Blame for the Los Angeles Lakers’ devolution from title-toting titan to fallen giant is available in excess, ready to be dispersed unto anyone and everyone responsible for the trying—and perhaps lasting—times that lie ahead.
This includes Kobe Bryant.
But not only Kobe Bryant.
Rushes to diagnose the Lakers’ uncharacteristic landslide have, quite predictably, oversimplified and distorted the complicated process by which they fell and continue to fall. In doing so, a multitude of symptoms for this disease have been condensed into one indicia. Which is wrong.
Writing for ESPN The Magazine, Henry Abbott, through largely anonymous source-based reporting, attributed much about the Lakers’ abrupt demise to Kobe. It is a well-written piece, and though I’m not one to disparage someone else’s work—especially when it comes to reporting—it’s difficult not to find holes in the provided support.
Of the many things Kobe is blamed for within the piece, costing the Lakers’ star free agents is among the most brutal. He’s painted as a deterrent to the team’s pursuits of Dwight Howard, Paul George, Steve Nash and even Ramon Sessions. LeBron James and Chris Bosh are also named. And it’s here, I’m compelled to call bullshit.
Nash is in Los Angeles, so whatever childish antics Kobe pulled before he agreed to a trade is irrelevant. There have been plenty of other reasons given for why Howard left as well. Kobe appears to be among them, but so, too, does his delicate ego that never seemed to feel fully embraced by the city of Los Angeles.
As for Sessions, that’s a mystery. But the George aspect of all this is tough to swallow. Are we supposed to believe Kobe cost the Lakers George? When restricted free agents don’t ever turn down max extensions? And when George himself said it would be “tough” to turn down Kobe? Come on now.
Now how crazy does that Kobe story sound to you ? #MediaReachingAgain
— Paul George (@Yg_Trece) October 20, 2014
LeBron’s and Bosh’s free agencies don’t appear to hold weight either. Like Carmelo Anthony, Bosh opted for more years and money. And LeBron’s return to the Cleveland Cavaliers had more to do with the Cavaliers themselves—along with LeBron’s maturation and the inner demons it’s seemingly forcing him to confront—than Kobe and Lakers.
If Kobe’s presence is an active hindrance, it likely has more to do with the fact that he’s 36-fucking-years-old. No doubt his caustic demeanor in years past turned some people off. Shaquille O’Neal will probably attest. But nowadays, it’s Kobe’s age and injury history more than anything that will factor into a free-agent’s decision.
And that brings up another piece of intel Abbott relayed:
All of which set up Jim to be timid with Bryant. Even as many of his closest advisers insisted the right move was to kiss Bryant goodbye via the amnesty clause — the cash savings alone would have been north of $70 million, by some estimates — Buss, sources say, had no appetite for picking a fight with the Mamba, or for the damage to his reputation it might cause.
Once more, there’s no doubt in my mind someone told him this. Its validity is what deserves scrutiny.
There is no reason for Jim Buss or anyone within the Lakers’ brain trust to fear Kobe. If he’s truly killing their rebuild, they didn’t have to re-sign him. Before re-signing him, they could have amnestied him. Before that, back in 2007, they could have traded him to the Detroit Pistons.
These Lakers are willingly chained to Kobe, if they’re chained to him at all. He cannot be fully responsible for their demise, because even if anything or everything of what he’s accused of sabotaging is true, it was on the Lakers to shut him down, in which case they would have failed the franchise more than the depicted asshole that is No. 24.
Any number of things and people are at fault. Bad financial decisions. A complete disregard for draft picks. A dry, movement-light free agency. And yes, that $48.5 million extension the Lakers gave him too. Not negotiated or reluctantly handed him. Gave. As in there (apparently) was no negotiation. What’s Kobe supposed to say? “No, Mitch, Jim. That’s way too much. Let me take $10 million a year less.”
Kobe may be tough to placate, but not even Dirk Nowitzki himself would have stopped Mark Cuban from shoveling two years and nearly $48.5 million down his throat.
All of which means the Lakers’ follies and foibles and failures—both of today and tomorrow—cannot be placed on Kobe. The Lakers have made their own bed, and they’re not yet done covering it. Last summer was only the first offseason they’ve had to recover from the Howard debacle no one saw coming when they first acquired him. There’s still time to right the ship, to sign free agents, to successfully expedite and complete a complex rebuild.
And if they can’t, if the barriers standing in their way are too tall to scale, that isn’t on Kobe, however destructive and devastating and detrimental he may or may not—probably not—have been.
It’s on the team, which, for 15-plus years, would have empowered the alleged mayhem that, in all likelihood, is borne out of some combination of fate, chance and collective failure more so than the transgressions of one individual.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com.
