From one of the biggest Kobe haters on the planet:
Kobe's trade demand entirely justified Charley Rosen / FOXSports.com
Posted: 5 hours ago
The latest bulletin from Laker-Land is that Kobe Bryant wants to be traded — and I, for one, don't blame him.
Look at what's happened since Kobe and Shaq teamed up for the Lakers' last championship:
Shaq was traded because Jerry Buss didn't want to commit to a long-term, hugely expensive contract for an overweight player whose body was breaking down. On one hand, this is totally understandable. On the other hand, being able to compete at a championship level for another few seasons would easily have earned the organization a lot more money than first-round playoffs exits have done.
In return for Shaq, the Lakers received Lamar Odom — a notoriously soft player — and a roster full of journeymen.
Caron Butler, a semi-useful scorer, was then dealt to Washington for the perpetually disappointing Kwame Brown, who probably has the worst hands of any big man in the league.
Phil Jackson was also given the boot, to be replaced by Rudy Tomjanovich, who was in ill-health, as well as being basically incompetent.
Instead of going after the likes of Baron Davis and Ron Artest — both of whom were available — the Lakers broke the bank in signing Vladimir Radmanovich and re-signing Brian Cook, a pair of duds.
Instead of providing Jackson with a capable point guard, Smush Parker was signed and then retained.
Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
So who's to blame for the rapid decline of the once-glorious Lakers' dynasty?
1. Jerry Buss, for giving Kobe and PJ contradictory versions of what the team's long- and short-terms plans were; for being less interested in the ruination of his team that in tooling around town in the company of hopeful starlets one-third his age; for trying to control team expenditures so that his personal life-style could be perpetuated; and, most importantly, for letting his son Jim run the team (into the ground).
2. Jim Buss, for refusing to take a chance on the kind of volatile, yet extremely talented, players that the Lakers sorely needed; for basing his player evaluations strictly on statistics; and for exhibiting stubbornness, arrogance, and the refusal to accept responsibility for his own misguided decisions — characteristic of the most dangerous kind of ignoramuses.
3. Mitch "Cupcake" Kupchak, for being a dim bulb.
Given the confusion and routine bungling in the front office, is it indeed possible that bringing Jerry West back to LA could save the franchise?
As much as he's reiterated his plans to retire, the 69-year-old West would love to come riding into town as the savior. Equally attractive would be the prospect of being called upon to rectify Jackson's inability to re-lead the team to glory. Rightly or not, West has always been resentful of Jackson's coming to LA. Indeed, when West was still in the saddle and Jackson was unemployed after leaving Chicago, the Official Icon was asked how he'd feel about PJ's coming out of retirement to coach the Lakers. West's petulant response was this: "#%*& Phil Jackson!"
Even in his dotage, however, West would be a vast improvement on Kupchak. But only if Jim Buss relinquished control of the roster and of his daddy's check book.
And if West did decide to accept the role of savior, how much could he realistically accomplish?
Despite his most recent surgery, Odom remains a valuable chip in any possible trades. Andrew Bynum even more so. Because of their inflated salaries and deflated skills, Radmanovich and Cook are impossible to deal. Brown's primary value is his expiring contract.
That leaves the free agent market, which means that Buss Senior will have to abandon his monetary constraints and yield to the necessity of literally paying for his most recent sins of commission and omission by pumping up the payroll and suffering the surcharges.
Maybe by curtailing his own personal expenditures, Buss will even be encouraged to start acting his age.
In any case, there's no quick fix for the Lakers. So why should Kobe be expected to embrace spending what should be the peak years of his career care-taking a massive rebuilding effort?
Perhaps the only realistic way out of the Buss mess is to grant Kobe's wishes and trade him for whatever proven All-Stars and on-track hooplings might be available.
If Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar could be traded without the sky falling, then so can Kobe Bryant. The kicker here is that both Wilt and Kareem were traded to the Lakers!
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6866924
