Lakers star Kobe Bryant regrets that his 2007 trade demand became public.

"The only thing I regret was how public it had to become," Bryant told the Orange County Register. "It was something that I'd been dealing with internally for quite some time and me wanting them to make moves, as was said to me (upon re-signing in 2004). Those things were not happening, it felt like I was just out there showcasing and doing my individual thing, and they had no aspirations to spend money to try to bring a championship here.

"So I felt like something had to be said so we could get the ball rolling here. Get people to start talking about it, and the city becomes a little more impatient with the situation, and hopefully we'll get something done. And to their credit, they made a great acquisition in Pau (Gasol) and another great acquisition in Trevor (Ariza). They went out this summer and spent the money to get Ron (Artest) and locked in Lamar (Odom). To their credit, they did the right things."

Less than two years after Bryant's trade request made national headlines, the Lakers won the 2009 NBA title.

Full Article HERE

Renteria,

Comparing Kobe to Garnett or others is not valid.

Sorry, but Kobe did so much worse than Garnett and he OWED the Lakers so very much for how they stood for him during his Colorado nightmare. He was also a three time NBA Champion. How many rings did Garnett have when he bitched? Garnett did not bust on a teenage teamate to strangers with video cams. Your Garnett analogy does not hold any water at all. Kobe was and obviously still is a cold, hard, selfish, arrogant pr*ck and no amount of rationalizing can erase the facts of how he behaved. Nor does his transcendant play on court give him a pass for being that pr*ck.

The fact that he is not sorry for his behavior, but just sorry that he went public with it shows he will never be anything than what he has always been, even at the age of 31.

I competely disagree with SPQR and I agree with some of the other posts that if Kobe had not acted the way he did, we Laker fans wouldn't have celebrated a championship last year. Kobe had to do what was necessary to put pressure on management to take action or trade him. Working for a large company and being in high management for years, I know that you have to apply pressure if you want anything in life. Kobe was correct to put the pressure or it would have taken another twenty years like it took the Celtics to win another championship. I only agree with SPQR on only one thing and that is that when you take a team apart you can't do it over night. BUT! I will say that what Kobe done was the work of a genious to either take action or trade him. He knew all the time he had a NO TRADE deal in his contract, so he pulled a good bluff. I am a Kobe supporter from the day he signed with the Lakers and will be until he retires. If these half a** Laker fans don't like him, they can jump ship any time they want to. JMHO.

There is no point in having regrets Cobbler. You can't change the past.. And I think things turned out pretty well not only for Kobe, but for the Lakers as a whole. We are the bet franchise, he is the best player, and the fans are ridiculously lucky.

You certainly cannot change the past. Having regrets, as a person, is the motivating factor in learning from your mistakes and avoiding the same pitfalls in the future.

We don't have any idea what the context was or anything, so let's be a little fair before saying this, that and the other about him. I think generally most of us agree that the way he went about doing it was wrong, but generally most of us agree that we're glad that he did do something.


How can you guys look so deeply into this one quote?
Leading up to his 14th Lakers season, the Newport Coast resident sat down for an exclusive interview with the Register to explain that he has been more repaired than reformed.

"Circumstances," Bryant said. "I really haven't changed much."

Being the entirely shallow and superficial person that I am, I am glad he did it! I will leave to others to eviscerate about what this might mean as far as Kobe Bryant's character. I could care less. All I know is that before we had a crap team, and now we don't. I don't feel like looking a gift-Kobe in the mouth!

dmaxkb,

Let me throw in another one for you: "he who acts like a selfish child for ten years and has not regrets shows himself to be what he is."

Steve,

No response yet? I assume your silence to my questions means you concede to my points and case closed then, right? We both know the answers to my queries, right?

Defending Kobe on this issue is not a place you want to go, Steve. And the more you try to go there you will find it a deep, dark, cold place. You will end up looking bad. The facts will make that so. I will just use them as I should. As you're finding out.

Steve,

Please, no equivocating. I will ask you again, do you wish we had traded Drew for Kidd or Garnett as Kobe wanted? The question is simple and straight forward. Do you feel GM Kobe or GM Mitch was correct in the end?

Yes, Mitch made some sketchy deals. But do you not think in the end, considering that after the 3peat team was done, that we rebuilt back into a championship contender and winner in a very short amount of time? Just how fast did you realistically expect to win a title again after the 3peat teams? So then, what is the problem you see or are complaining about? Expound please.

