NBA: Best Supporting casts of all time, tbh

[Michael Jordan.]

If Kirby didn't need all-star help, why did he demand a trade when he had Smush and Kwame?

[Clipper Nation]

If Lebeta didn't need all star help why did he left Cleveland?

Less than 24 hours ago, Kobe Bryant plainly said that if he wanted a trade, he would ask for one. No media speculation necessary. Well, on Stephen A. Smith’s radio show this morning, Kobe did just that. Kobe said he wants to be traded, and said the Lakers will be able to do nothing to change his mind.


A sampling of quotes from the radio interview:


“Yeah, I would like to be traded. As tough as it is to say that and as tough as it is to come to that conclusion, there’s no other alternative. They obviously went in a different direction in terms of rebuilding. I wish they would have told me that prior to me signing with the team.”


“I just want them to do the right thing, man? They know what they did, you know what I mean. They knew the situation that they painted. Do the right thing, man. You know you were trying to rebuild and you told me something different. I resigned because there was a promise made. You know the blame you cast upon me. They know this stuff. Just step up and do the right thing.”


“At this point, I’ll go play on Pluto. I just want to work hard. I just want to play and just enjoy the game of basketball.”

[Bynumite]

Do you have any doubts about your decision?

No. I don't have any doubts at all.

Would you like to sleep on it a little longer, or are you ready to make this decision?

I've slept enough. Or the lack of sleep.

Are you still a nail biter?

I have a little bit. Not of late.

You've had everybody else biting their nails. So I guess it's time for them to stop chewing. The answer to the question everybody wants to know: LeBron, what's your decision?

In this fall, this is very tough, in this fall I'm going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat.

The Miami Heat? That was the conclusion you woke up with this morning?

That was the conclusion I woke up with this morning.

[Clipper Nation]

Only Calipari still was enthralled. Tellem spun a 180 and now began claiming Bryant wouldn’t show up in Jersey, began saying they’d send the kid to play pro ball in Italy, where he’d spent much of his youth. Everyone now admits it was an idle threat.


“Arn [wanted the Nets to draft him] until he knew he could get him to the Lakers,” Calipari said. “Then he was against it. Arn was all over me, and then all of a sudden [I] get the call the day before the draft.”

The Quit I

[Michael Jordan.]

"You can't be a selfish player and make this offense work for the team's good. Period." When I opened the floor to comments, there was complete silence, and I was about to adjourn the meeting when Shaq spoke up. He got right to the point, saying, "I think Kobe is playing too selfishly for us to win." That got everyone fired up. Some of the players nodded in support of Shaq, including Rick Fox, who said, "How many times have we been through this?" No one in that room came to Kobe's defense. I asked him if he had anything to say. Kobe finally addressed the group, and in a calm, quiet voice he said he cared about everyone and just wanted to be part of a winning team.
I wasn't pleased with the meeting. I worried that having everyone's complaints on the table without any resolution would have a negative effect on team harmony. In the days that followed, we lost four out of five games, including a 105-81 "massacre" by the Spurs in the Alamodome. One night that week I had a dream about spanking Kobe and giving Shaq a smack. "Shaq needs and Kobe wants -- the mystery of the Lakers," I wrote in my journal. - PJ

[Clipper Nation]

Couldn’t Bryant be a Hornet? Could he grow to love Southern sweet tea?


“That is an impossibility,” Bryant’s agent, Arn Tellem, said at the time. “There are no ifs. It would not happen. He is going to be a Laker, and that’s the only team he’s playing for.”

The Quit II

[RD2191]

[Clipper Nation]

Kirby quitting on two teams on draft day because he needed a stacked supporting cast from day 1

[Bynumite]

Lebeta quit vs the Celtics in the 2nd roundPERIOD

[Clipper Nation]

A few hours later, during dinner in Key Biscayne with the staff, Vitti told us that Kobe has been threatening again to opt out of his contract, vowing “to take Slava with me.” Slava? Was this an indication of Kobe’s being totally out of touch with reality? If Kobe was interested in taking along a player who would defer to him, Slava Medvedenko was the worst choice imaginable. He hasn’t passed up a shot since November.

The Quit III

[Michael Jordan.]

