Selfish Kobe Rejects Trade to the Pistons

A TV Station in LA, CBS 2, is reporting (article is linked here) that the Lakers completed a trade with the Pistons that would have sent Kobe to Detroit for Tayshaun Prince, Rip Hamilton, Amir Johnson and a first round pick, BUT Kobe vetoed the trade. ARE YOU KIDDING ME, KOBE!!!!! You seriously don’t think that YOU (self proclaimed greatest basketball player ever) cannot win a championship with Chauney Billups, Jarvis Hayes, Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess, Jason Maxiell, Rodney Stucky, Flip Murray, Arron Afflalo and Nazr Mohammed as your supporting cast? REALLY? That is a much better team than You, Deng, Ben Wallace and leftovers in Chicago! So what does this tell me about you, Mr. Bryant….

Winning is not the end all be all for you, or else you would take that trade in a heartbeat. I’m not saying that a starting lineup of Chauncey, You, Hayes, Rasheed and McDyess is a lock to beat Boston this year, but it would be a coin flip at best when you look at the full team! I think you care more about what Big City you go to, or who’s legacy you can defeat, Mr. 24, than you do about winning another title. I always assumed that was the case, after watching you selfishly give up in the finals against Detroit in 2004, or giving up against the Suns in the first round of the playoffs in 2006, or forcing Shaq out of LA so you can be The Man! Now, you are choosing to stay in LA or go to a team that is likely not nearly as good as this Detroit team would have been with you on it.

You shall forever be known as Kobe the Selfish, not Kobe the Champion!

UPDATE —–11/16/07

I’d like to thank jumperitis@gmail.com for reminding me to update this posting.  It’s been a busy day at work, so I forgot all about it.  It is being said that this trade was just a rumor, and there wasn’t more to it than the Pistons inquiring on what it would take to get Kobe.  Dumars specifically said he is not willing to give up on his core group of guys yet, so he would not give up 2 starters for Kobe.  Do you believe that?  I guess you have too.

However, it is also being said that Kobe will not go to Detroit regardless.  That is not one of the cities he is interested in.  Therefore, this posting is still valid, in that Kobe cares more about Kobe, than he does about winning, but most people already know that.

Detroit Pistons Preview

I have way behind my preseason previews due to my daughter’s birth, so I’ll have to shorten this up. I’ll just pick and choose which teams I get detailed on. The Pistons will be on of these quick reviews, because although I really like their young guys, Jason Maxiell, Amir Johnson and Rodney Stuckey, they won’t be effective until they get minutes and as long as the starting five are healthy, they won’t get many. Actually, Maxiell should get decent minutes because he’s backing up McDyess, who is better served off the bench, so we’ll see how that develops. So here is the starting five:

Projected starting lineup with last year’s stats:
Stats follow this format – Points, Rebounds, Assists, Steals, Blocks, FG percentage & Minutes

PG – Chauncey Billups
17 – 3.4 – 7.2 – 1.2 – 0.24 – 43% & 36 min

SG – Richard Hamilton
19.8 – 3.8 – 3.8 – 0.79 – 0.2 – 47% & 37 min

SF – Tayshaun Prince
14.3 – 5.2 – 2.8 – 0.62 – 0.67 – 46% & 37 min

PF – Rasheed Wallace
12.3 – 7.2 – 1.7 – 1 – 1.57 – 42% & 32 min

C – Antonio McDyess
8.1 – 6 – 0.9 – 0.74 – 0.79 – 53% & 21 min

They have 4 guys who average 32 minutes or more, that’s why you wont see anything from the young guys, but Maxiell. I actually really like Amir and I hope he gets a chance, because he could help this team out a ton. Back to the starters. I expect the same numbers from the 4 main guys again this year. Nothing has changed with any of them. People are taking a flyer on McDyess, and I like him a lot, but he’s not worth the risk. Maxiell is a better player at this stage, so he should slowly get the minutes and I hope he takes over the starting role sometime this year.