Last December, Kobe Bryant went down with a season-ending injury shortly after signing a $48-million contract extension that will make him the highest-paid NBA player until 2016.

Some criticized Kobe for not taking a larger pay cut at a point in his career when his skills are diminishing.

In an SI cover story by Chris Ballard, one anonymous GM said Kobe had "zero" trade value because of his salary.

According to Ballard, Kobe had ideological reasons for taking his extension. He believes star players are underpaid because of the league's strict maximum contract rules, and he signed his deal as a show of defiance.

From SI:

"Bryant believes that players like himself and LeBron James are underpaid, compared to what they would be worth on the free market (he told friends he thinks James would be worth roughly $75 million on an open market). With his last contract, he felt it was important to demonstrate to younger players that you should never take less than you’re worth. When I asked if he was taking a stand of sorts, this was his response:

"'If you’re talking just from a business perspective, yeah.'"

Kobe added:

"As athletes, especially as public figures, you get the pressure of playing for the love of the game, they always throw that around all the time. Of course you play for the love of the game! But do owners buy teams for the love of the game?"

The NBA is a star-driven league. In no other sport can a single player swing the fate of a franchise so easily. Yet the NBA has rules in place to suppress their salaries.

Under the new CBA, the NBA caps maximum salaries at around 30% of the salary cap with 7.5% annual raises. That means LeBron James is only allowed to make around $20 million in 2014-15. 

Estimates for what LeBron should and would get paid on the open market are all over the place. Kobe says $75 million. One stat says $44.8 million. Another stat says $31 million. But ultimately they're all more than $20 million.

Ultimately LeBron would be worth however much an NBA owner is willing to pay him, and considering some of the free-spending owners coming into the league, that number might be higher than we think.

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NBA legend and current New York Knicks president Phil Jackson talked about some of the best players he has ever coached in an interview with the New York Post on Wednesday.

One particularly interesting exchange came when Jackson was asked if Carmelo Anthony should model himself after Kobe Bryant. Jackson said that no one can model themselves after Kobe because Kobe trains harder than anyone, even Michael Jordan.

From the NYP:

Q: Is Kobe Bryant the model for Carmelo Anthony?

A: No. No one can approach that. I don’t expect anybody to be able to model their behavior after that, although Kobe modeled his behavior a lot about Michael Jordan, but he went beyond Michael in his attitude towards training, and I know Mike would probably question me saying that, but he did.

The ways in which Kobe replicated Jordan on and off the court are well documented. There's a nearly two-minute YouTube compilation of Kobe doing the exact same moves Jordan did. In a 2013 interview, Jordan said Kobe would be the only guy who could come close to him in 1-on-1 because "he steals all of my moves."

Kobe's notorious competitiveness, though, is too extreme to be a mere imitation of Jordan's. He's one of the hardest workers the sport has ever seen. In high school he was getting up at 5 a.m. to practice and forcing his teammates to play him to 100 points in 1-on-1.

In recent years Kobe has devoted himself to staying in impeccable shape in order to prolong his career. He lost 20 pounds in the summer of 2007. Going into the 2012 Olympics, he dropped 16 pounds to prepare himself for a full year of basketball.

This strategy — losing weight as you enter your 30s in order to extend your prime — has influenced the next generation of NBA stars. LeBron James lost "a ton of weight" this summer after going on a 67-day diet. Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade are reportedly slimmer as well. His dedication to fitness has changed the habits of his peers, which is pretty convincing evidence in favor of Jackson's claim that Kobe is unmatched in his training attitude.

SEE ALSO: 18 Examples Of Kobe Bryant's Insane Work Ethic

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It's no secret Kobe Bryant and former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike D'Antoni didn't have the best basketball relationship. D'Antoni and the Lakers sputtered to a combined 67-87 record over the last two seasons, resulting in the coach's resignation last May.

As the Lakers opened training camp this week under new head coach Byron Scott, Bryant couldn't resist throwing one last jab at D'Antoni.

Kobe: "DAntoni and I didn't have the same philosophy on winning. For me, it's winning and no inbtwn...it's championship or a waste of time"

— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) September 29, 2014

D'Antoni drew a lot of criticism for trying to install his famous up-tempo offensive system, which rarely emphasizes defense — something Bryant and other Lakers didn't necessarily approve of. 

Bryant went on to praise Byron Scott, claiming they both only have one goal: winning a championship. Unfortunately for Bryant, this year's Lakers roster is similarly putrid, and likely won't even sniff the playoffs.

