The Black Plague (Why Kobe needs to go!)

In my Puff Daddy voice, "I ain't go-in nowhere!" Y'all gone have to throw me out bruh!

Warren G. Bennis, pioneer in the contemporary field of Leadership Studies, once said, “Leadership is the wise use of power. Power is the capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain it.” John Kotter, professor of the High Potentials Leadership Program at the Harvard Business School, was standing on the block with all the lil’ homies when he said, “Great leadership does not mean running away from reality. Sometimes the hard truths might just demoralize the company, but at other times sharing difficulties can inspire people to take action that will make the situation better.” Then ole Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, pulled up in the new whip and shouted, “The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes. “

The problem is, none of the duns in the front office of the Los Angeles Lakers were standing out there when these cats were spitting that knowledge bruh! I’ve been telling boyz since last season that the Black Mamba is the root of the problem in LA but diehard Kobe fans can’t see the forest for the trees!

Now check this out. The Lakers front office has been making bad decision after bad decision ever since the mastermind, Jerry Buss, got sick and eventually died and turned over the reigns to his son Jim! He signed a dun that wasn't going to stay and anybody with a brain could see that.  He signed a 147 year old point guard to go with it. He fired Mike Brown 5 games into the season without having Phil locked and loaded. Then he brought in a coach with a .533 winning percentage that is afraid of his players. Ole boy is running the joint into the ground and oh yeah, Kobe is driving the freakin’ bus with some white tube socks and black street shoes on like the Cleveland bus driver that knocked that broad out. "You goin' to jail now!"

On Friday they paid this cat $24.3 million of the $30.5 million he’s due to receive for the 2013-2014 season. Now I’m all for a boy gettin’ paid, don’t get it twisted. It just doesn’t make since to pay him that type of bread at 35 years old and he’s out indefinitely as he rehabs his Achilles.

Like I said last spring when that dun got hurt you gotta move on. Amnesty him, that means pay him his bread because you agreed to do it. By Amnestying him you pay him and at it doesn’t count toward the salary cap nor do you have to pay luxury taxes on that salary which hits boyz at about $50 million. Then you put yourself in a position to recruit stud free agents.

Let’s keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1^st! As long as Kobe Bryant is on that roster there isn’t a superstar free agent alive that's going to commit to coming to LA. Nobody wants to play with a cat that’s 35 that still thinks he’s 25 and still the first option. So for all you boyz thinking that in 2014 cats like LeBron etc. would consider going to LA? You’re smokin’! NOBODY WANTS TO PLAY WITH THAT DUN!!!!

If you think I'm hatin' pull the tape from this week and listen to the TNT gang tell you the same thing. I was just the first cat to write it last spring and you can pull the tape on that too.

So all you’re going to get is clowns that want to tell their grandkids one day that they played with the Black Mamba! You can't win anything with cats like that! You’re not getting the franchise type players to come to LA as long as he thinks he's 25!

Jerry Buss was the smartest owner in the NBA at one time. He knew when to bring ‘um in and he certainly knew when to send ‘um out. Most recently he sent Shaq, who was still ballin’, out of the door because he had to prepare for the future. Shaq went to Miami and won another championship but the future of LA was in Kobe at the time and they went on to win two more.

Even though Kobe was still ballin’ last year, its now time to unload that dun to prepare for the future of the organization. That’s that “hard truth” ole boy John Kotter was talking about earlier.

If the Colts could unload Peyton Manning! If the 49’rs could unload Joe Montana! If Jerry “Freakin’” Rice, the best that ever did it, can line up in an Oakland Raiders uniform! If Michael Jeffery Jordan can show up in a Wizards jersey don’t tell me that Kobe ain’t beyond running out of the tunnel in a Milwaukee Bucks or Denver Nuggets joint.

Now granted, Jordan retired and refused to work for the dull Jerry’s, Reinsdorf and Krause but either way he wasn’t in a Bulls uniform. On some real talk, boyz had to eventually move on one way or another.

Now if any organization needed to hold on to a boy it would have been the Bulls holding on to MJ because they hadn’t won anything before him or after his Airness.

However, the Lakers have been winning championships for decades bruh! Count them 16! They were winning before Kobe was even born so they don’t need to be tied to this dun for life. It was a good run and everybody got what they wanted out of the relationship but it’s time to move on.

Kobe has the Lakers by the gonads and nobody has the guts to take control of the organization. Boyz had all summer long to pull the trigger and didn’t. So now what sense does it make to pay a 35 year old cat that will be a shell of himself when he comes back $30.5 million dollars to play at most 40 games? None at all! You're in it now but this needs to be the last year of this foolishness.

You’re not making the playoffs with or without him. As a matter of fact, they’re not going to win anything else with him because Father Time is undefeated bruh! They can’t get past these young boyz in the West anymore! Why? Because they can’t keep up with them! Their key pieces are too old now. It’s time to rebuild the joint and in order to do that you’ve got to take your feelings out of it.

So you may as well start preparing to pull the trigger and start the marketing campaign for superstar free agents now. Because as long as that dun is in the locker room or has the potential to be in that locker room next year talking crazy to boyz, you may as well start calling him the Black Plague because everybody will be running in the opposite direction! So since Kobe doesn’t have sense enough to walk away. Leadership needs to! Stop me when I start lyin’!

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Get @ me on Twitter: @jaygravesreportFacebook: www.facebook.com/TheJayGravesReport
Instagram: JayGravesReport
The quote under the caption isn’t real but its REAL talk!