The L.A. Lakers have more money (revenue) than God. They will be profitable forever, and the NBA's salary cap is, for them, just a fortuitous enhancement to their profitability.
Mr. Bryant has been a top-level NBA player for a generation. It is impossible to say who is the best player because that mantle passes from one player to another on a nightly basis, and with 11 other players on every roster it is not always possible for the best player to be showcased.
But still, Kobe is one of the few players in the league whom coaches call upon to take The Final Shot when everyone in the arena knows he will be taking the final shot, and the defenders STILL usually can't prevent it or prevent him from scoring. This places him in the rarefied air of the Cousy's, Bird's, Chamberlain's, Jordan's, O'Neil's, Johnson's, etc., which is a damned-select group of individuals.
But still, he's very old in basketball terms, he has questionable lower extremeties, and in fact he may very well never reach anything close to his level of performance of a few short years ago. In basketball terms, he is definitely not worth the money they are committing to him. Economically,...?
So the Lakers have, in order to appease their client base (Jack Nicholson and people like him), forgone any real possibility of being competitive for the next two years. The alternative would have been for the team to approach him and ask him to take a haircut for the benefit of the team's future. Would he have gone along with it? Who knows?
I haven't liked the Lakers since Wilt shuffled off to the ABA, so I don't care that they are not competitive, but what do you think?
Good move or bad?
Mr. Bryant has been a top-level NBA player for a generation. It is impossible to say who is the best player because that mantle passes from one player to another on a nightly basis, and with 11 other players on every roster it is not always possible for the best player to be showcased.
But still, Kobe is one of the few players in the league whom coaches call upon to take The Final Shot when everyone in the arena knows he will be taking the final shot, and the defenders STILL usually can't prevent it or prevent him from scoring. This places him in the rarefied air of the Cousy's, Bird's, Chamberlain's, Jordan's, O'Neil's, Johnson's, etc., which is a damned-select group of individuals.
But still, he's very old in basketball terms, he has questionable lower extremeties, and in fact he may very well never reach anything close to his level of performance of a few short years ago. In basketball terms, he is definitely not worth the money they are committing to him. Economically,...?
So the Lakers have, in order to appease their client base (Jack Nicholson and people like him), forgone any real possibility of being competitive for the next two years. The alternative would have been for the team to approach him and ask him to take a haircut for the benefit of the team's future. Would he have gone along with it? Who knows?
I haven't liked the Lakers since Wilt shuffled off to the ABA, so I don't care that they are not competitive, but what do you think?
Good move or bad?
