Oh The Greed: Kobe Bryant Won’t Take Pay Cut to Build Winning Team

Kobe Bryant, who turns 35 in August, is worth approximately $32 million per season under a new contract with the Lakers and he says he plans to play three or four more seasons. If Kobe’s is paid his approximate value, it would be the largest in the league and would eat up more than half of the Lakers 2014-15 season salary cap.

The Lakers’ cap this season is $58.7 million. If Kobe gets his way, the deal would severely limit the Lakers’ ability to build a championship team.

According to an interview with Serena Winters of the fan site Lakers Nation, Bryant will begin negotiations with the intention of making his pockets fatter.

“I’m not taking any at all – that’s the negotiation that you have to have.” Bryant said  in an exclusive interview at his Kobe Basketball Academy on Wednesday. “For me to sit here and say, ‘Oh yeah, I’m just going to take a huge pay cut.’ Nah, I’m going to try to get as much as I possibly can.”

I wonder what Laker fans think about Kobe’s greed.

Still independent.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top