Los Angeles Lakers: Should the Lakers Have Amnestied Kobe Bryant Instead?

The verdict is in; the Los Angeles Lakers have reportedly decided to exercise their amnesty clause and the unfortunate fellow on his way out is the outspoken and, at times, controversial Metta World Peace. However, in my opinion, it should be Kobe Bryant.

Now, before Lakers fans out there start going ballistic, please hear me out first.

By the time the 2013-14 season begins, Kobe Bryant will be 35 years old and coming off arguably the worst injury in sports, a torn Achilles tendon; an injury that has ended so many great careers or at the very least, hastened the decline.

Moreover, L.A. will have to fork out $30 million for the Lakers legend, but that’s not really an issue. That is until you realize that the team–prior to releasing Metta World Peace–has $77 million counting against their salary cap and over a quarter of that money is from Bryant’s contract alone.

Did the Lakers make the right call in keeping Kobe Bryant for the 2013-14 season? Photo Credit: Keith Allison, Flickr.com

We often hear that the NBA is a business and sentiment often comes second. And I’m no expert but having the contract of a player coming off a major injury and going into his 18th season cripple your whole offseason proceedings doesn’t make much business sense.

Essentially, for L.A. it was Dwight Howard or bust. Superman bolted and the Lakers were left with nothing. No center to man the middle, no superstar locked up past the Kobe Bryant Era and not much room to maneuver. The best they could muster in free agency so far has been center Chris Kaman. He is no slouch, but he’s no Dwight Howard either.

By releasing Bryant, the Lakers would knock their salaries down to $47 million, which could allow them the flexibility to go after a star or add quality depth to aid Steve Nash and Pau Gasol.

Furthermore, with the 2013-14 season being his 18th, maybe Bryant should follow Derrick Rose’s lead and sit out the whole term in order to fully rest and possibly extend his career. Amnestying him would force him to do just that.

Having sat out the year to fully recuperate, Kobe could then re-sign for the 2014-15 season onward; after all, he has been the face of L.A. for almost two decades and he bleeds purple-and-gold.

Now I’m not going to sit here and discount Kobe for next season because that would naïve and, quite frankly, stupid. The guy lives to defy the odds and those who doubt him. I mean, who would have predicted he would be the third-leading scorer in the league last year? But with that said, only a Herculean, Adrian Peterson-esque season would justify the $30 million cap hit.

It’s not set in stone yet that Metta World Peace will be cut, but that seems to be the likely outcome.

Lakers Nation will have to pray the team finds a way to stay competitive in the meat grinder that is the Western Conference until Kobe Bean Bryant returns.

Then again, this is the “Black Mamba” we’re talking about here, even at 60 percent, he could probably still do this.