I know Gasol isn't back yet, but I think with the addition of Artest, it has taken the #1 perimeter defensive duties away from him and has allowed him to go back to his black mamba ways on offense. I think Kobe will post better numbers than he did last year and lead the league in scoring.

No chance in hell he leads the league in scoring. With Pau back theyll be a better team and he will play much less minutes. In addition hell take less shots, so while his percentage will go up, the number of points will decrease. Gasol is also a good passer and since kobe has never been a prolific passer, the addition of Gasol will mean more wins for the lakers, but a downslope in all of kobe's stats.

I'm with Van Gundy, I hate that stupid MVP chant. Especially in the first freaking week of the season.

I'm in agreement that the MVP thing is stupid. Saw Hornets fans chanting it for Chris Paul the other day too.

Just saw something kind of interesting on Sportscenter (sorry haven't turned since the Spurs-Blazers ended). Kobe passed Allen Iverson for 16th on the scoring list with Iverson present. Anyone think he sticks around longer than one would assume a guy with as many rings as he has generally would to try and make a run at the top guys on the list? He'd be a long-shot to pass Kareem, would need 14,000+ more points or essentially 25 PPG for full seasons for the next 7 years. He could however pass Shaq, Chamberlain, Jordan, and possibly even Malone.

I don't really see Kobe averaging 25 at age 38. Jordan only scored ~20 ppg at age 38, and that was with a lot fewer miles. Kobe never took years off play baseball or golf.

Besides, Lebron's just gonna pass whatever he does. Probably Durant too.

I don't think there's really a large chance at him passing Kareem. I really don't see that being the most important guy to him on the list though. The reason I initially brought it up was Jordan and Shaq, two guys I think he would LOVE to pass. Not only that, but sticking around longer could possibly in his mind hamper LeBron, Wade, and Co.'s efforts to chase his titles and points down. LeBron is going to shatter every quickest to X points marks and if he can stay healthy and plays a long time, he has a solid chance at ending as the all-time scorer. I'm sure Kobe would love to end with more titles at least.

Supposedly the Lakers offered Kobe a 3 year, $90m extension to his contract (which expires after the 2010-11 season).

Am I the only one who thinks they're nuts for doing so?

Don't get me wrong. Kobe is one of the best players in the NBA. Dynamic, great defender, scorer, passer, etc etc. But he's 31 this year, 32 next year, and THEN the extension kicks in? I'm not sure I want to pay a 33-35 year old SG $30m per season. It's not like the Lakers need to worry about getting sniped in free agency; the most any other team would be able to offer Kobe is about $20m per season, so the Lakers can obviously blow that offer out of the water.

Then again, Jordan got rings in his age 33 and 34 seasons, so perhaps I'm overreacting.

I don't see why they should commit so early to Kobe. It not like he would turn down that deal 2 years from now either. When you going to overpay, I don't see why you should overpay and be early.

When offering contract ext this early, it would have to be to lock in a young player or a steal of a contract.

Kobe will definitely still be one of the top guys in the league during that time, but it seems quite excessive. Especially since they could likely offer the same deal at any point during the next couple years and get it done.

It's called managing his ego. They don't plan on letting Kobe play for another team but there's a cost to keeping him happy.

i can't stand the lakers.
i do like pau gasol.
but the lakers i can't stand.
and
it has nothing to do with the grizzlies trading pau to the lakers for "nothing"
i have always disliked the lakers

But doing it 2 years is just silly. I mean what if Kobe has another stupid rape case? what if he blows out his knee. what if he gets caught on a motorcycle with 2 shotguns?

Its one thing when his contract is up or near up is when you can talk about extending it. but doing it this early only has downside risk, with very little upside.

Kobe's ego will be fine in 2 years when he looks at how much more the Lakers can pay him than anybody else.

Anyone think he will go play for a Euroleague team in 2 years??

Weren't they reportedly offering him something like 40M/year? That would be tough to turn down...

Wish he woulda played the whole game tonight. Sucks they were destroying. He was on fire!

Euroleague teams have shorter seasons, less fans, and smaller stadiums. Bringing Kobe in for near that kind of money would have to be based on the idea that this could somehow be made up for by merchandising and just the pride of having one of the NBA's top players in their league. Looking at the top salaries in the Euroleague, I come up with basically no one making over 5 million Euros a year, I do believe that's take home though. That would be Josh Childress. The reason I brought up the all-time points list earlier in the thread, is I doubt unless one of these teams decides to take a huge loss on Kobe the money would come anywhere near the glory of passing Jordan and Shaq on the all-time NBA points list. Especially since it's already been rumored the Lakers may be willing to pay him $30 million/season.

For a guy that seems to be a student of the game and values his legacy a great deal, a trip to Europe before he's washed up just seems incredibly unlikely.

why do u hate the lakers so much, my fellow laker hater

Absolute MONSTER line last night:

40 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals

The teams that were talking about signing Kobe were all owned by billionaires. None of them make money on their basketball teams already.

The big thing is the legacy, like you said. It's one thing for Jordan to leave to play a whole other sport, it's another entirely for Kobe to leave to go play in the minor leagues. It'd be like Adrian Peterson going to the CFL, or A-Rod going to play baseball in Japan - no one even counts that stuff, he might as well leave to go play in a YMCA league somewhere.