It may be a bit of a low-blow, but this is just Kobe being Kobe.

SEE ALSO: Phil Jackson Says Kobe Bryant Trains Harder Than Michael Jordan Did

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In 2012 Kobe Bryant wrote a Facebook manifesto about his controversial leadership style.

It was basically a defense of his reputation as a "villain" who doesn't get along with his teammates.

"It's pushing them to find their inner beast, even if they end up resenting you for it at the time," he wrote about how he treats his teammates. "I'd rather be perceived as a winner than a good teammate. I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success. "

Over the course of his career Kobe has gotten into public feuds with his point guards, scared the daylights out of rookies, and generally regarded his teammates with a healthy level of disdain. When asked to describe Kobe in three words, Steve Nash picked, "M------ f------ a------."

Kobe is completely aware of his reputation, and has talked openly about the virtues of being an "a------" in interviews.

That's why it's such a surprise that the biggest story to come out of Lakers training camp is this: Kobe is being nice to everyone!

Both ESPN's Arash Markazi and the OC Register's Bill Oram wrote stories about how helpful Kobe has been to his rookie teammates going into the 2014-15 season.

Kobe told ESPN:

"My style is a little different with his group. It’s a little more nurturing. They’re so much younger, so it’s a little different. The important thing with this group is learning how to think the game all the way through, which is different than on teams that we have had in the past. We had a lot of veteran guys who had been around. So my teaching style is different."

His teammates are raving about it. 

Lakers center Robert Sacre — who said Kobe didn't even speak to him for two weeks when he was a rookie — says the team is closer because of Kobe's new outlook.

"I believe he’s been more helpful during this whole process and the preseason. He’s been really vocal as a leader. In the past, he hasn’t been as vocal. But this year he’s really been trying to communicate and help guys out. This year has made an effort to push guys but at the same time give them advice to make them better."

Oram reports that Kobe and coach Byron Scott sat down with 1st-round pick Julius Randle and told him he could be an All-Star if he worked hard. After Randle struggled through two preseason games, Kobe threw him a lifeline when he may have criticized a rookie in the past:

Byron Scott even made a Kobe-is-old joke when describing how great this kinder Kobe is:

"I think he’s getting soft in his old age. But seriously, he’s been really good with all the guys, to be honest with you. He’s done a heck of a job of taking guys to the side and teaching them little things about the NBA. He’s done the same thing at practice."

The best line comes from Markazi, who wrote about Kobe's philosophical change, "His teaching style is different in the sense that he’s actually teaching instead of tormenting."

The big question is whether Kobe maintains this new style when things start to go downhill this season.

SEE ALSO: 18 Examples Of Kobe's Incredible Work Ethic

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The owners crushed the players in the 2011 NBA lockout.

Armed with the much-disputed contention that 22 of 30 teams were losing money, the owners were able to cut the percentage of basketball-related income that went to the players from 57% to 51%. 

Three years later the NBA is in sound financial health.

Only nine of 30 teams lost money in 2013-14, Grantland's Zach Lowe reports. That number should shrink even more when the league's massive nine-year, $24-billion TV deal kicks in starting in 2016-17. The deal will nearly triple the NBA's current TV revenue.

The owners took a big piece of the pie from the players in 2011. And now that the pie is about to grow substantially, players are not happy.

There's a rumor that LeBron James wants to eliminate the league's maximum salary limit. The current MVP, Kevin Durant, complained that top players are underpaid.

The most ominous warning of all comes from Kobe Bryant. On Tuesday Kobe discussed his thoughts on the league's new TV deal. He said that the owners are the ones who make the real money, and it's unfair to expect players to accept less than their market value for the sake of winning.

Most interestingly, he said that the players need to stand their ground if the owners try to lock them out in 2017.

From NBC:

"It’s very easy to look at the elite players around the league and talk about the money they get paid, compare that with the average (salary in America), but we don’t look at what the owners get paid, the revenue they generate off the backs of these players. And now you have a TV deal that comes out and you look at it being up like a billion dollars (a year) from the previous one, and this is coming off the back of a lockout in which the cap, it’s not a hard cap, but it’s pretty close to a hard cap.

“And now it will be interesting to see what happens in this next labor agreement. It’s my understanding this TV deal kicks in the last year of this current agreement, so I’m sure they will try to lock us out again and harden the cap even more and I think as players you got to hold your ground a little bit. Not be afraid of what the public perception is and instead try to educate the public a little bit and understanding that it’s not about complaining about how much you’re making, because that’s ridiculous — we are overpaid, at the same time so are the owners. And you have to fight for your value."

