As much as he’d like to think, Kobe Bryant doesn’t run the Lakers and they’re making that pretty obvious. Granted, he’s been the face of the franchise forever, but not everything should runs through him.
Reports have been wishy-washy in terms of what the Lakers will do with D’Antoni. REgardless of what the decision is, they will not consult Kobe.
Kupchak: “We will not consult with him. No, we won’t consult with him.”
Q: Because when he was asked about Mike last week, the perception was that he didn’t go to bat for him publicly. That started the storyline of “Well, Mike’s not coming back because it doesn’t seem like Kobe wants him back.”
Kupchak: “We won’t consult with him. Our decisions going forward — we’re not going to do knee-jerk stuff. We’ll let the season end, and take some time. We’ve got a lot of injuries and surgeries to sort through. That’s a lot to accomplish. We have the draft coming up?”
Q: Do you have clarity on that (D’Antoni) decision yet?
Kupchak: “No. No. In fact, I told Jimmy (Buss) let’s get to the end season, take some time off…then review the season. Look at our roster. I mean we have a plan. We’ve aligned our contracts in such a way where we’re at a position where we’re not financially stuck. But there’s a lot we don’t know. We don’t know where we’re going to get our pick. Are we going to be sixth, are we going to be eighth, are we going to be two or three? We don’t know. We know who may be a free agent, but we don’t know for sure until June 30. So we know a lot, and we’re set up to take advantage of the situations — whether it’s to make a trade, take back a player, get a good draft choice, pursue free agency. But once again, it’s a different world than it was 20 years ago. And as much as we’d like to be very competitive and competing for a championship next year, it may or may not happen, ok?”
H/T: USA Today
