kobe is selflessly saving us from another year of joe johnson being the highest payed dude out there
― Clay, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 05:35 (ten years ago) link
i don't even think that many people outside this thread are arguing that but i don't read LA press
― le goon (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 27 November 2013 05:36 (ten years ago) link
I feel like even if Kobe took the vet minimum the Lakers are not sniffing the Finals.
― polyphonic, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 05:37 (ten years ago) link
i haven't read much idiot-response to the signing but i'd bet the average laker fan is thrilled, if anything they probably think he's underpaid
― k3vin k., Wednesday, 27 November 2013 05:39 (ten years ago) link
aimless seems pretty on point to me
― Nhex, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 05:39 (ten years ago) link
― k3vin k., Wednesday, November 27, 2013 5:39 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
nah they're not this dumb. Maybe like 20%.
― Matt Armstrong, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 05:45 (ten years ago) link
i mean in the end two years is not the end of the world. they will prob still be decent, could luck into something fun with not an extreme amount of trouble.
it's not like they're locked into joe johnson and deron williams for half a century
― le goon (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 27 November 2013 05:52 (ten years ago) link
the nets are beyond screwed
― 46. BEETLEJUICE, "乒乓" (1988) (Spottie), Wednesday, 27 November 2013 06:07 (ten years ago) link
c'mon, tonight kg scored in double figures for the second time this season
― Clay, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 06:11 (ten years ago) link
They were led by... Andray Blatche
― 46. BEETLEJUICE, "乒乓" (1988) (Spottie), Wednesday, 27 November 2013 06:18 (ten years ago) link
Lol Rudy 3-12 never change boo
― 46. BEETLEJUICE, "乒乓" (1988) (Spottie), Wednesday, 27 November 2013 06:19 (ten years ago) link
If you think about how much value Kobe has added to the franchise over his career why shouldn't he get a nice send off? They know they're not competitive, either they deal him to rebuild, which was never going to happen, or they pay him his dues.
― tsrobodo, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 06:46 (ten years ago) link
wow who could tsrobodo be ?????
― Twelve Years a Sock (buzza), Wednesday, 27 November 2013 06:48 (ten years ago) link
kobe has it wrong--players take less not to "help owners" but because the cap places very real restrictions on how much talent a team can bring in from the outside. and good lord do the lakers need some talent from the outside.
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 13:18 (ten years ago) link
This was a smart move for management and an outstanding move for Kobe
Lakers are the second most valuable team in the league but are also gonna take the biggest hit in the next few years due to revenue sharing
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2013/01/23/billion-dollar-knicks-and-lakers-top-list-of-nbas-most-valuable-teams/
This allows them to keep their revenue up via jersey sales and sellout games etc.
The alternative is to try and build a championship contending team in the Lebron era
Haha yeah right, worked great last year
Or they could have blown it up and tried to rebuild?
But why do that when you can still make buckets of money off of Kobe for next two years
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 13:19 (ten years ago) link
http://www.forbes.com/nba-valuations/
Also this is why we're going to see 15 more years of Dolan. Knicks are the most profitable team in the league and will continue to remain so
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 13:22 (ten years ago) link
Former NBA players' union executive director Billy Hunter has claimed that Lakers star Kobe Bryant and agent Rob Pelinka, acting on behalf of union president Derek Fisher, meddled with his efforts to end the 2011 lockout.In a Los Angeles Superior Court filing Thursday that is part of his wrongful-termination lawsuit, Hunter stated that he received a call from Bryant and Pelinka the night before he was scheduled to meet with league officials in October 2011. According to Hunter, the player and his agent told him to agree to a 50-50 split of basketball-related income."On the phone call, Bryant told me to agree to the new CBA [collective bargaining agreement] at a 50-50 share of BRI, saying, ‘I know that tomorrow is a big day. You can put this thing to bed. Do the deal,’ and also telling me, ‘I got your back,’ " Hunter said in the court filing. "What Bryant and Pelinka were telling me is that a 50-50 deal had already been completed behind my back.”Hunter said he then confronted Fisher, who was then Bryant's teammate, about whether negotiations had circumvented Hunter.“I asked him whether he had been secretly negotiating directly with the owners. ... Fisher did not deny the existence of the secret negotiations with NBA owners, but denied having had a role in them," Hunter said. "Fisher said that it was Bryant and Pelinka who had engaged in secret negotiations with NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, adding that they had ‘thrown [Fisher] under the bus.’ ”
In a Los Angeles Superior Court filing Thursday that is part of his wrongful-termination lawsuit, Hunter stated that he received a call from Bryant and Pelinka the night before he was scheduled to meet with league officials in October 2011. According to Hunter, the player and his agent told him to agree to a 50-50 split of basketball-related income.
"On the phone call, Bryant told me to agree to the new CBA [collective bargaining agreement] at a 50-50 share of BRI, saying, ‘I know that tomorrow is a big day. You can put this thing to bed. Do the deal,’ and also telling me, ‘I got your back,’ " Hunter said in the court filing. "What Bryant and Pelinka were telling me is that a 50-50 deal had already been completed behind my back.”
Hunter said he then confronted Fisher, who was then Bryant's teammate, about whether negotiations had circumvented Hunter.
