There are NBA championships every year, but it’s not every year that a star of Kobe’s caliber changes teams.
As early as July 11, the day before the NBA free market opened, the Twitter account NBA-Batman, a well-known NBA gossip account, recognized as a swindler and a lifelong enemy of the well-known Smart-Min network, tweeted: Kobe Bryant is considering Leaving the Los Angeles Lakers.
When this tweet came out, there were a lot of retweets on Twitter, but many people didn't believe it.
Although Kobe was involved in a transfer in 2007, in the end he stayed with the Lakers and won two championship trophies.
In the summer of 2011, the Lakers also introduced Chris Paul, allowing the Lakers to continue to maintain championship competitiveness.
Now, for Kobe, who is entering the final years of his career, he really has no good reason to leave Los Angeles.
His family and friends are all here, and his glory and glory are also here. Los Angeles is already his home, and his statue will definitely be erected in front of the Staples Center in the future.
Therefore, even if the accuracy of NBA-Batman's prediction is so high, many people still don't believe it.
But soon, the transaction news came out on July 12, and the Nets made two shocking transactions.
They gave their future and present to the Celtics and Lakers respectively, and got superstars from the previous era.
Garnett, Pierce, Kobe, the protagonists of the 2008 and 10 finals.
It's equivalent to Jordan, Malone, and Stockton forming a team. Let alone 10 years ago, even 5 years ago, it was quite explosive, and it was even more terrifying than the Celtics' Big Three.
It's just that these three old guys who entered the league in 1995, 1996, and 1998 are already 37, 35, and 36 years old, and have entered the last years of their careers.
It is understandable that Garnett and Pierce were sent to the Nets. After all, Garnett was originally traded. Although Pierce is known as the soul of the Celtics, his status is still far behind Kobe.
If Pierce's achievements can reach Bird's level... Bird's level is useless. As general manager, Ainge will still trade Bird for the benefit of the team.
This is Danny Ainge's style, being indifferent to people and putting interests first.
But that's not the case with the Lakers. Except for O'Neal who had to send one away because of a conflict with Kobe, all the previous superstars retired with the Lakers.
Moreover, Kobe's achievements with the Lakers and the contract the Lakers gave Kobe looked like they wanted him to stay in Los Angeles for the rest of his life.
Unexpectedly, the Lakers also chose to send Kobe away, and Kobe did not use his veto power on the transaction, which shows that Kobe knew about the deal in advance, he agreed immediately, and he also wanted to leave.
Just when the news of the trade was released and shocked the United States, Kobe posted a message on Twitter that night: Goodbye, Los Angeles.
This news once again confirmed that Kobe will leave Los Angeles and go to Brooklyn to play.
The inside story of this transaction will not be known to the public for a short period of time. In short, the media are showing off their magic skills, hoping to get first-hand information about these two transactions.
Whoever can grab it will get the most attention from fans.
Of course, one person must know the inside story, that is NBA-Batman.
Countless fans @this mysterious Batman on Twitter, hoping he will come out and say a few more words about why Kobe Bryant left the Lakers.
NBA-Batman's revelations were once again so accurate that they made all sports journalists in the NBA feel ashamed and couldn't do their job anymore.
What sports news needs is timeliness, especially the trade and signing news in the offseason. You don’t have first-hand information. People eat meat, and you eat poop. You can only chew the residue after digestion by others.
But the problem is, NBA-Batman belongs to me and I don’t eat meat, but I don’t let you eat meat, so I let you eat my shit. This is a typical example of harming others but not benefiting oneself.
This guy’s identity has never been exposed. The account has no income, does not accept advertisements, and does not promote. The number of fans is already the largest in the sports media category, more than the accounts of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. It is so mysterious and so horrible.
As for the real mastermind behind this account, Min Congda sighed deeply when he saw so many fans and countless private messages every day.
"If I could become an Internet celebrity with this thing, how could I earn 18 million just by running my account this year? Why would I act in a show like the NBA? I would scold this today and hit that tomorrow. It's so humiliating. Sven!"
More than a month has passed since the finals, and the pain caused by two consecutive championships has healed.
Min Congda continues to invest in plans for the new season.
The first major thing he is doing now is to let the Lakers change ownership.
The first step for the Lakers to change ownership is to kill the Lakers in the playoffs and cause conflicts between Kobe and Paul.
This step has been successful. According to the Min Congda Intelligence Center, after the Western Conference semifinals, the relationship between Kobe and Paul has reached the point of incompatibility.
As a result, the Lakers were divided into two factions. One faction supported Kobe and believed that Paul should be traded away to re-establish Kobe's status.
The representative of this group is Jenny Buss, who has feelings for the Lakers and understands her father's team-building thinking.
Many times, she manages the Lakers with the idea of building a brand rather than building a team.
The other group supports Paul and believes that Kobe is the O'Neal of the year. O'Neal got old and had conflicts with Kobe, so the Lakers kept the younger Kobe and sent away O'Neal, who was declining in his 30s, and then the Lakers returned to their peak.
