Lakers: Kobe on his and Duncan's contracts: It's a different market, man."

[Clipper Nation]

The "I'm jealous of Duncan" excuse is hilarious too. Does anyone really think Kirby would be willing to play in a small market, actually be coached, and sacrifice money and touches to win? Timmy's situation would be a nightmare for Kirby and his ego, he proved that on draft day.

[Mr Bones]

Kobe saying that the Lakers still had enough money to sign a star is disingenuous at best. They weren't winning with Howard and Gasol, and both of those guys chose to leave. The Lakers, at the very least, would need to sign four new players to their current squad to compete for a championship. And they definitely do not have the cap flexibility to do that.

[Splits]

"I'm extremely jealous of that," Bryant said this week after his team's loss in New Orleans. "I don't know if I can express to you how jealous I am of the fact that Tim, Tony [Parker], Manu [Ginobili] and Pop [Spurs coach Gregg Popovich] have all been together for all those years. Like, I can't even ... I can't express to you how jealous I am of that. Not all this up-and-down stuff."

"I want a crack at him," Bryant said of Duncan. "I want to get another crack before it's all said and done. I would love to play the Spurs in the playoffs one more time, you know what I mean? As a compe or, you want to have the most [ les], but at the same time, it's well-deserved."

thinking he'll ever sniff the playoffs again.

[Biernutz]

Kobe is easy to blame for the mess that the Lakers are in and he is a major player in this mess.The Lakers have the
money to go into luxury tax if needed to rebuild the team as they are the richest team in the league. We can all beat
up on Kobe but he is not the only one that needs the blame. Jim Buss the Lakers basketball operations leader of the
Buss family has shown how not to run a NBA franchise. Clearing cap space to sign all the free agents that will
run to play with them.(How did that work out for Dallas) He has let players walk. Bad Trades. Signed players like Steve
Nash to a big contract when everyone knew he had a glass back. He traded for D. Howard when said his first choice
was Houston...He has run through coaches when Phill would have come back to the team but Jim didn't want to share
any ruining of the team with Phill....was this because Phill and his sister were a item? Pau who one SpursTalk poster
said was in the linked story (was not) decided to leave because the Lakers are a mess. Pau would have been paid but
why stay and rearrange deck chairs on the anic. He saw this was a total lost cause. He took less money to sign with
the Bulls. For all the Lakers haters in the world this is a wonderful time to pile on.

This Lakers decline would make good sports mini series on NETFLIX. The le of this series should be "The Day Jerry Buss Died"

[jimbo]

I think Kobe knew that even if he took less money the Lakers still wouldn't have gotten a truly impactful free agent. They'd have overpaid some 3rd option like Parsons and it'd be the same situation as Dirk/Parsons money wise. Kobe can't handle that so he cashed out. It's not like they were winning anyways had they got some fringe star free agent.

no one willing to take a pay cut to play with the Lakers