that is what happened. I can't see any way to criticize that at all.

The trade for Shaq was not a bad one considering Odom and Butler are both very good players at the moment Grant was an expiring contract, and Shaq was quickly going to become a has been who in Miami was in nearly the same situation he was in with the Lakers in that final title losing season (high scoring 2 guard + tons of veterans} and by the luck of the draw won a title in the most boring postseason to date. The problem for the Lakers lies in the fact they dealt Caron (a blossoming scorer) for a terrible center in Kwame Brown, and they have been incapable of triggering a blockbuster deal to pair Kobe up w/ a 2nd high profile player.

While Heat fans may like that the O'Neal trade got 'em a title, they don't have a bright future at all and already have to rebuild after a season stint on top.

Radmanovic was injured all year and played like 14 min.s in the last 4 games combined.

All Kobe wants is to have his front office make the Lakers competitive, and if you replace Kobe w/ any other player in the league, that Laker roster (even if you ignore the numerous injuries, etc.) would likely suck even more than they did this season.

[Awsi Dooger]

9. As a Heat fan I'm beyond thrilled with the Shaq trade

Are you kidding? I'd take that one title over 20 years of close calls. Miami was a horrible team just a couple of years earlier. Then the Heat got lucky with the 5th pick in a very deep draft that produced Wade, and a year later Shaq became suddenly available, without gutting the team in return.

Frankly, I didn't expect much from the Heat this season. There were injuries from the outset and a questionable roster. The opening game was a tipoff, a 40 point home loss to Chicago. After that I never had any hope of postseason success. I enjoyed the brief run when Wade got hurt and the team responded. That's how I'll remember this season.

LOL. So the 2006 season was the most boring postseason ever? I would reverse that. The Heat had to overcome a road disadvantage in both series against Detroit and Dallas. Admittedly, Miami got two major breaks. The big one was San Antonio losing. I never thought the Heat could defeat them four times, in either 2005 or 2006. When you're dealing with a soft Western conference team that is willing to allow points, you always have margin for error. Beating Dallas was 10% as difficult as taking out the Spurs.

And the other break was Cleveland taking Detroit to 7 games, with the deciding game just two nights before Miami was able to steal game one in Detroit. That was pathetic on Detroit's part, playing such an uninspired opening game. They worked all year for a great regular season and then gave it away due to being a bit tired. Poor Pistons.

[H2O Man]

8. Right.

I agree with post #2 that LA isn't likely to trade him. He is an extraordinarily talented athlete. But he is an obnoxious brat.

[northzax]

11. depends on how mad he really is

he has an opt-out clause after 2008, if they really think he's going to walk, might as well get something, right?

[H2O Man]

12. Good point. n/t

[Tektonik]

13. I just find it hilarious that this has become 100 times the story that these entire playoffs are

[nickgutierrez]

14. Well, to be fair, these playoffs are terrible

Right now, you have a strong probability of a Detroit-San Antonio finals, which nobody seems very interested in. Probably with good reason, as it's likely to be five or six games of sleep-inducing, mind-numbing dullness.

And they were only made worse by the mishandling of the Phoenix situation.

In that sense, this is bigger news.

[Tektonik]

15. At least this year the Finals teams will be somewhat talented

but yeah it will be a bore-fest, hopefully the Pistons win so C-Webb can get a title