All in all, I like Kobe. But his recent contact has had me scratching my head since the ink dried. At least I'm not alone. Check out the original article from Philly.com here.
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Phil Jackson has never been one to hold his tongue when it
comes to his former players (just read one of his books), and it seems that the
Zen Master hasn’t shied away from such statements despite being a couple years
removed and retired from the game.
In a recent interview with NBATV’s Rick Fox, ironically one
of Phil’s former players, the coach stated that he feels that the Lakers
overpaid Kobe Bryant when re-signing him to a two-year contract extension
earlier this season.
Jackson did not disagree with the decision to re-sign
Bryant, just with the amount with which he signed for.
“You got to have a guy on the
team that doesn’t settle for second,” Jackson stated in the interview, giving
Bryant props for his dedication and drive. “That’s one of the areas where the
value of Kobe, even at this age, is terrific.”
Still, despite Bryant’s
distaste of settling for second, Jackson believes that his former organization paid
too much for the Mamba’s services, especially at his age.
“They paid him more than I would
have gone for,” he stated simply.
Image from cbssports.com |
With his new contract, Bryant
is set to make $48.5 million over the next two seasons, which will be his 19th
and 20th (WOW) in the NBA.
The move to re-sign Kobe to
such a monster contact is an interesting one to say the least, considering that
it will likely largely limit what the Lakers are able to do in free agency.
For a man that claims to be
all about rings, one would think that Bryant could should have taken slightly
less in order to increase the Lakers’ chances of competing both in the free
agency market, and in the league at large.
Kobe’s contract wasn’t the
only controversial issue Jackson touched on in the interview. When asked if he
thought Dwight Howard would have stayed (signed an extension) in Los Angeles if
he were the coach, Jackson replied:
“There’s a good chance that
would have happened.”
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