Sins of The Los Angeles Lakers Part VII: Greed

By Zach Fetaru @fanforlife1988 on October 17, 2014

This is the final installment of the revealing series covering the Los Angeles Lakers’ Seven Deadly Sins. This final act, along with the previous installments, reveal the real reasons behind the downfall of the Lakers’ empire and how they have come to define the current team of today.

Intro

Sloth

Lust

Pride

Wrath

Gluttony

Envy

Following Dwight Howard’s decision to bolt for the Houston Rockets during the 2013 offseason, the Lakers were left with an inferior roster, little financial flexibility and the wreckage of a season which had crashed and burned in front of their eyes. After months of free-falling, the team had officially hit rock bottom — no longer the marquee attraction of the NBA, let alone Los Angeles. The team would be in dire need of a bit of luck – that old Laker-luck that guided the franchise to 16 NBA Championships.

Finding the right way to not bottom-out further while also appeasing the unrealistic expectations of the fanbase would prove to be trickier than initially expected. The Lakers would pull out their best card and once again look to Kobe Bryant to alter the course of the organization. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and on Nov. 26, 2013, the Lakers signed Bryant to a two-year extension,worth $48.5 million. The Lakers made a decision to prioritize their long-term future over the success of the short term, while also using Bryant as a way to save-face from the harsh reality the organization was enduring.

Bryant’s new contract would continue to make him the highest paid player in the league — a distinction he had held for all three seasons under his previous deal. While fellow superstars Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki each took steep pay cuts for their respective teams to continue having as much financial flexibility as possible, Bryant was chastised for his decision to put himself over the success of the team.

However, whether Bryant’s play on the court was worth the sizable contract or not, the Lakers were the ones offering the deal. Bryant did what any rational athlete would by accepting the Lakers’ offer. The Lakers were again left to answer for their decisions, going as far as to publicly declare that their main focus was projected towards the following free agency periods and not on the season at hand.

While the Lakers had the money to still court Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James this past offseason, they were nowhere near the premier destination they anticipated to be. Missing out on both stars, on top of losing Pau Gasol for less money to the Chicago Bulls, bewildered the Lakers, who had always been accustomed to retrieving and attracting the players they pursued.

The Lakers attempted to salvage the offseason by adding Jeremy Lin, drafting rookie Julius Randle and re-signing some of the only bright spots from last year’s team. But they waited until July to hire a head coach, another sign of how dysfunctional and unorganized the front office really is. While they ended up with Byron Scott, a proven winner and member of the organization’s championship family, the Lakers did not raise expectations for the upcoming season, leaving little doubt that another year of disappointment is at hand.

All of this goes back to Bryant’s contract. Everything related to this team will start and end with their future Hall of Famer. Bryant is being paid based on his loyalty and past performance. But in today’s NBA, he will be judged based on how well he performs in these next two seasons. While many call Bryant the greedy one for this contract, it’s the Lakers who are the most greedy, as they placed an unfair burden on their returning star. As long as Bryant is playing, the team is fine with mediocrity results,and will expect its fans to still turn out regardless of the overall performance.

At some point, the team will have to move on, but with Bryant extending his career for at least these next two seasons, the team will allow success to become secondary to whatever the final outcome of Bryant’s run is. Let’s just hope the Lakers have a long-term plan in place, because once Bryant is gone, the organization will no longer be able to bank on loyalty and nostalgia.

Zach Fetaru is a Los Angeles Lakers writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @fanforlife1988 ”like him” on Facebook and add him to your network on Google.