Whenever there is a labor dispute, the players get vilified for trying to improve their already astronomical salaries. The same complaint is not typically applied to owners, for whatever reason. 

Kobe is smart in the way he's framing his argument that the players should stand up to the owners. It's not about NBA players being underpaid (they aren't, in the grand scheme of things), it's about getting paid what they're worth. 

The owners were able to cry poor and get concessions out of the players in 2011. With the eye-popping new TV deal, they'll face fiercer opposition from the players if they try to do the same in 2017.

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In 2009 Tony Gaffney was a rookie in Los Angeles Lakers training camp when Kobe Bryant picked him as his one-on-one guinea pig.

In a great interview with David Pick of BasketballInsiders.com, Gaffney described the one-on-one games, and it will only add to Kobe's reputation as one of the sport's most maniacally competitive people.

From BasketballInsiders:

“We’re gonna start playing one-on-one,” Bryant told Gaffney, according to the forward. “I heard you’re a defensive lockdown player. So, lock me down.”

“Obviously easier said than done,” Gaffney said with a laugh. “But for about three weeks in a row, I was forced to show up hours before practice to play one-on-one against Kobe.”

Bryant would invent various sets of rules where he could only dribble and score with his weak hand; some days he could only score inside the paint, others only from outside.

“Oh, and I never got to play offense,” Gaffney said.

Kobe!

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ESPN released its annual ranking of NBA players and Kobe Bryant dropped this season from no. 25 to no. 40.

Needless to say Bryant doesn't think too highly of the ranking. However, that doesn't mean he is going to use the slight as a motivation.

When asked about the ranking following a preseason game and whether he would use it as motivation, Bryant laughed and said it would not, calling ESPN "a bunch of idiots."

Kobe went on to clarify that he only uses things for motivation that come from "the realm of reality."

Bryant has voiced his displeasure with ESPN's rankings in the past. Last year, when ESPN ranked the Lakers 12th in the 15-team Western Conference, Kobe sent out a simple and brief tweet that spoke volumes.

Kobe may say that ESPN's belief that there are 39 players in the NBA better than him is not a motivator, but you can be sure that he is filing it away in the back of his mind and it won't be forgotten.

Here is the video of Bryant's comments.

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Kobe Bryant has played just six NBA regular season games since the end of the 2012-13 season, so this preseason has been a time for him to shake off the rust.

Sunday night, Utah Jazz guard Alec Burks took advantage of the 36-year-old, still-rusty Bryant with a filthy behind-the-back crossover that embarrassed Bryant.

The play began on the opposite end of the court when Kobe hit a three-pointer in Burk's face.

Burks, perhaps feeling a bit embarrassed, came back on the other end, juked Bryant with the crossover, and made his way into the lane for the and-one layup.

Bryant may have multiple All-Defensive Team honors under his belt, but at 36, we can expect young players to go at him like this frequently this season. The Lakers got the final laugh, however, with a 98-91 victory.

Watch the full play below:

SEE ALSO: Kobe Bryant Destroys ESPN Over Low Player Ranking

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There's an article about Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers' recent inability to sign superstar free agents by Henry Abbott in the new ESPN The Magazine, and it's absolutely brutal for Kobe.

Abbott reports that NBA stars don't want to play with Kobe anymore. He also cites sources who said Kobe has sabotaged free agency negotiations with multiple big-name players since 2011.

One anonymous "source close to Lakers decision makers" told Abbott:

"He wants to win. But only as long as he's the reason we're winning, as long as the performance is not affecting his numbers. No one works harder than Kobe. And no one sabotages his own efforts more. He's scaring off the free agents we're trying to get. We're trying to surround you with talent and your ego is getting in the way."

Some of the example of this alleged "sabotage" include:

• When the Lakers were trying to re-sign Dwight Howard in 2013, Kobe showed up to the team's meeting with him in gym clothes and proceeded to lecture Howard about what it takes to win. Howard ended up signing with Houston for $30 million less than he would have gotten with the Lakers.
• Kobe missed the team's meeting with Carmelo Anthony in the summer of 2014 because he flew to Europe. Anthony ended up staying with the Knicks.
• The team asked Kobe to call Steve Nash and talk about playing together when the Lakers were trying to trade for him in 2012. Kobe never called him because he wanted Nash to be the one to have to make the call.
• Paul George re-signed with the Pacers instead of entering free agency and potentially signing with the Lakers because "he was turned off by the thought that Bryant would police his efforts."