So I'm on edge because I don't have a new deal, and Kobe is on edge because he might be going to jail, so we're taking it out on each other. Just before the start of the '03-'04 season the coaching staff called us in and said, "No more public sparring or you'll get fined." ... Phil was tired of it. Karl Malone and Gary Payton were sick of it. ... So what happens? Immediately after that Kobe runs right out to Jim Gray and does this interview where he lets me have it. He said I was fat and out of shape. He said I was milking my toe injury for more time off, and the injury wasn't even that serious. (Yeah, right. It only ended my damn career.) He said I was "lobbying for a contract extension when we have two Hall of Famers playing pretty much for free." I'm sitting there watching this interview and I'm gonna explode. Hours earlier we had just promised our coach we'd stop. It was a truce broken. I let the guys know, "I'm going to kill him."
Kobe stands up and goes face-to-face with me and says, "You always said you're my big brother, you'd do anything for me, and then this Colorado thing happens and you never even called me." I did call him. ... So here we are now, and we find out he really was hurt that we didn't stand behind him. That was something new. I didn't think he gave a rat's ass about us either way. "Well, I thought you'd publicly support me, at least," Kobe said. "You're supposed to be my friend."

Brian Shaw chimed in with "Kobe, why would you think that? Shaq had all these parties and you never showed up for any of them. We invited you to dinner on the road and you didn't come. Shaq invited you to his wedding and you weren't there. Then you got married and didn't invite any of us. And now you are in the middle of this problem, this sensitive situation, and now you want all of us to step up for you. We don't even know you." ...

Everyone was starting to calm down when I told Kobe, "If you ever say anything like what you said to Jim Gray ever again, I will kill you."

Kobe shrugged and said, "Whatever."
[...]
From that day on, I was done dealing with Kobe. I was done dealing with Jim Gray, too. What goes around, comes around. When he got fired, he actually had the nerve to call me and ask me to help him out. What, did you lose Kobe's number?

My first Lakers season we had a couple of rookies, and we hazed them pretty badly. We were dogging them out constantly. It was "Go get my bags, go get me something to eat." It was kind of a rite of passage in the NBA that a lot of teams do, but we probably went a little too far with it. One of the rookies—Derek Fisher(notes)—just took it. The other rookie—Kobe Bryant—ratted us out to Jerry West.

[Clipper Nation]

Lebeta quit vs the Celtics in the 2nd roundPERIOD

Game 7 against Phoenix, 2006 = The Quit IV

[Bynumite]

Lebeta quit vs the Mavs in 2011PERIOD

[Clipper Nation]

Less than 24 hours ago, Kobe Bryant plainly said that if he wanted a trade, he would ask for one. No media speculation necessary. Well, on Stephen A. Smith’s radio show this morning, Kobe did just that. Kobe said he wants to be traded, and said the Lakers will be able to do nothing to change his mind.


A sampling of quotes from the radio interview:


“Yeah, I would like to be traded. As tough as it is to say that and as tough as it is to come to that conclusion, there’s no other alternative. They obviously went in a different direction in terms of rebuilding. I wish they would have told me that prior to me signing with the team.”


“I just want them to do the right thing, man? They know what they did, you know what I mean. They knew the situation that they painted. Do the right thing, man. You know you were trying to rebuild and you told me something different. I resigned because there was a promise made. You know the blame you cast upon me. They know this stuff. Just step up and do the right thing.”


“At this point, I’ll go play on Pluto. I just want to work hard. I just want to play and just enjoy the game of basketball.”

The Quit V

[Clipper Nation]

Lebeta quit vs the Mavs in 2011PERIOD

Kirby vs. Mavs in 2011 = The Quit VI

[Michael Jordan.]

June 17, 2008 - The Quit VI

[Michael Jordan.]

Kirby vs. Mavs in 2011 = The Quit VI

No, that's The Quit VII

[Trill Clinton]

i gotta steal this gif

[Clipper Nation]

Appearing on SportsCenter, Smith said “I predicted that Kobe Bryant will demand a trade, and I am not budging from that. He’s livid. I’ve known Kobe too long. He is ticked off.


“It’s not just because [the Clippers] got Chris Paul, which is a guy that he expected to have. It’s because Jim Buss seems to be doing the inexplicable,” Smith said. “It makes no sense. It’s one thing for the team not to have improved [after losing to the Mavericks], it’s another thing entirely for them to regress. If you know anything about Kobe, that is the last thing that he wants to do.

The Quit VII

[Clipper Nation]

The Fake Achilles aka The Quit VIII

[Bynumite]

Predicting a trade every year The fact is he never left, 17 seasons and 5 rings later he's still here.

[Bynumite]

The Fake Achilles aka The Quit VIII

The albino monkeyballer faked an ankle sprain after getting his pushed in by Zbo... he quitPERIOD

[Clipper Nation]

[ElNono]

crofl

[Clipper Nation]

The albino monkeyballer faked an ankle sprain after getting his pushed in by Zbo... he quitPERIOD

Only fake ankle sprain I remember from last year is the one Kirby faked while flopping, committing an offensive foul, and bricking in the clutch (per par) against the Hawks

"Dangerous play, should have been called"
"Dahntay Jones gets all the calls!"