Malone urging Lakers to pursue Divac

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Karl Malone urged the Los Angeles Lakers to do anything they could to acquire center Vlade Divac, Malone's representative told ESPN.com on Monday, even though Divac's forthcoming signing severely limits what L.A. can pay Malone to play one more season.

Agent Dwight Manley said Malone recently met with Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak and new coach Rudy Tomjanovich in the wake of Shaquille O'Neal's departure to Miami. Malone, according to Manley, advised them to pursue Divac as hard as they could, essentially giving his blessing to the Lakers to take their $4.9 million mid-level exception offer to Malone off the table.</div>

Full Story: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?id=1842537

 

I think this is a sign that Malone will NOT be returning as a Laker...I think he's made his decision that he's not returning, and he doesn't want the Lakers to lose players by holding out for him in vein....

He says money isn't an issue...but it would be hard for someone to take in well below their market value for 2 consecutive years...

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting notMuchgame:</div><div class="quote_post">I think this is a sign that Malone will NOT be returning as a Laker...I think he's made his decision that he's not returning, and he doesn't want the Lakers to lose players by holding out for him in vein....

He says money isn't an issue...but it would be hard for someone to take in well below their market value for 2 consecutive years...</div>

i agree, malone is probably a long shot at best to come back and right now he's trying to help the club move on... it's really sad, divac is no malone

 

I will say this though....Karl Malone at 40 years of age is MUCH more effective than Vlade Floppin' Divac! Heck, just look at what he did against the top powerforwards in their prime to the likes of Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett? Maybe his offense faded away completely, but this guy could lock down on defense and had tremendous heart in doing so. Whatever happens, I wish the guy the very best, whether he hops on San Antonio's bandwagon and pursues a shot at another championship. But giving the mid-level exception to Vlade Divac and not Karl Malone, after everything he did for this franchise with shot up knees, disturbs me. Divac will have to be twice as effective than Malone was for me to support and accept him as a Laker. Heck, he may be wearing that purple and gold, but if you were once a Sacramento Queen, there's bad blood.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Emo:</div><div class="quote_post">Divac will have to be twice as effective than Malone was for me to support and accept him as a Laker. Heck, he may be wearing that purple and gold, but if you were once a Sacramento Queen, there's bad blood.</div>


Vlade was once a Laker.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Ice:</div><div class="quote_post">

Vlade was once a Laker.</div>

True, but you don't understand the King/Laker rivalry that takes place now.

 

You guys need to understand that Vlade is a Laker in heart...he didn't want to leave L.A., but rather was forced out...When the Lakers traded him, Vlade threatened to retire...

I understand the animosity towards him, and I don't like him much myself...However, if he's going to help the Lakers, then I'm all for him...If we can learn to embrace Malone, we can learn to re-embrace Vlade

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Emo:</div><div class="quote_post">True, but you don't understand the King/Laker rivalry that takes place now.</div>
In that case, the Kings probably don't want him leaving for the Fakers.

 

We must learn to embrace the Laker team. If Divac going to play for us, he has my support. He did long ago when Ceballos, Jones, Van Exel, and Campbell were playin for us.

Im not a big fan of Divac, but if he contribute even 20 productive minutes a game, along with Grant then that would be great. Can you imagine the Lakers depending on Grant? Now that would be funny

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Ice:</div><div class="quote_post">In that case, the Kings probably don't want him leaving for the Fakers. </div>

In case you haven't known already, which I doubt, the Queen franchise didn't want to lose Vlade Divac. They had issues with their luxury tax problems, and they didn't want to increase their payroll any further. So they offer Divac a midlevel exception offer of 2.5 million. Divac, after everything he did for that franchise, rejected that deal and joined the Lakers for a multiyear 4.9 million dollar deal.

I don't care whether or not Divac was a Laker in the past because back in those days of the Showtime era, face it, nobody on this earth ever heard of the Sacramento Queens. But since Divac was a Queen for six seasons, and the bad blood started developing between these two, I started hating everything that came out of that franchise in Sac. And if he thinks just going back to wearing purple and gold will suddenly make things alright once again, he's mistaken. He's really going to have to show me a lot before I can yell and cheer like I always do for the other 11 guys on the Laker team. The fellas here know what I want to see out of him, so we'll see.

 

Didn't you guys hold that same initial reluctance towards the signing of Karl Malone? That sure changed.

 

Gosh, divac will remain a kingqueen wherever he plays. Its a real bad move to get divac instead of keeping malone. no what, i really have no hope in them next season. None at all: kobe without shaq and a decent forward ... they prlly wont even get to the 2nd playoff round let alone win a title

 

i hope malone resigns with laker for one more season =P

 

Another idea is this. Malone wants to come back. He wants another big man up front with him and he feels Vlade can do the job.