There is not much good Kobe Bryant news lately because obviously, the 19-year veteran is not playing due to a recurring injury that was aggravated before the end of the first half of the season.
Despite him being absent for most matches, some fans pin Los Angeles Lakers' dismal performance to the Black Mamba. They think Bryant should have lowered his salary to be able to sign key players. The gold and purple franchise is already out of the playoff picture and their only recourse is to rebuild next year.
While many thinks Kobe Bryant and his huge salary is to blame for the Lakers' failed 2014-15 NBA season campaign, his former teammate Matt Barnes, now with rival Los Angeles Clippers, thinks the Black Mamba should be cleared of such finger pointing.
"The reason people don't want to go to the Lakers is because of management," Barnes said of Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in an interview with SI.com.
"Kobe can be the scapegoat all they want but if you play hard, Kobe likes you. And if you bulls- around, he doesn't. It's plain and simple. He's not a vocal leader. He just expects you to play as hard as you can every minute on the court, like he does."
After creating some sort of rivalry with their heated face offs while he was still with Orlando Magic, Barnes joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 2010.
However, his partnership with the scoring machine didn't reap good fruits as they were knocked out in the second round by the Dallas Mavericks in 2010 and were booted out by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of 2011.
With the Los Angeles Lakers, Matt Barnes continued his role as a stopper while also providing quality minutes in offense. In his first season, he averaged 7.8 points and 5.5 rebounds. His best year together with Kobe Bryant was in 2012 wherein he averaged 10.3 points and 4.6 rebounds after playing 80 games.