Historically, the Lakers have always been able to rely on superstar players wanting to live in Los Angeles and play for the Lakers. But since 2011 they've been unable to sign big free agents. They missed on Howard, Anthony, Chris Bosh, and didn't even get a meeting with LeBron James this summer. They also weren't a part of the Kevin Love trade sweepstakes.

At least according to Abbott's sources, Kobe's alpha playing style and prickly personality are the main reasons why NBA stars don't want to play there.

"The view in the Lakers' front office is that any real rebuild will have to wait until after Bryant's retirement," Abbott reports.

To be fair, everyone thought the Lakers were going to be the best team in the NBA when both Howard and Nash forced trades to Los Angeles in 2012. In addition, we might not even be having this conversation if David Stern didn't veto the Chris Paul trade that would have set up the Lakers for another period of success.

There are also other reasons the Lakers haven't signed free agents in 2013 and 2014, most notably the new collective bargaining agreement, which incentivizes free agents to stay with their current teams. The Lakers also had no cap room in 2013.

Kobe has two years left on his $48 million contract extension that will keep him as the highest-paid player in the NBA through 2016.

NOW WATCH: Here's The Science Behind How LeBron James Lost All That Weight

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There's a new article in ESPN The Magazine in which anonymous agents and other sources trash Kobe Bryant and say he's the reason the Los Angeles Lakers have struggled in recent years.

NBA superstars don't want to play with Kobe, Kobe has "sabotaged" free-agency negotiations with multiple players, and the Lakers don't believe they can rebuild until Kobe leaves, according to NBA sources quoted in the article.

The main takeaway is this: The Lakers aren't good because they haven't signed any big free agents, and it's Kobe's fault because no one wants to play with him.

This theory is problematic. It ignores some external reasons why the Lakers haven't signed a star free agent in years, and it relies on an assumption (no star players want to play for Los Angeles anymore) that's hard to justify.

One of the big reasons the Lakers haven't signed any big free agents since their most recent NBA championship, in 2010, is that the new collective bargaining agreement (signed in 2011) changed the rules. It is now much harder for teams to sign max-level free agents away from their current teams. Superstar free agents are highly incentivized to stay in place. These players can get five-year contracts with 7.5% annual raises if they re-sign with their current teams but only four-year contracts with 4.5% annual raises if they leave.

Since 2011, only two high-profile free agents have taken less money to play elsewhere, and both of them did so under unique circumstances. LeBron James left Miami to go home to Cleveland (where he signed a two-year contract that will actually help him gain back the money he left on the table by leaving Miami). Dwight Howard left Los Angeles to go to Houston (more on that later).

Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Carmelo Anthony have all been unrestricted free agents since 2012, and all of them re-signed with their teams. In addition, we've seen a bunch of young players (Paul George, Kyrie Irving, Blake Griffin) sign lengthy contract extensions rather then entering free agency as quickly as possible.

The top free agents who have left their teams in recent years (Andre Iguodala, Josh Smith, Lance Stephenson) all signed for below max money.

So why are the Lakers having trouble signing max free agents? Because everyone is having trouble signing max free agents. In the post-2011 CBA world, it is incredibly rare for a superstar to change teams in free agency.

In addition, the Lakers haven't had any cap room to use to sign second-tier free agents. Here's their annual payroll for the past three years (the salary cap was in the $55 million to $60 million range):

• 2011-12 — $85 million
• 2012-13 — $99 million
• 2013-14 — $77 million

Until this summer, the Lakers couldn't have signed any big-money free agents because their cap was tied up in Kobe, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Metta World Peace, Lamar Odom, Dwight Howard, and Steve Nash. It's completely fair to pin the blame for that on Kobe's league-high salary number, but that's a very different criticism than, "Nobody wants to play with Kobe."

While the anonymous agents in the ESPN article say players no longer want to play with the Lakers, there's actually some fairly recent examples of the opposite.

In 2011, the Lakers thought they had acquired Chris Paul in a blockbuster trade that would have set up the franchise for another period of success. In a stunning move, the NBA vetoed the trade. After the veto, Paul tweeted, "WoW." The implication was he wanted to go there. 

