<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">When Kobe Bryant was a free agent in 2004, Isiah Thomas and the Knicks flew to Southern California armed with their mid-level exception. Despite being nearly $100 million short of what the Lakers offered, Bryant listened to their offer. ?The reason why I even was interested in taking that meeting was because of this city,? the 28-year-old Bryant said in an interview Tuesday morning. ?Because I always loved this city. Always. Ever since I came here, growing up in Philadelphia, there?s always so much energy and so much buzz in this city. How passionate they are about basketball, how knowledgeable they are about basketball.? Bryant, a nine-time All-Star, excitedly ticked off the names of the Knicks legends Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Earl Monroe and Dave DeBusschere and said, ?I just wanted to play here so bad.? ?I know what it?s like to have a team here that?s successful and how the city rallies around it,? he said. ?So I was very interested. And if they had more cap flexibility, it?d definitely be a place where I would end up. I might have picked the Knicks.?</div> Source
Can just imagine the meeting. "Here Kobe, we are willing to offer you our MLE. How many years would you like? "
Just not the right thing to say for Kobe, specially now when his Lakers are playing great. He's got a lot of young cats on his team and he can't be sitting bad examples like he did in that interview. I always hated it when players talk about interest in other teams/cities when they are under long-term committment with another team. I'm not saying I blame him for loving NYC, because every NBA player would love to play in the Big Apple, but saying it in public the way he did is a mistake. Hope nothing big is made out of this. I'm enjoying the Lakers' season.
He also said he was almost a Bull and how he was looking for houses in Chicago, etc. when they were playing Chicago last month. It's not that big a deal.
<div class="quote_poster">Nasty Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Just not the right thing to say for Kobe, specially now when his Lakers are playing great. He's got a lot of young cats on his team and he can't be sitting bad examples like he did in that interview. I always hated it when players talk about interest in other teams/cities when they are under long-term committment with another team. I'm not saying I blame him for loving NYC, because every NBA player would love to play in the Big Apple, but saying it in public the way he did is a mistake. Hope nothing big is made out of this. I'm enjoying the Lakers' season.</div> You know what, I know we say these kind of things a lot, but think about it, you yourself are 20, and every guy except Bynum is older than that. Would it set a bad example for you if you were on the team?
