Lakers side of view on the Kobe situation

[slinslin]

http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=214995

Maybe you will want to check out this thread although I am not 100% sure that it is worth it. I mean maybe I am being dumb there but I feel more like I am argueing back and forth with an idiot who will not accept anything other than what his perfect Lakers world suggests him and basically his whole argument of Kobe staying remains on the fact that Kobe could sign a bigger contract, in his opinion much bigger.

Anyway...

I should say that is ONE Lakers view there are a few others here and there that are probably Kobe fans first of all and wouldn't mind if he left the Lakers.

 

[slinslin]

Btw Joe Mama, I took 1 or 2 quotes from you , tweaked them a little and used them as my own in that thread, hope you don't mind.

 

[Joe Mama]

Originally posted by slinslin
Btw Joe Mama, I took 1 or 2 quotes from you , tweaked them a little and used them as my own in that thread, hope you don't mind.

plagiarize away.

Joe Mama

 

[slinslin]

I was too lazy to write everything down again that was said here about salary , contract satus etc.

I love arguing with other team's fans but boy often it gets very annoying when you can't get them to understand just 1 point when you already explained it 3 times in length.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

I will admit that I can be a homer when rationalizing my arguements, but those 7 pages were a tad bit ridiculous.

The money talk was horrible. You were right on all the contract issues, provided sources to back up your claims, and he just ignored it all.

About the endorsements. Would Kobe get more off court money if he stayed in LA? Debatable. He would most likely gain money in some endorsements, although that is still up in the air. His Nike contract is already signed, so his shoe deal will not change in value. He will still command a ton of money in any endorsement he does, he will always rank in the top portion of jersey sales no matter where he is.

Him claiming Lebron would get more money in LA is just bad. He signed a 90 million dollar deal with nike before he was drafted. He is in freaking Cleavland. How much more does that guy expect Lebron to command???


You should bring up Eric's point about cost of living, and income taxes. California has to have huge taxes compared to Arizona, and the cost of living is insane. That would offset some of the money he would theoretically loose by going to a smaller market.

 

[slinslin]

Great Point, I am going to steal that one.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

The thread i really just between you 2. Most every one else on it seems to be complete morons.

THe guy who claimed Kobe would only leave for Chicago or NY?? How in the world is that going to happen? Money may not be a driving factor, but he will not take the MLE just to leave the Lakers. It has been made very clear that the Lakers will not sign and trade him (even the other guy said that).


Also, since when did Kobe "force" a trade from Charlotte to go to a bigger market?? The Lakers made that trade because they knew how good Kobe would be. That is why they gave up Vlade for an 18 year old kid out of high school. It isn't like he pulled a Steve Francis on them.

 

[slinslin]

It is my understanding that Kobe had a short list of teams that he wanted to play for.

I am pretty sure LA and Phoenix were on the list maybe nobody else.

I think that is why Colangelo at that point was pretty sure to get Kobe at #15 but West traded to #13.

Btw, I stole your observation from the game about Kobe as well. Man I am a thief, but this board is great to find ammunition for those kind of discussions.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Haha, go ahead.

Well you know when you have a collection of overly obssessed suns fans, who for some reason constantly read this board in the middle of a weekday (instead of going to an economics class in my case) you are bound to find some good stuff.

 

[Gee!]

slin,

That largelakerfan cracks me up. First he says he has broken bread with them and asked Kobe what the real deal was. Don't you think if he was that close to Kobe, kobe would have said to keep it to himself so as not to mess up his free agency? Then he says he knows the Lakers brass. Well if he knows the brass what kind of response did he expect to get from Kobe? Did he really think Kobe would say, "just between you and me, i'm outta here"? Might wanna bring that up with him.

 

[slinslin]

Thanks

Does anyone actually know a source or figure what the tax difference would be like in Kobe's situation?

At an average salary of close to 20M$ even small differences should make a HUGE difference over 6 years.

 

[elindholm]

I could figure out the highest income tax rate for California by looking through the tables, but I'm afraid I can't make that a terribly high priority right now. If you get stuck I might be able to do it in a couple of days, and then someone else could do it for Arizona.

There's no easy way to quantify standard-of-living differences, though, so probably it's best to drop that point, even though it is intuitive to anyone thinking clearly about the situation.

 

[slinslin]

Haha I will just keep saying that the taxes are lower which will make the difference in money very close if not favorable for the Suns.

And then I will wait for Lakers fans to figure out the opposite.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Just to open you up for a possible rebuttle:

Many NBA players have homes in the offseason in different states. A motivating factor is if they spend enough time in that home, they can claim it as their primary residence. That is why many athletes have homes in Florida and Texas for example, since there is no state income tax there.

I don't know if Kobe has homes elsewhere, but you can bet his accounting firm most likely gets him out of a bunch of tax money. Of course wait for them to realize that.

 

[George O'Brien]

Originally posted by thegrahamcrackr
Just to open you up for a possible rebuttle:

Many NBA players have homes in the offseason in different states. A motivating factor is if they spend enough time in that home, they can claim it as their primary residence. That is why many athletes have homes in Florida and Texas for example, since there is no state income tax there.

I don't know if Kobe has homes elsewhere, but you can bet his accounting firm most likely gets him out of a bunch of tax money. Of course wait for them to realize that.

Some players live in low income tax states and then allocate their taxes based on the cities they played in. For example, a player making $10 million would be paid $121,950 per game. This would mean that $5 million would be charged for the home state income tax, but the per game income would be charged for the state where the game is being played. This is the same income situation that traveling construction workers are faced with, though rarely for the same amounts.