Why Mitch? I mean when you picked up the phone or met with ESPN’s Baxter Holmes to talk about the Lakers, what gave you the notion that slating Kobe’s Farewell Tour AGAIN would leave a positive response?
He talked about this subject a few days ago. I know, because I wrote about it! Props to Holmes for reporting this but Mitch, you’re really not helping by talking about this on a weekly basis. Not only is he whining about Kobe, he’s now saying that the Farewell Tour is to the young players’ detriment.
“Under normal circumstances [in a season like this], at some point, you would probably concentrate on just developing all your young players,” Kupchak told ESPN on Tuesday. “But we can’t do that right now.
“This [season] is really a justified farewell to perhaps the best player in franchise history. And, God willing, he’s going to want to play every game and he’s going to want to play a lot of minutes in every game, because that’s just the way he is.
“And as long as that continues, which it should, then that’s 30-35 minutes that you might give to a young player that you can’t. How do you get a feel for your team going forward when you know that your best player is not going to be there next year? So it’s really hard to go forward until he’s no longer here.
“That’s not a bad thing. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing at all. It’s something that I think is a good thing. In some regards, there’s a silver lining. Our younger players can make mistakes and it can kind of go under the radar because Kobe garnishes so much attention. Every game, it’s about Kobe. Even when he doesn’t play, it’s about Kobe. So in a lot of regards, there’s a silver lining that our guys can develop under the radar and maybe make a mistake or make two mistakes and it not be a big deal.“
That last paragraph is clearly where he realised that he dug himself a hole and he knew that he couldn’t get out. But that didn’t stop him from trying!
Mitch needs to pipe down, there is no reason to say all this, we know that Kobe is taking some chances away from the young players. Why do you think people were calling for Kobe to be benched? And saying that this is a silver lining of sorts because it gives the young players a chance to fly under the radar, is also false. Why? Because you’re head coach can’t keep his mouth shut. The past couple of days have been about Julius Randle and his tiff with Byron Scott. Sure, that was a real “flying under the radar” moment.
