Kobe Bryant Isn’t the Culprit in the Lamar Odom Stalemate

What more do you Laker fans want from this guy? Blood? Hasn’t Kobe Bryant given that as well. And plenty of it. Hasn’t he played his guts out for two season’s refusing surgery on his mangled finger? Hasn’t he been banged up and yet refused to leave even one game?

Why are you people asking him to restructure his contract so Lamar Odom can get paid more money? Kobe Bryant is not the culprit here.

The MVP of the NBA Championship deserves every penny he makes if not more. He is the one who puts butts in every seat not only at Staples Center but at every single venue across the country where the Lakers play.

If he were not on the Lakers, who would fill those seats? Lamar Odom? Yeah, right.

Bryant is not the culprit here nor is Jerry Buss, the Lakers owner. The real culprits are Andrew Bynum, Sasha Vujacic, Luke Walton and Mitch Kupchak for his role in granting them such lucrative contracts far beyond their worth to the Lakers.

Oh, and there’s one more who falls in that category – Lamar Odom.

Why aren’t you Laker aficionados asking any of them to restructure their contracts to reflect what they are actually worth to the team?

Why don’t you ask – no, plead – with Andrew Bynum to take less money over the next two years while he hopefully learns how to play his position in the triangle and stops fouling out and maybe, just maybe tries to condition himself to play one full season?

Why don’t you ask Sasha Vujacic to take less money until he learns how to play defense and not take three-point shots with 20 seconds left on the play clock or commit a defensive foul within 20 seconds of coming off the bench?

Why don’t you ask Luke Walton to turn himself into the authorities for grand theft by defrauding a mentally challenged general manager? That is essentially what his ridiculous contract amounts to.

And then there’s Lamar Odom, himself. Don’t tell me he deserves big bucks like his agent, Mr. Schwartz seems to be demanding. Odom and Schwartz have gotten big bucks from Dr. Buss over the past four years.

But Odom’s inconsistent play until the second half of this season certainly hadn’t proved deserving of that kind of money. In fact, it would have been more appropriate for Dr. Buss to have paid Odom his weight in See’s Candies during most of his contract tenure.

Now, when no one, not one single soul in the media, expected Dr. Buss to offer Odom anything substantially above seven million dollars, Buss actually went into his own pocket to pull out a $30 million contract offer.

And I do mean out of his own pocket. With the luxury tax being 100 percent over the cap limit, that contract offer was almost entirely coming out of Buss’s pocket. And I repeat, no one, none of the NBA pundits expected an offer anywhere near that amount.

It was the kind of offer that Odom and Schwartz should have jumped on immediately. So, I can’t blame Dr. Buss for being offended after all the money the Lakers have paid Odom in the past and not gotten equal value in return. And I certainly don’t blame Dr. Buss for pulling the offer.

But the next one of you fools who thinks Kobe Bryant should pay for Mr. Schwartz and his conniving with Pat Riley had better burn your #24 jersey along with those purple and gold flags on your car or SUV.

Whether Odom is with this team or not, basketball fans will fill the Staples Center and venues across the country to see #24 along with Pau Gasol, Ron Artest (who should have been a Laker long before now) and Derek Fisher.

All I can say is: hang tough, Kobe. Don’t give up a single penny and enjoy your vacation. See youin October – with or without Lamar Odom.