In summer 2012, Dwight Howard was traded to the Lakers. Howard's entire two-year free agency situation was bizarre. He got into a public feud with coach Stan Van Gundy, and he decided to opt into his 2012-2013 contract at 3 a.m. on a flight from San Antonio to Orlando in March 2012. Three months later he reversed course and demanded a trade. After getting dealt to the Lakers he said he really wanted to go to the Brooklyn Nets, but he also said playing in L.A. was "a dream come true."

The point: Howard has a history of acting idiosyncratically when it comes to his own free agency. His leaving $30 million on the table to sign with Houston after a nightmare 2012-2013 season probably shouldn't be taken as a sign that nobody wants to play for the Lakers anymore.

Steve Nash is the clearest example of a player wanting to play for the Lakers in recent years. In 2012, Nash was courted feverishly by the Lakers, Knicks, and Raptors. He picked the Lakers, signing a three-year, $27 million contract as part of a sign-and-trade.

The moment Nash signed, the Lakers killed their cap space through the 2013-2014 season. They gambled on Kobe-Nash-Howard-Gasol being the NBA's next superteam. That gamble went down in flames. Howard had a back injury that slowed him for much of the 2012-2013 season and Nash's body fell apart. Even after Howard left in 2013, the Lakers had nearly $60 million (itself more than the salary cap) tied up in Kobe, Nash, and Gasol alone last season.

They had no room to make themselves better in free agency.

So is it really true that nobody wants to play for the Lakers?

Steve Nash wanted to, and it seems as if Chris Paul did, too. Dwight Howard didn't, for sure. But other than that, the Lakers haven't really had the ability to go after any meaningful free agents until summer 2014 — when the only desirable free agents were max guys who weren't going to leave (LeBron, Carmelo, Bosh, Wade) and restricted free agents whom they would have had to widely overpay to have a chance of signing.

The Lakers fell apart because the Nash-Howard gamble blew up in their faces. Kobe is definitely overpaid, but even if you assume he's a terrible teammate, pinning the blame for the Lakers recent woes on him ignores some much more important factors.

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At the end of September, Kobe Bryant and Arianna Huffington got together for lunch with Philip Galanes of the New York Times.

While Galanes' coverage of their meet-up portrayed the effortless, familiar nature of their friendship, it didn't start out this organically. In fact, the pair met when Bryant sent Huffington an email out of the blue just to get to know her.

As both a successful basketball player and businessman, Bryant believes there's a lot to learn from other successful people. And what better way than to just ask them?

"I'm known for sending out cold emails," he told the Times. "I love learning from people who take on giants and slay them. I wanted to know how Arianna did what she did, and why."

Huffington wasn't Bryant's first cold email. He's also reached out to Oprah Winfrey, Nike CEO Mark Parker, and Apple's Jony Ive, according to Bloomberg. "I want to learn more about how they build their business or how they run their companies," he told Bloomberg Television. 

As a networking strategy, Bryant's cold-calling approach works — even if you aren't a celebrity. When done well, it connects you with successful people in your industry, allowing you to form valuable contacts and relationships. 

"People are always impressed with initiative, and cold emailing is a way to build a network without relying on friends, family, or their acquaintances,"writes career expert Frances Bridges.

SEE ALSO: 36 Unconventional Lessons Everyone Needs To Learn To Be Successful In Business

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Kobe Bryant recently faced heavy criticism from anonymous NBA agents for his prickly off-the-court demeanor when trying (and failing) to recruit free agents.

Now he's getting criticized by one anonymous NBA assistant coach for his play on the court.

ESPN's Chris Broussard asked a bunch of unnamed NBA executives and coaches about the biggest storylines of the coming NBA season. In talking about Kobe and the Lakers, an assistant coach for an Eastern Conference team basically told Broussard that Kobe was washed up.

He compared Kobe to Wizards-era Michael Jordan. It's pretty brutal:

I'm in total agreement with those who say Kobe's done. Look, you could put any high-level 2-guard on a bad team, let him jack up shots and get 20 points a night. So Kobe will be able to do that. But they ain't going to win. We don't judge Kobe off scoring 20 points a game. We judge him off dominance, off: 'Will they win 50 games, will they make the playoffs?' But now, we're not even talking about any of that. I'm not saying he can't play anymore. That's not what we're talking about.

It's like Michael Jordan in Washington. I, for one, didn't want to see Michael's last tour with Washington. Nobody did. When the Lakers play Philly and other low-level teams, Kobe will do whatever he wants. But when he plays good teams and gets doubled? That's when we'll see that he's not the same player.

