Kobe Bryant, The Great Living Legend of NBA
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Fisher looked at the Lakers then as we all did: From Wilt to Kareem to Shaq to Pau, they were the team that could always pull one more star out of the hat. But since the night of Fisher’s explosive delight, the squad’s most stunning trick has been in how completely and quickly it turned the NBA’s show-pony franchise into a goat, ranked 28th in ESPN’s most recent Future Power Rankings. Four years, five coaches, three early playoff flameouts, two key departed big men, one celebrated owner deceased. The Lakers have been in near free fall.
It would seem that the only connection fans have to the Lakers’ title tradition is Bryant, the man who helped make the franchise one of the most popular brands in sports. Now 36, he’s a lock to have his statue outside Staples Center someday. He’s the reason celebrities line up 10 deep inside in NBA. He’s also, say sources both in and around the Lakers’ organization, the primary reason the team has fallen so mightily.
For years the Lakers lived by the Mamba. This is the story of how they’re dying by him.
LAKERS GM MITCH KUPCHAK knew he had work to do. In the afterglow of that 2010 title, as Fisher played town crier in the bowels of Staples Center, Kupchak was game-planning the future. A 60-year-old Lakers lifer and a member of the team’s front office since 1986, Kupchak keeps a studiously low profile but is a savvy veteran of the politics that come with his position. And he knew then that for all that glittered around the Lakers, mere actuarial tables dictated that a day would come when they would need their next superstar. Bryant, a monomaniacal beast, had forced his body through untold workouts, rehabs, surgeries and medical innovations. But time is a bastard; even Kobe could not make it stand still. So Kupchak wanted to be ready with options whenever Lakers owner Jerry Buss declared it was time to pass the torch from Bryant.
Kupchak knew how the dance was done. With maybe a dozen true basketball superstars on the planet, and 30 teams vying for them, the operating principle of your typical rebuilding NBA team is to pray for the miracle of landing a superstar. For the Lakers, though, that math has long been different. Better.
Consider how they acquired Bryant. In 1996, the Lakers had determined that the brash high schooler with the Italian upbringing was the jewel of the draft. Still, they didn’t have a draft pick anywhere near high enough to get him. So they did what they’ve always done and exploited the fact that they have a legendary franchise in a city that works miracles for the lifestyles and incomes of players and their agents. Whereas Bryant flew to LA for a private predraft workout to ensure that Jerry West and the Lakers were aware of his skills, he refused to show his stuff to small-market teams like the Charlotte Hornets. Arn Tellem, his agent at the time, made it clear that Bryant didn’t want to play in a small market. Combined with Bryant’s lack of college pedigree, it was enough to scare off many teams, and a deal was ultimately worked out: The Hornets would take Bryant with the 13th pick and trade him to LA for proven center Vlade Divac.
It’s a common story: The best players have always pulled every string they can to get to LA, from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Magic Johnson to Shaquille O’Neal. And so four years ago, the Lakers’ plan was to unlock the door to Staples Center and let the NBA’s talent vie for the right to don the purple and gold. By 2012, executive VP Jim Buss made clear that the preferred avenue by which those stars would arrive was 2014 free agency. “We put everything to that,” Buss told the Orange County Register’s Kevin Ding. “And we want to make a big splash in the free agent market if we get to that spot. So we designed the contracts and the players and our future all around that.” Kupchak would have several of the team’s contracts end at the same time that players like LeBron James and Paul George were due to become free agents. Until then, he would be aggressive with a plan to trade for the cornerstones of a next generation, talents like Chris Paul and Dwight Howard. For good measure, the team would retain its pick in the celebrated 2014 draft. The Lakers would have a chance to draft a superstar, the assets to get one or two by trade or the cap room to lure one or two players with max contracts in the summer of 2014 or 2015.
“They have probably been planning for their next phase for a while,” a rival GM told ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. “The Busses and Mitch are always thinking about the next big deal.”
Then came the troubles. After coach Phil Jackson’s departure in 2011, the Lakers’ winning percentage began a slide (.695 to .621 to .549) that would end in a crater (.329). And when LA sent out feelers in the run-up to 2014 free agency, the feedback came in the form of crickets. LeBron, approached first, was unreachable. When the Lakers turned their attention to George — a rising star who grew up in LA County idolizing Bryant — he re-upped with the Pacers. So the Lakers kept spinning their lazy Susan of free agent superstar dreams. Kevin Love? Carmelo Anthony? Chris Bosh? Not one would take the Lakers’ money — or fight his way to LA. Kupchak, rather presciently, began preparing fans for the idea that the cap space of the upcoming years might not result in a big name, telling ESPN’s Colin Cowherd in late 2013, “I don’t know if we’ll get a star player,” while pointing out that there are “a lot of things you can do with cap room” besides sign a big name.
It seemed something — or someone — was scuttling the Lakers’ quest for a future franchise talent.
