Kobe Bryant

Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant revealed that he’s been doing some additional under-the-radar training during his rehab and commented about the negative reaction to his contract extension with Dave McMenamin of ESPN Los Angeles. Earlier this evening, McMenamin relayed some of his noteworthy comments, and you can find some of the highlights below:

On his additional secretive training: 

“My training has no time restrictions in terms of when I do them,” Bryant said. “I can do them at 2 o’clock in the morning, 3 o’clock, it doesn’t matter. You just got to do them. The blackout is very intense. It’s a huge commitment. It’s 6-in-the-morning stuff and then take the kids to school and then go do another session with weights and shooting and practice, and then after that do some more practice. It’s an ongoing thing, and throughout all of that you have to take care of your body and take care of the knickknack injuries that may arise. It’s intense, but it’s fun.” 

On those who questioned his two-year, $48.5MM extension:

“Fans have the right to have those concerns. I urge caution in thinking that they know more about cap than the Lakers’ management does in terms of what they can and can’t do. But we sat down and discussed this. This is something that was important to me, being able to find the balance between something that’s fair from a business perspective as well as winning. Because as athletes, we have to wear both hats. You have to. You can’t trade one for the other. But we sat down and they went through Option A, Option B, Option C, and I wanted to know all of them and feel very comfortable with that.” 

On if the Lakers currently have a championship plan in place: 

“For sure. Oh, for sure. We’re not just making decisions blindly. I don’t, and they don’t either, for sure.” 

Many of the early reactions to Kobe Bryant‘s two-year, $48.5MM extension suggested that the contract could cripple the Lakers’ ability to construct a contending roster around him, and questioned whether he took a significant enough pay cut. After hearing much of that criticism, Kobe shot back last night in a series of tweets and in a conversation with Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, defending his deal.

“Most of us have aspirations for being businessmen when our playing careers are over,” Bryant told Wojnarowski. “But that starts now. You have to be able to wear both hats. You can’t sit up there and say, ‘Well, I’m going to take substantially less because there’s public pressure,’ because all of a sudden, if you don’t take less, you don’t give a crap about winning. That’s total bull—-.”

On Twitter, Kobe pointed out that it was the “billionaire owners” who pushed hard during the 2011 lockout to create a new CBA that restricted the earning power of superstars, creating public pressure for players to be “selfless.” In Bryant’s view, he’s fortunate to play for an organization that still finds a way to take care of its stars.

“Most players in this league don’t have that,” Bryant said. “They get stuck in a predicament – probably intentionally done by the teams – to force them to take less money. Meanwhile, the value of the organization goes through the roof off the backs of their quote, unquote selfless players. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

Kobe has a point, and the fact that he remains perhaps the most marketable player in the NBA supports his argument — as many observers have noted this week, even if he’s no longer worth $24MM+ based on talent alone, his value to the Lakers organization extends far beyond his on-court play. He certainly shouldn’t be obligated to negotiate a deal worth less than what the team offered. However, it’s also fair to wonder if spending $24MM+ per year on a 36-year-old coming off an Achilles injury is the best use of the Lakers’ cap space, no matter how those cap rules came to be.

There are some trades and contracts that require black-and-white analysis, but Kobe Bryant‘s two-year, $48MM contract extension is not really one of those deals, writes Zach Lowe of Grantland.  It’s a most unusual situation – Bryant is dealing with a level of health uncertainty he’s never faced before and he’ll be the highest-paid player in the league despite being nowhere near the best player in the league last season.  Now, the Lakers’ dream of luring in two max-level stars is finished and they’ll be paper thin if they use their remaining cash on a max deal.  Here’s more on Kobe and his new deal..

• Larry Coon of CBA FAQ says that if the Lakers follow through with their 2014 plan, keeping Pau Gasol will require him to take a steep discount.  If they really go bare bones, they can create enough room for one max player, a player around the mid-level exception, and someone for the room mid-level exception of ~$2.7MM.  This means letting free agents Gasol, Steve Blake, Jordan Farmar, Xavier Henry, Jordan Hill, Chris Kaman, and Jodie Meeks walk.
• Kobe is worth the $48MM deal and then some, Ken Berger of CBSSports.com says.  A lot of that money amounts to a lifetime achievement award, but the idea of chasing a title with Bryant will be a major selling point for whoever they try and lure to L.A.
• The lucrative extension happened partially because of loyalty and was partially a risk on the Lakers’ part, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com.  The deal means that Kobe now has the opportunity to go out as the highest paid player in the game and assures that he will play with only one franchise for his entire career, something that Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Shaquille O’Neal could not do.
• The deal could cripple the Lakers’ chances of retooling the roster via the free-agent market, writes Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times.
• Kobe took less than the max, but Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times wonders if he gave back enough cash.
• The Lakers are acting with heart and not logic in their new Kobe contract, writes Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins.