<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Re-cap...its not in order, sort of summaries..... *On Phoenix - Phoenix absolutely refuses to take on salary and they refuse to give up Amare in the deal. (Basically if Phoenix trades with Minny, they shouldn't expect to save any salary on the deal). **On the Spurs, he thinks Parker is a great PG, but no way a top 5. ***Kobe compared to MJ isn't even close personality wise....Bucher said MJ treated his teammates and his organization much worse than Kobe ever has, and that MJ was much more of a Prima Donna than Kobe ever has been. Says the media is really tough on Kobe, especially because Kobe has never been perfectly comfortable with the media. ****Bucher said that if his life was on the line, he would give Kobe a 0% chance of being a Laker next year. *****Says that KG and McHale have a great relationship, which is one of the things which kept KG around. McHale would NEVER send KG to a place KG didn't want to go to. ******Says Mitch Kupchak is the fall guy and even moves like the Kwae Brown move wasn't his.<font size="4"> Says Jim Buss is a lunatic and is the worst thing to ever happen to the Lakers; that Jim Buss running the basketball side is turning off people around the league from wanting to deal with the Lakers and alienating people throughout the orgnanization. Bucher says that Dr. Buss must get involved and push Jim out. He should leave Jeanie to the business side and let the basketball people run the basketball side.</font> *******Says the league is in trouble and needs to figure out how to make trades easier to accomplish and to re-seed the playoffs. Both Simmons and Bucher agreed that teams who don't want to trade to become better because of luxury tax concerns is a bad thing for the league. The problem has been owners have taken notice that someone like Donald Sterling could profit $40 million in a year while not making the playoffs and that seems to be the new model. Teams look to the bottom line much more than winning now. *********Another problem has been that local beat writers are not given the same access to players and teams, so the level of association the local fans have with the NBA is decreasing as local writers become marginalized. The result is now that local writers have become resentful and much harsher on their local teams than before....resulting in fans also thinking less of their teams than befoire. **********Relating to Kupchak, Bucher said Jerry Reisndorf, not John Paxson, was responsible for the Wallace signing and often GMs will shut up when their owners or bosses step in, just because they want to keep their job. The implication was that whenever owners intefere, that's when teams usually lose.</div> Source: LakersGround via ESPN
This just validates everything for me. I used to be a season ticket holder when I first moved to LA. However, I haven't split the cost with my friend for the past two years, because I noticed a dropoff in the overall experience of going to Laker games. The people going to the games weren't the same, the bathrooms were filthier, the parking was unorganized, the alcohol was more expensive, yet you get smaller cups, and of course the players didn't play with the same energy I was used to watching. I'm not sure how much influence Jim Buss has over the rest of the franchise, but from my knowledge of how he operates, I'm sure he has "his people" slowly taking over a lot of the decision making throughout the Staples Center and Laker operations. However, Ric points out it seems to be a league wide shift in how owners are treating their franchises. Eventually people are going to stop supporting the NBA, a lot of basketball fans have turned the focus to the college game because I'm sure they've noticed a dropoff from the overall NBA experience.
I'm listening the podcast right now. Another interesting thing Bucher says, and this is his opinion based on his conversations with Kobe, is that the last straw for Kobe (aside from not getting Kidd and others) was the fact that guys like Wade and Lebron could make it to the Finals in the East with teams that were not even all that talented. Especially Lebron making it to the Finals with the Cavs team. Bucher believes that Kobe's mindset is one that says "if those guys can do it in the East, so can I, and once I get to the Finals, who knows what'll happen?" The 0% chance of Kobe not playing next year in a Lakers uniform was intriguing. Bucher actually went on to say that even if the Lakers don't deal him, Kobe won't show up for work, and I refuse to believe that but take it for what it's worth.
<div class="quote_poster">Karma Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">The 0% chance of Kobe not playing next year in a Lakers uniform was intriguing. Bucher actually went on to say that even if the Lakers don't deal him, Kobe won't show up for work, and I refuse to believe that but take it for what it's worth.</div>Yea, unless Kobe says it, I don't think Kobe would do that. I think Jim Jackson did that, and didn't the league suspend him without pay?
<div class="quote_poster">Mamba Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I've heard that Bucher said that it was his opinion that Kobe would sit out.</div> Yeah, he said "based on my conversations with him" and "how we know each other" or something to that extent.
<div class="quote_poster">Mamba Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Source: LakersGround via ESPN</div> What Bucher said about Sterling is very troubling, the league needs to get rid of the Luxury Tax. Jim Buss is such a clown. The conviction Bucher uses in his interview was also fascinating. I also concur with Ric that Tony Parker winning the Finals MVP was upsetting.
