Hello guys topbuzz newbie here but have been a Lakers fan my whole life. Hard to tell if Kobe's stance is softening or not we can only hope. This article is from the LA daily news.
Excerpt: "If you want, you can call Mitch (Kupchak) up, call those guys up and talk to them about it," Kobe said. "I'm not going to beat a dead horse in the head anymore. Just because too much has been said already. I don't want to get into it no more."
I followed him to the parking lot after the press conference because, you know, Kobe gives some of his best interviews to strangers with digital cameras.
Still, no clarification was coming.
Calling Kupchak up to see what Kobe wants is silly. Kobe has proven quiet capable of speaking for Kobe.
Besides, the Lakers' general manager has already said personal conversations with Kobe are private and the Lakers do not plan to trade him but to build their team around him.
Since Kobe did not take the opportunity Wednesday to say he wanted to remain a Laker, it can only be assumed he still wants to be traded. Which was the last thing he said through his people, I think.
ESPN's Ric Bucher, who started all this intrigue when he first reported an unhappy Kobe might ask to be dealt, was last heard saying the Kobester still wanted out. And the Lakers should trade him, because they didn't want to wonder if he would show up at training camp.
This is a thinly veiled and ridiculous Kobe threat. Bucher's mouth doesn't move about Kobe unless Kobe is behind him pulling strings.
With two more years on Kobe's contract, his leverage is not the best, so he is apparently doing what he can to pressure owner Jerry Buss into changing his mind.
The Lakers are no doubt hoping to change Kobe's mind by signing Derek Fisher to a three-year contract. Fisher was drafted by the Lakers the same year they traded for then 17-year-old Kobe. They became close friends, the solid Fisher one of the few Lakers who could be a bridge between Kobe and Shaquille O'Neal.
"He's a very, very special person and very dear to me," Kobe said of Fisher. "We've remained friends even when he was at Golden State. We continue to talk regularly."
Read the entire story.