Yeesh.

Jordan averaged 21 points per game in his two seasons in Washington, which is pretty impressive for a 39-year-old. But his numbers in every major statistical category dipped from his Chicago days.

Kobe has suffered two major injuries in the past 18 months. At age 36, it would be remarkable if his performance didn't fall off from where it was two years ago.

With Steve Nash injured, a roster full of middling role players, and a coach who wants to stop his team from taking one of the most efficient shots in basketball, the Lakers are expected to be one of the 10 worst teams in the NBA this year.

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The Los Angeles Lakers thought they were going to become championship contenders again when they completed a sign-and-trade with the Phoenix Suns for Steve Nash in 2012. 

The Lakers still had Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Andrew Bynum (who'd later be traded for Dwight Howard) in place, and adding Nash would give them a facilitator to make their offense hum. The Suns apprehensively agreed to the trade, and the Lakers sent them four draft picks for the former MVP — 2013 and 2015 first round draft picks, and 2013 and 2014 second-round picks. 

It was announced Thursday that Nash will miss the entire 2014-15 with a back injury. At 40 years old, in the last year of his contract, it's likely the end of Nash's career. For the Lakers, it puts the lid on a trade that's been an utter disaster, though it's hardly Nash's fault.

In 2012-13, the Nash-Bryant-Howard dream team was a total wreck because of bad health; Nash managed just 50 games that season, and Howard was never himself as he recovered from a back injury. Howard left for the Houston Rockets the following summer while Kobe Bryant has since suffered several injuries.

In the two years since Nash signed, the Lakers have a combined 70-94 record, while Nash has averaged just 9.7 points on 44% shooting with 6.2 assists per game in only 65 games — numbers well below his career averages.

But the price the Lakers paid to get Nash has hurt the team even more. The Lakers missed out on a mid-first-round pick in 2013, and though they did get Julius Randle in the 2014 draft, they'll miss another draft pick when they're in the lottery again this season. They could have swiftly been rebuilding for the future, but instead, they've been stuck over the salary cap, signing cheap, ineffective players to surround two old veterans in Nash and Bryant.

The team came into this season optimistic that Nash could start for them, but he sat out several preseason games, and took himself out of another because he didn't feel right. It was reported that Nash recently hurt his back carrying bags.

It's sad to see an all-time great point guard go out in an undistinguished way, and it's certainly not the finish the Lakers had hoped for.

SEE ALSO: Kobe Bryant Is Getting Trashed For 'Sabotaging' The Lakers In Free Agency — Here's Why The Team's Collapse Isn't His Fault

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Though Carmelo Anthony re-signed with the New York Knicks this summer instead of the Lakers, he claims it wasn't because of his hesitancy to play with Kobe Bryant.

Last week, ESPN The Magazine released a report quoting Lakers and NBA insiders saying Bryant has hurt the Lakers chances to attract big-name free agents.

Anthony recently told ESPN that Kobe had nothing to do with his decision to stay in New York:

"Hell no. Of course not. If I thought that [playing for the Lakers] was the right situation for me from an overall perspective as far as having a team there, then I would have looked at that situation more in-depth. I just felt more comfortable staying here in New York. But as far as playing with him ... I'm here now but I would always love to play with Kobe."

Bryant was supposed to attend the Lakers' recruiting pitch for Anthony, but couldn't make it back in time from a European vacation. Anthony says he and Bryant still spoke on occasion:

"He wasn't calling me every day and like, 'Get over here! I want you here! We had conversations about different situations whether it was in New York or in L.A., but it wasn't to the point where it was non-stop calling or texting or stuff like that."

Though the Lakers offered Anthony their maximum four-year, $96-million contract, Anthony chose to stay with New York for five years, $124 million. Besides for the massive pay difference, Anthony grew up in New York and has said he wouldn't feel right leaving the Knicks without winning a championship.

Knicks coach Derek Fisher, who won five championships with Kobe, also defended him saying players are "thinking about the wrong thing" if they find it hard to work with Bryant.

SEE ALSO: Kobe Bryant Is Getting Trashed For 'Sabotaging' The Lakers In Free Agency — Here's Why The Team's Collapse Isn't His Fault

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The Los Angeles Lakers' 2014-15 season got off to a rough start on Tuesday night. Rookie Julius Randle broke his leg, Kobe Bryant shot 35%, and the Rockets blew them out of the Staples Center 108-90.

