Kobe on PMS

Kobe did an interview (link via Inside Lakers blog) today with Petros Papadakis and Matt "Money" Smith on AM 570 KLAC this afternoon. In short, Kobe is PISSSSSSED right now. According to the blog on KB24.com, he is livid about a report in the LA Times (Heisler) in which a "Laker Insider" came out and directly blamed Kobe for running off Shaq and causing the subsequent decline into mediocrity that the Lakers currently find themselves in. Here are some bullets from the interview [

- He DID NOT demand Jerry West's hiring. He directly contradicts ESPN.com's Rich Bucher's assertion that Kobe's comments were in any way an ultimatum.

- Right before Kobe re-signed with the Lakers, he had a very important phone conversation with Jerry Buss in which the Laker owner promised Kobe that the Lakers would be aggressively striving to achieve a championship level. Kobe states that this singular phone call was the crucial reason why he decided not to leave.

- Kobe actively recruited Baron Davis, Ron Artest, and Carlos Boozer only to be turned away by Mitch Kupchak.

- Kobe dances to Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy by the Wiggles with his daughter. Money saw him.

- After the 03-04 season, Buss told Kobe that regardless of what Kobe does (re-signs, or leaves), he was planning on trading Shaq based on the issue of Shaq's contract demands.

- Kobe on the Laker front office: "That place is a mess."

- He has not had ANY communication with the Laker front offices since his exit meeting.

- He really doesn't know what is going to happen with his relationship with the Laker organization. This is due to trust issues. Trust issues he did NOT have as recently as yesterday. It's all because of this "insider" throwing him under the bus.

- He talked to Phil this morning. He asked him about Phil's exit meeting from after the 03-04 season and what the Laker Brass told him. (Apparently, since Phil has returned, the two have not talked about the aftermath of the 03-04 season, the book, etc. ) Basically, Phil said that the Laker front office told him that the Lakers were going to be scaling things back in a long term effort to try to get under the cap. They had no reason to have such an expensive coach so he was let go. Phil also said that the front office did say that they were going to trade Shaq regardless of what Kobe does. This one shred of consistency shown by the front office is quickly glossed over by Kobe during the interview; it seems as if it slipped out.

- Kobe said that this "long term" plan was not mentioned to him ever. Especially not in that fateful phone call with Dr. Buss on the eve of his signing. He claims that this is the first time he has ever heard of this.

- Money: "Is this reparable Kobe?"
Kobe: "I don't know."
]

I seem to remember the very public stance that the Lakers took following the Shaq trade regarding an effort to scale back in an effort to have cap space in the summer of 07 during which they would try to sign Amare Stoudamire or Yao Ming. To that end, the Lakers went through a period in which they weren't offering any free agents anything longer than one or two year deals (they ended up losing out on Derek Anderson and Antonio Daniels after they were both offered longer deals by other teams, etc). Then after both Amare and Yao got extended by their respective teams, the Lakers seemed to abandon this plan and they extended Kwame and signed Radmanovich to a 5 year deal. Does that sound right? I mean, some of the details may be a bit inaccurate but if memory serves, that was pretty much it.

Now let me ask. Is this the scaling back that the Laker front office was referring to in their exit meeting with Phil back after the 03-04 season? If so, how could I know about this and how could Kobe claim that he was never informed of a long term plan to get under the cap?

Am I taking crazy pills here?

Something seems fishy. And I don't like fish.