“I asked him whether he had been secretly negotiating directly with the owners. ... Fisher did not deny the existence of the secret negotiations with NBA owners, but denied having had a role in them," Hunter said. "Fisher said that it was Bryant and Pelinka who had engaged in secret negotiations with NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, adding that they had ‘thrown [Fisher] under the bus.’ ”
― moullet, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 13:33 (ten years ago) link
yeah i actually agree that it's not a terrible move from a business standpoint -- a bit myopic maybe, but the lakers were not just going to not re-sign him. again i'm glad that lots of people are writing about this angle because it's true: kobe is a business partner with the lakers, and to say he's team-first would be a lie
― k3vin k., Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:22 (ten years ago) link
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=10024119
Terribly misleading headline
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:26 (ten years ago) link
http://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/LAL.html
Even with Kobe signed they're still gonna have tons of caproom in 2014-15 and 15-16
If LBJ exercises his ETO the Lakers would still be very competitive even with this contract on the books
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:29 (ten years ago) link
http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/83785/the-true-hollywood-story-of-kobes-crippling-contract
― 46. BEETLEJUICE, "乒乓" (1988) (Spottie), Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:32 (ten years ago) link
if kobe comes back and sucks which is pretty likely i dont think hes gonna help the lakers sell that many tickets or jerseys, all it does is push back their rebuilding
and as far the tons of cap room theyll have thats cause they dont have anyone signed, theyve got to field a whole team, theres no magic tons of cap room, overpaying a player by that much just creates big problems
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:38 (ten years ago) link
i mean by that logic it would also make sense to have kobe be the highest paid player when hes 40 or 50 or 60
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:39 (ten years ago) link
Even with a shitty team Lakers still brought in tons of money last year
I would wanna see how the franchise did in the lean years before Gasol. But I'm betting they probably were still very profitable
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:41 (ten years ago) link
Lakers may have already resigned themselves to not being able to sign LBJ
But this puts them in a good position for the Durant sweepstakes
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:43 (ten years ago) link
I mean there's no doubt in my mind that this represents a decision by the owners to not be competitive for the next two years and to make money off of the % of 13 million LA citizens who would still pay money to watch a cooked Bean play
You may think that your average Laker fan is not that stupid
But that's being generous
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:45 (ten years ago) link
― 乒乓, Wednesday, November 27, 2013 10:41 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
they made the playoffs, and no doubt theyre also bringing in tons of money this year without kobe, the lakers will make tons of money, if the lakers win theyll make more money, this deal extends the no winning era in favor of a washed up former superstar era, not very wise imho
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:47 (ten years ago) link
Nah man the fallback position for the Lakers is to be the West Coast Knicks, no winning + superstar to draw the crowds
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:48 (ten years ago) link
non contending teams just do not draw crowds, watch what happens if the knicks continue to suck
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:49 (ten years ago) link
the lakers for all we know may be an exception to that rule and always sell out no matter what, but that still doesnt make the kobe deal a good one
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:51 (ten years ago) link
It's a terrible decision if your only metric is W/L
But I still think it's a savvy business decision
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:52 (ten years ago) link
I think the numbers here are really interesting
Thunder brought in 127 mil in revenue
Other teams that broke the 120 mil mark: Suns, Magic, Cavs, Pistons, Warriors
Generally the 'elite' teams bring in 130 mil or more, e.g. the Heat brought in 150
Lakers and Knicks brought in 197 and 243, respectively
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:55 (ten years ago) link
i wouldn't exactly say it's "savvy." the savvy business decision would be to figure out how to make tons of money and still put your team in a place to win games.
― le goon (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:56 (ten years ago) link
― 乒乓, Wednesday, November 27, 2013 10:52 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
its shitty from both points of view, which are highly correlated, quite obviously too
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:56 (ten years ago) link
giving kobe a hilarious contract was kind of the default move right? i mean who really expected kobe to be playing for anyone besides LA next year?
they couldve paid him less and still retained him because no one was gonna give him nearly that much
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:57 (ten years ago) link
i dunno i think kobe had the leverage actually
― le goon (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:59 (ten years ago) link
really tell me whos gonna sign kobe to that kind of money
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 16:00 (ten years ago) link
nyets wd find a way
― to BRR! is humane (m bison), Wednesday, 27 November 2013 16:01 (ten years ago) link
Forcing him to take less money would be an implicit acknowledgment that management believes he's cooked (which doesn't look good for either side) unless Kobe made a statement that he was 'taking less money so that we can be competitive in the free agent market'
Think how likely it would be for Kobe to admit that
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 16:02 (ten years ago) link
― lag∞n, Wednesday, November 27, 2013 11:00 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark
if i'm arguing this from kobe's side i say "look, someone will definitely pay kobe 2/35. are you prepared to tell your fans that you let the most beloved player of the last 30 years walk over $13 million?"
― le goon (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 27 November 2013 16:03 (ten years ago) link
― le goon (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, November 27, 2013 10:56 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark
Can you think of a way though. I mean let's say you force Kobe to a under 20 million contract (unlikely) or just let Kobe walk (extremely unlikely). What are your other options for next season. Who are the big FA's on the market?
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 16:03 (ten years ago) link
that zach lowe column spells it out nicely
― le goon (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 27 November 2013 16:05 (ten years ago) link
they probably will not be able to sign kevin love, for instance
my guess is that the lakers are banking on being able to do some Crazy Laker Shit because a superstar wants to force a trade there in the next few years
I think Lowe's column assumes they won't be willing to take luxury tax hits
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 16:05 (ten years ago) link
its free agents for the next TWO offseasons youre wiffing on fwiw, kevin love la native who doesnt like his team comes to mind
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 16:06 (ten years ago) link
the lakers did this deal because they are kobes bitch is what it comes down to m/l
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 16:07 (ten years ago) link
Who's gonna sign Love to a 22 million a year contract?
― 乒乓, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 16:08 (ten years ago) link
what do they do after this contract is up, is kobe going to retire, not if he can still walk, shd they sign him to the biggest contract in the league then too
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 16:09 (ten years ago) link