But all of that is taking a backseat to what happened with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, when Kobe and ex-teammates Dwight Howard got into a minor scuffle after Kobe took exception to an elbow.

It ended with Kobe yelling things like, "soft!" and "try me!" at Dwight.

After Dwight got a rebound he swung his elbows and hit Kobe in the face:

Referees quickly stepped in to separate the two:

Kobe appeared to yell, "Try me!"

While the refs were reviewing the play, the two stars yelled at each other from across the court. Kobe appeared to say, "SOFT!"

After the game both players downplayed the incident. Kobe called Dwight a "teddy bear" and a "nice kid" and said the NBA shouldn't be so sensitive (via Lakers Nation):

"I think it's fantastic. That's the game. That's all part of the game. Elbow are part of the game. Trash talk is part of the game. I don't know where the NBA became so sensitive. It's all part of it.

"You can't help but like him. I mean he's a teddy bear. You can't help but like him. I really mean that, he's a really nice kid."

Dwight was a little bit frostier, telling Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, "What do you want me to say because I'm not going to give you nothing. That's stupid. We won the game. It's over with."

The only one willing to speak some truth was Lakers coach Byron Scott.

"They don't like each other, simple as that," he said.

Kobe and Dwight have an tumultuous history. In the summer of 2012 the Lakers traded for Howard. At the time, it was assumed Howard who sign a contract extension after the 2012-13 season and the Lakers would be a juggernaut with Kobe, Howard, and Steve Nash. That plan quickly unraveled, with Howard clearly not 100% after back surgery and Nash breaking down physically as well.

Howard left in free agency in the summer of 2013, taking $30 million less to play for the Rockets. In a new article in ESPN The Magazine, anonymous NBA agents and sources said Kobe was the reason Dwight left.

The Howard-Nash experiment went about as badly as it could have gone for the Lakers, and it clearly bred animosity between everyone involved.

SEE ALSO: NBA Power Rankings, Where Every Team Stands Right Now

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Nobody expected the Los Angeles Lakers to be good coming into the regular season, but there were at least some positive narratives surrounding the team. Kobe Bryant returning to the court, Byron Scott coaching his former playing team, number 7 draft pick Julius Randle developing, even Jeremy Lin trying to recapture his former magic.

It almost all vanished in a 108-90 blowout loss to the Houston Rockets Tuesday night in the NBA's opening night.

The Lakers shot just 35% from the field, 30% from beyond the arc, with only three players shooting higher than 40% from the field.

Bryant managed 19 points on just 6-17 shooting, showing little lift in his legs, and generally looking overmatched compared to the Rockets' star shooting guard, James Harden, who totaled 32 points on the night.

The Lakers lost Steve Nash for the season last week, and his replacement, Lin, also looked tentative and overmatched, shooting 1-5 for the night. Lin's back-up, Ronnie Price, shot 1-7.

The already somber mood took a nosedive in the fourth quarter when Julius Randle broke his right leg on a drive. Randle was one of the top prospects in the 2014 NBA Draft, the Lakers' highest draft pick since taking James Worthy no. 1 in the 1982 draft. He's undergone surgery and is likely out for the entire season.

Later, out of frustration Kobe Bryant needlessly hacked Dwight Howard on a rebound attempt. The two got in each other's face and had to be separated, both assessed technical fouls.

The cameras later caught Bryant calling Howard "soft."

Howard did nothing wrong — he simply protected the ball on a rebound. Bryant initiated it and later looked petty in the midst of a blowout. After the game, he called the 28-year-old Howard a "teddy bear" and "a nice kid."

It was a sad finish to a depressing night for the Lakers. They've held off on rebuilding for so long that they're left with a sloppy roster with little talent, and now with Randle's injury, little in the way of upside.

Get used to it — the Lakers play 19 more nationally televised games.

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The Los Angeles Lakers are in trouble this year.

One big concern is that the Lakers are not very good defensively and are going to have trouble stopping opponents from scoring. This is no secret.

But maybe the bigger concern is that Kobe Bryant knows this team is not very good and he is going to try and win games all by himself.

The problem with this strategy is other teams know this.

During Wednesday night's loss to the Phoenix Suns, we saw a perfect example of the Lakers' 1-on-5 offense and why it is going to mean a lot of losses in Kobeville.

The play starts with Kobe setting a half-hearted pick for Jeremy Lin.

Kobe now wants the ball. He doesn't get the ball.

Kobe still wants the ball. He still doesn't get the ball.

