Before the Los Angeles Lakers made the biggest mistake any organization could ever imagine, NO NO wait. Correction. Before Bitch Kuptchak made the biggest mistake for the lakers organization in the summer to trade Shaquille O'neal to the heat, Pat Riley was playing "chicken" with Bitch Kupchak during the trade. The idea was that Riley held his ground during negotiations and let the Lakers sweat the possibility of losing Kobe if a Shaq trade wasn't made. Pat Riley played this "waiting game", despite willing to do anything to get Shaq in a Heat uniform, with the hope of not having to trade away BOTH Wade & Odom. Well, Riley strategy worked! Bitch Kupchak blinked and instead of Odom & Wade in a Lakers uniform this season... we ended up with a garbage package of Odom, Butler, and Grant. THIS ONE EXAMPLE....show the biggest difference between Jerry Best and Bitch Kupchak. Jerry Best did not blink. He rolled the dice by trading his team's only real center (Vlade Divac) for a draft pick (Kobe)in order to free up the cash with NO GUARANTEE that Shaq would have signed. In the process, it shown Shaq how much the Lakers thought of him and probably played a small key role in Shaq ending up in LA. Bitch Kupchak, on the other hand, was in the same scenario where he could "call the Heats bluff" (of refusing to send over Wade AND Odom) or risk having Shaq in a Lakers uniform for one more year. (Of course, during that year...the Lakers could have done a sign and trade or sign Shaq longterm, et). Unfortunately, Bitch Kupchak caved in and did not display the perserverence and courage that Jerry Best showed in risking alot to make the Lakers a contender for years. This is also why Magic Johnson last year and this very week went public with his hopes that the Lakers make another attempt at Pat Riley. Yes...many would say "spilt milk" at this point...but do we really expect the same man who screwed up one of the most important decisions in Lakers history to correct the problem now that he HAS TO do something...? The best thing the Lakers could do, at this point, is go hard after JW and fire Bitch Kupchak. Then pay huge and i mean huge money to sign the Zen Maste Phil Jackson. Phil Jackson as some of us know runs a great system, has the smarts for the X's and O's, and is an excellent motivator. and if Jackson wants to play hard to get. I would definetly try to acquire Jerry Sloan from the Utah Jazz for the same contract.
Sounds great, but the alleged reason Jerry West left in the first place was because of Phil Jackson. Call it ego, call it 'creative differences,' or call it a clash of philosophies, the two simply did not get along. At this point the Lakers would have to choose between the two ... so who's more important to the Lakers, the coach? or the GM? According to LA Media, the first choice for the Lakers and Kobe is Larry Brown. I think there is a more realistic chance of Larry Brown becoming the next Laker coach than Phil Jackson at this point. Larry is a West Coast guy, he lives in LA in the off-season, he respects Kobe, and vice versa, and Larry Brown loves taking on challenges of bringing struggling teams back on top. Jerry Sloan is a great coach, but he's never been about the money. I don't think he likes the LA Hollywood style, and he'd be sick to his stomach with all the crybabies on the Lakers. If he came here, he'd pull a Rudy T and quit in mid-season. The bottomline though is to get Bitch Kupchak out of the GM role. He's completely incapable of doing his job. There's been countless examples of his failures to write a 500 page book on since he's been the Laker GM. Pat Riley would be great, but why would he come to the Lakers after he ripped them off for one of the most lopsided deals in a long time. He knows he got one over on the Lakers and he created a mess there for the next 3 years. I don't think he'd want to comeback to help them fix that. I have no idea who the next viable GM would be. I hope Dr. Buss doesn't go the nepotism route and choose Jeannie Buss as the successor.
I'm not aware of the actual part that Mitch Kuptchak played in the Shaq trade, but I'm sure he isn't the only one to blame for the trade. There had got to be other people involved in making the trade.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kobe 8 Ball:</div><div class="quote_post">Wade should be a Laker. No one is untouchable when trading Shaq, our GM just sucks.</div> Out of interest, what team do you support? Lakers or Wizards?
not true <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kobe 8 Ball:</div><div class="quote_post">Wade should be a Laker. No one is untouchable when trading Shaq, our GM just sucks.</div> Just as the lakers chose the future over the present with kobe over shaq the heat would have chosen the future (wade) over the present shaq. They wouldnt have made that trade
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting JWohl:</div><div class="quote_post">Just as the lakers chose the future over the present with kobe over shaq the heat would have chosen the future (wade) over the present shaq. They wouldnt have made that trade</div> I doubt it. If Bitch Kupcake would of pushed for it, we could of easily had Wade...but no, he is soft..he rolled over and gave in..he is pathetic as a gm... <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Laker_fan:</div><div class="quote_post">Out of interest, what team do you support? Lakers or Wizards?</div> Both..4 years ago, I moved to Washington D.C. from California and started following the Wizards...They, along with the Lakers, are tied for my favorite team...Gilbert Arenas is my favorite player though.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kobe 8 Ball:</div><div class="quote_post">Wade should be a Laker. No one is untouchable when trading Shaq, our GM just sucks.</div> I agree.
I don't think so, Pat Riley was/is in love with Wade, and though he wanted to get Shaq, he wasn't going to sacrifice the Heat's future to do it. Odom and Shaq wouldn't be near the combo Wade and Shaq are, and Riley knew it, Wade was also a rookie who was on the brink of stardom. It was never gonna happen....
