All of the buzz out there right now is about whether or not Kobe will ever score 102, or whether or not Kobe is actually better than MJ. His legacy will be written over time. Kobe's career isn't over yet, not by a long shot. Lakers fans can reflect however, on what things would have been like if Lakers management had decided to keep Shaq, thereby prompting Kobe to sign elsewhere as a free agent, probably becoming a Clipper. Even after Shaq left, Kobe was just a breath away from signing with the Clippers anyway.
If that had happened the Clippers would have Kobe, Brand, Maggette, Kaman, Cassell, and Livingston, and would be sitting among the elite in the Western conference standings. The Lakers would have Shaq and..........er..........I'm not sure who. Lamar Odom, Kwame Brown, or Caron Butler would have never become Lakers.
Moreover, instead of having Kobe who is obviously on top of his game, they would have Shaq. Currently, Shaq is overweight and hobbled. As soon as he signed his 20 Mil a year contract extention, all the weight he lost to get in shape to sign that deal started to creep back up.
Shaq is no longer in the top ten in scoring, no longer in the top ten in shooting percentage, nor top ten in rebounding. He isn't even in the top twenty in scoring. His coach has quietly complained and even said publically he was going to bring in a couple of Sumo wrestlers during practice to work Shaq out. That's a circus I don't want to see. Well, I guess I do want to see it, as long as he is a Miami Heat and not a Laker.
It now looks like Laker management made the right decision, a decision I doubted for a long time. They opted for short term pain to get long term gain. Kobe is only 27. Lamar is still a youngster. AB isn't even a man yet. They are playing better than I thought they would before the season began. Moreover, the plan they have in place to free up salary to sign their coveted free agent is stilll in place. Sure they are a player away from a championship. And we may have to wait for that to happen. But in the meantime, Kobe is putting on quite a show.
JamFan