I fail to see that I am absolving Bryant for his bad character. However, you must admit that for several years preceding the incident that the Laker FO seemed (and it may just be my impression) to have taken a rather laid-back attitude as far as really attempting to reconstruct the team and make it truly competitive. Personally, though it is certainly true what you say about the deals done after and their obvious advantageousness (i.e., that even an idiot GM would have signed off on them), I still happen to think that Bryant's tirade lent a certain urgency to what seemed to many people to be a complacent Laker FO!

Steve,

Please don't take our debate in some strange direction. My questions was simply in response to your ascertion or belief that Kobe somehow made this team possible by his b*tch. That he facilitated the moves somehow. It is what you said, right? That is what your quote that I have copied above seems to indicate. If I am reading what you are saying in error, please tell me.

I don't see an scintilla of evidence that his bitching did anything but come to hairs breath of making our present team not a reality. I simply proved that ascertion that Kobe somehow helped build this team wrong by bringing up the facts of what Kobe GM wanted and what transpired. Thankfully, Kobe GM did not get what he wanted. If he had, we would not have this team that has won a championship and is poised to win more. There is nothing more to it.

If you see this some other way than I do, I will be more than happy to hear you out. If not, then we are in agreement and are on the same side of the issue.

Kobe's comment that the only regrets he made things public has still shows that as great as he is as a player, he is just as hollow as a person.

That period in time and Kobe's childish, selfish behavior was probably the nadir of so many rotten things he had done in the last decade.

Here he was, a player with three rings already, a dynasty had just broken up and he wants to be a championship contender immediatly. He did not have the intellegence, common sense or selflessness to understand the reality that it does take a few years to assemble a championship team in any sport after one breaks up, that you can't just wiggle your nose like Samantha Stevens on bewitched and make it so.

He somehow forgot that Shaq, a player with NO rings, waited patiently for Kobe to develop over the years to the point where they could win a title. He forgot that Shaq did not demand to trade him like Kobe did Andrew Bynum for a more experienced player who could have helped Shaq get him that elusive ring he had not won yet. Kobe showed how classless he was and how short a memory he has and how it was all about Kobe. Instead Kobe lets some fans tape him dissing a teenage kid like Drew, who probably looked up to him knowing full well it would hit the media. What a slimeball move. Kobe (already a three time champion) somehow forgot to extend to Drew the courtesy of patience that Shaq gave him.

Then when the Lakers didnt rush precipitously to try build a team (and lose their future by trading Drew) he demanded out. He did not care about the fans in LA that worshipped his every move nor about a team, owner and organization that backed him to the hilt during his darkest hour. The team that flew his golden a** on a chartered jet at their expense while Kobe had to defend himself against rape charges in Colorado. The team that also decided to take him over Shaq, a player he could not stand playing with anymore. All this was so easily forgotten because in the Great Man's estimation the team did not move fast enough to suit his precious needs to get him that post Shaq ring on his time table. What a disgrace. What a selfish, sad person he must be.

Kobe says in the article he "hasn't changed much." I believe it after reading his comment. I had hoped that maybe even Kobe had finally learned something by the age of 31. His new comments about his puerile actions during this period show he is incapable of understanding anything but having everyone do what he deems correct. It also shows that if for some reason things collapsed here in LA, he would forget his fans, his team and all his success here in a minute, become Mr. Petulant again and high tail it out of here as fast as he can.

Kobe says he hasn't changed much. He is right.

What a great player, what a dedicated, driven athlete, what a slimy, lousy person.

As much as I admire him on the court, I also pity him just as much off it. It must be a very lonely, warped, twisted, paranoid world inside that man's head.

Maraud: That Shaq trade didn't give the Lakers much to work with because of his contract and age. Teams would have wanted him, but they weren't going to gut their teams for a lazy, out of shape seven footer, no matter how dominant he was.

renteria24: I agree with you and I've said it in many posts that the media won't let things die. However in the defense of some of the posters on here, they are working off the comments of him saing he regrets that the trade demand went public and that he said he hasn't changed much.

Gem,
I seem to remember Mark Cuban offering Dirk and others for Shaq. It was Dr. Buss fire sale that made Mitch's job impossible.