Kwame Reveals His Side Of Infamous Kobe Story

I remember him sucking. That's about it.

 

Mr. Sensitivity

 

I don't care if we got Pau for Kwame, letting Caron Butler go for Kwame was an idiot move.

The fact that we got Pau eventually with Kwame as the main money piece (expiring) was a blessing from above and aided in no small part by our close relationship with the GA (Chris Wallace) who was Jerry West's guy (who himself had just left the organization) so Mitch was handed Pau. Remember how shocked the league was at that deal? In no way was the Pau move foreseen by Mitch with the Caron for Kwame trade. He traded a great SF who paired with Kobe well (and were pals) for a broken interior defender. Kobe was infuriated. Memphis saved his a** and after we got Pau everyone forgot about Caron-for-Kwame and Mitch went back to being the genius we all falsely believed him to be. When in fact he just has a guardian angel in Jerry West. Jerry West was the reason we got Pau, not Mitch.

"Where's our Pau-for-Deng or Pau-for-Mozgov deal now Mitch?" Is probably the first question Magic asked when interviewing him.

 

Everyone is so emotional. Oh, he had a bad childhood, oh, he fell one time and hurt his ankle and it traumatized him for life. Come on man. We are talking about basketball not an after school special here. Kwame never put the work in. He was lazy, unmotivated and had one of the worst BBIQ's in the history of the NBA. His freakish athleticism was all that kept him where he was for so long. Darko Milicic may have been the only one worse in that era that I saw.

 

Anyone who came after Shaq and a historic line of Laker centers who knew what to do with the ball were going to be disappointed with Kwame.

They said he looked like Adonis without his shirt on, but it just didn't translate onto the floor.

Interesting how there is no perfect bball player ever. If Lebron had Jordan's Killer instinct, if Kobe had Lebrons body, if Shaq had Kobe's work ethic....

Part of what makes team sports great is having 5 imperfect and incomplete players working as a seamless unit in the floor better than the other team. The greatest leaders make the sum of the parts greater than the whole.

Despite Pau's flaws, Kwame made us appreciate what he brought to the table immensely.