Kobe Opts For Greed

Earlier this afternoon the city of Los Angeles breathed a sigh of relief as Kobe Bryant decided against exercising his early termination option and becoming a free agent.

The only thing that isn’t relieved by this news is Jerry Buss’s wallet.  By deciding not to escape from his contract early, Kobe is now guaranteed to be paid a salary of just over $23 million for the 2009-2010 season, a season which the Lakers are already on the hook for at least $74 million in salary and still have (hopefully) Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza yet to sign.  That is a one heck of a luxury tax bill that is coming the Lakers’ way.  It sure would have been nice had Kobe helped lighten the load.

Kobe, to whom winning is everything (allegedly), could have made the personal sacrifice to opt-out and then re-sign with the Lakers for a nice little discount.  Since Kobe has very little in common with Latrell Sprewell, I am sure he could take a modest $5 million per year cut in pay and still find a way to feed his family on $18 million per year.  Such a show of philanthropy would have saved Jerry Buss a total of $10 million per year, which just so happens to be what the team expects to have to pay Lamar Odom who is now suddenly in high demand on the free agent market (psst.. Lamar, there is no beach in Phoenix, it is just really hot).  Yeah, I think it is safe to say that extra cash could have been useful.

How many more diamond rings can I buy for Vanessa for $135 million?

Now the Lakers are guaranteed to have to fork over megabucks to Bryant this coming season and are expected to go into negotiations on a contract extension in the next few months.  With the collective bargaining agreement restricting Kobe to a five-year, $135 million deal, the negotiations figure to be short.  Since Kobe had a chance to save the Lakers some money by opting-out yesterday and declined to do so, I see no reason for him to suddenly start feeling altruistic when it comes to what could be the last big contract of his career.

And Kobe can save that act about not opting out so that the team can focus on LO and Trevor.  This wasn’t going to be one of those situations where the Lakers had to worry about him pulling a Carlos Boozer and promising to re-sign and then bolting for a new team.  He could have been negotiating a new cheaper deal this last week or two and immediately re-signed after opting out.  What he is really counting on is the team spending all their money on Odom and Ariza this summer.  That way when it comes time for him to sign an extension or exercise his player option next off-season, there won’t be a pressing need for him to take a pay cut.  So, sorry, Kobe, but your excuse doesn’t fly.

We all know what the real story is.  You’ve got your title now, so suddenly sacrificing anything and everything to win isn’t such a high priority anymore.  We’ll see if you still feel the same way when Trevor Ariza is d-ing you up in a Trail Blazer uniform in next year’s playoffs.

I know Gordon Gekko said greed is good, but he wasn’t trying to repeat in the NBA.  Kobe should’ve known better.

Tags: Free Agency, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, News, Trevor Ariza