As the saying goes, the world is a cycle. Now that Kobe is old and you have conflicts with the younger Paul, of course you have to send Kobe away and keep Paul, so that the Lakers will have the capital to make a comeback.
Representatives of this faction are Jim Buss and team general manager Kupchak.
Their thinking is actually Danny Ainge's thinking, a solid camp with smooth soldiers, the team will always exist, and interests are the first priority.
Even superstars are not fundamentally different from ordinary players who can be traded at any time.
O'Neal can be sent away in exchange for the resources to win future championships, and the same can certainly be said for Kobe.
Obviously, with the death of Old Buss, the Lakers' consecutive losses to the Clippers in the playoffs, and the Clippers' final championship, Jim Buss' faction gained the upper hand.
Therefore, the second step that Min Congda had to do was to facilitate Kobe's deal and let Kobe leave the Lakers, which would severely damage the Lakers' reputation and brand effectiveness.
This kind of heavy blow will eventually hurt the Bass family who made the decision, thereby weakening their control.
Trading O'Neal won't weaken the Lakers brand, but trading Kobe will.
Kobe and O'Neal are still very different. Kobe's idolatry is much higher than O'Neal, which is a natural advantage for outside players.
People will prefer outside players whose size and playing style are close to ordinary people, rather than giant inside players who are tall and play like monsters.
Once Kobe is traded away, the Lakers will definitely fall into a huge popularity crisis.
Especially if Kobe can perform well in other teams but the Lakers themselves are mediocre, fans will definitely let the Lakers management and Buss family see the power of an idol.
After all, times have changed. In the era of online media, personal value and meaning have been magnified and magnified.
Jeanie Buss is one of the few people within the Lakers who can see through this. After all, she participated in the entire process of establishing the Lakers brand.
Unfortunately, the power was not with her. Behind the scenes, there were people like Min Congda, Shelley Sterling, Stern, etc. who were playing tricks on her and paving the way for Kobe Bryant's deal.
After picking and choosing, Min Congda and Stern took a fancy to the Nets.
During the crisis in 2010, the Nets changed to a Russian wealthy owner, a gold tycoon. He had too much money to spend and found a professional team to play with.
It's like a rich man playing a new online game. He doesn't care about the trivial details when getting started, but first spends money to buy a set of top-notch luxury equipment.
Why fight it yourself? Choose slowly or practice slowly? What do you think I earned this money for?
Your Bass family makes money by running the team, and I made the money to buy a team to satisfy my basketball hobbies and dreams.
The richest man in Russia had previously bought the CSKA Moscow club, injected funds into this poor old team, and then dominated Europe twice.
Tired of playing European basketball, the Russian tycoons want to show off their wealth in the NBA, the holy land of basketball.
In the past three seasons, the Nets have begun to implement a gold-dollar strategy, recruiting Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Gerald Wallace and other capable players.
It's just that American rules are really unfriendly to the gold-dollar strategy. The salary cap and a bunch of rule restrictions prevent such big bosses from taking advantage of their financial resources.
Therefore, in the past three seasons, the Nets' performance can only be said to be so-so, and they have never met expectations. At the very least, they could not even make it to the finals.
In the off-season, the Nets finally encountered an opportunity. With the help of many parties, they launched a blockbuster trade bomb that shocked the entire league.
In fact, the biggest variable and uncertainty in this trading plan is Kobe.
Garnett and Pierce did not have the right to veto the trade, and Ainge was determined and pushed hard, and no one opposed it.
Kobe is different. As an individual, he can deny the deal. As an idol, many Los Angeles fans will not want him to leave.
But Kobe finally left, seemingly without any hesitation, allowing Min Congda to succeed in his second step.
The reasons are of course complicated, but one thing is very important. After Kobe decided to leave, he tweeted "Goodbye, Los Angeles" instead of goodbye to the Lakers.
Because Kobe knew that when the Clippers won two consecutive championships, when Curry won the FMVP again, and when the Clippers captured the hearts of a large number of young fans, he knew that he was no longer the king of Los Angeles.
One mountain cannot accommodate two tigers. In the Lakers, Paul squeezed him out, and in Los Angeles, the Clippers and new idols emerged.
Assuming that the Lakers become a bad team and there is no hope, Kobe is now willing to stay and accompany the Lakers to perdition.
However, the Lakers still had hope. However, the Lakers had Paul and Plan B. Kobe was shaken.
This is the difference between people's personalities. Some people are the opposite. If the team is weak, they will run away, but if they have strong teammates, they will stay.
The hero is late, but he also has his own pursuit. Kobe still has gas in the tank, and he can still be the boss.
Instead of relying on past achievements to struggle in a team and city that no longer belongs to him, it is better to go to a new place to prove himself again.
So, he chose the Nets and joined forces with his old rivals to fight against the new monsters rising in Los Angeles!
For Kobe, isn't this a new chapter in his career?
(End of chapter)
