I’m a few days late on this but I had to reference Henry Abbott’s fantastic article on Kobe Bryant for ESPN the Magazine. Abbott concludes that Bryant is a d*ck who is destroying the Lakers franchise:
“Peek behind the banners,” says one longtime NBA agent, “and it’s rotten.”
“Kobe is like the big rock in their front yard,” says an agent who has had a Lakers client in recent years. “You can’t mow over it, so you just have to mow around it.”
Another agent with current Lakers clients was asked whether Bryant undermined the team’s rebuilding by alienating would-be free agent recruits. “Well, duh,” he replied. “Isn’t that obvious?”
“I’ve had a lot of clients in the last five years, good players, who didn’t want to play with Kobe,” says an agent who has had numerous NBA stars. “They see that his teammates become the chronic public whipping boys. Anyone who could possibly challenge Kobe for the spotlight ends up becoming a pincushion for the media. Even Shaq.”
If that doesn’t bring a giant smile to your face, I don’t know what will.
Abbott includes a story about how Bryant refused to follow the team line when courting Dwight Howard. Without a doubt, Bryant is the reason Howard left LA.
And there’s also this fabulous example of Bryant’s maturity:
In the days before LA acquired Nash, sources say, the point guard wanted to hear from Bryant that the Lakers’ star was amenable to having Nash control the ball much of the time — a key tenet of the D’Antoni offense from the Suns days. When Lakers brass asked Bryant to call Nash, Bryant failed to do so, saying he preferred that Nash call him. The pettiness took days to resolve and nearly scuttled the deal.
Bryant didn’t say much in response to the claims, other than he’ll roll with it.
While Abbott’s sources are nameless, there is enough description on some of them to determine who they might be.
Jeff Goodman and Gary Tanguay should take note. If you are going to go public with accusations about a player’s alleged detrimental behavior (i.e. Rajon Rondo), this is how you do it.
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