Its been on all the LA AM radio sports talk shows. Jerry West was interviewed and he eloquently danced around the question. He sure as hell didnt deny it.
That's not accurate. Mitch called Riley to ask him how to handle the rift between Shaq & Kobe. Riley said to arrange a meeting so he could talk to them. Then Mitch made it known he's actually looking to deal Shaq and Riley jumped on it. Wade was supposed to be included in the original deal, but Mitch folded. Eddie Jones + Wade + Grant for Shaq was what the Lakers wanted. Where was Kobe going to go? He was in the middle of his trial and faced prison time.
I'm just curious why you harp on Kobe's loyalty to the franchise, but give LeBron on pass for the way he's handling the Cleveland situation. Isn't what he's doing worse? He's from Cleveland, he's had the franchise handed to him since day one and he still won't give them a commitment. It's hurt them in attracting free agents because they aren't sure if LeBron is going to stay.
People have a right to change places. For a person that everybody is gonna wanna know everything about I think he has handled it about as well as you can when constantly asked about it for 2+ years