Kobe still wants the ball. This time he finally gets the ball.

But here is where things really go south. Kobe is now 1-on-1 with the defender at the top of the key. 2012-13 Kobe would already been two steps past the defender on the way to the basket.

Instead, Kobe dances around around and when he does start to make a move we get to see how teams will probably defend the Lakers this season. That is, just throw three defenders at him knowing he probably won't pass the ball.

Both Wesley Johnson and Jeremy Lin, two players who can hit a long shot, are wide open on the wings to take a three-point shot. But Kobe isn't even thinking about passing the ball.

Instead, the shot clock winds down and Kobe is forced to take a long three-pointer. Bryant's shot doesn't even hit the rim and the Lakers went on to lose by 20.

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Kobe Bryant, 36, has been playing basketball in the NBA for 18 years. He's been playing at an elite level the whole time, defying time through meditation, paleo diets, and mysterious surgeries in Germany, keeping him on track to pass Michael Jordan this season as the third-highest scorer in regular-season history. But even Bryant will retire some day, and when he does the incredible competitor will face a new challenge in finding what to do with the rest of his life.

He's not too worried. Talking to the New York Times recently, Bryant said he is inspired by a conversation he had many years ago:

I’ve been thinking about that since I was 21. I had a great conversation with Giorgio Armani back then. He told me he started his company at age 40. It was a real wake-up call for me. “What are you going to do?”

Armani served in the Italian armed forces and worked at a department store and as a freelance designer before founding the now-legendary Giorgio Armani S.p.A. in 1974.

Bryant speaks Italian and has a close connection to Italy, having lived there for much of his childhood while his father Joe "Jellybean" Bryant played basketball overseas. Bryant is apparently a fan of Armani's work, too, as he owns several Armani suits and sported one of them in a Turkish Airlines ad campaign in 2011.

Although Bryant hasn't announced any definite plans for life after the NBA, he has become increasingly curious about learning the secrets of top entrepreneurs and other successful people, according to a recent Sports Illustrated profile. While recovering from a torn Achilles, Bryant read lots of business books and filled notebooks with ideas.

“Just nothing but sketches and drawing and org charts and direction and all this s---. Conversations I’ve had with muses, how they built their company, notes and all kinds of s---," he told SI.

Bryant also makes a habit of cold-calling luminaries in different fields and asking for their insights.

"You can start in the Nike Family, I cold call Mark Parker all the time. Jony Ive. Dan Wieden. Oprah Winfrey. Recently Arianna Huffington. The list just goes on and on and on and on. Hilary Swank,"he told Bloomberg.

Most recently, his biggest off-court exploit is a Showtime documentary titled "Muse," which will air in November. 

SEE ALSO: 16 examples of Kobe Bryant's insane work ethic

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The Los Angeles Lakers have started the season badly, so badly that some are wondering if they're secretly tanking.

L.A. is 0-4 after a 127-104 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night. They're getting outscored by 17 points per game, the worst point differential in the league.

Kobe Bryant, who has taken heat for everything from his $48-million contract extension to his frosty relationship with potential free agent targets, isn't used to this sort of losing. He has only played on two sub-.500 teams in his career.

Combine this unprecedented losing with Kobe's penchant for saying whatever is on his mind, and we're going to get a lot of classic Kobe quotes this year.

On Saturday night we got a great one.

Kobe was asked if the 0-4 start bothered him. He gave this sarcastic response, which was accompanied by an incensed head shake:

"No it doesn't bother me. I'm festively jovial about it."

The video is fantastic:

The Lakers have played a ridiculous schedule so far. Three of the teams they've lost to were in the playoffs last year, and the other (Phoenix) won 48 games.

Things don't get much easier from here. They get Phoenix, Charlotte, Memphis, New Orleans, San Antonio, Golden State, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, and Denver in their next 10 games. At 0-4, they probably haven't hit rock bottom yet.

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Incredibly competitive and insatiably curious, Kobe Bryant is known for getting insights on how he can improve from everywhere. Talking with the New York Times, he recently revealed that he even learned a basketball technique while watching cheetahs on the Discovery Channel:

"When you watch me shoot my fadeaway jumper, you’ll notice my leg is always extended. I had problems making that shot in the past. It’s tough. So one day I’m watching the Discovery Channel and see a cheetah hunting. When the cheetah runs, its tail always gives it balance, even if it’s cutting a sharp angle. And that’s when I was like: My leg could be the tail, right?"

It seems like a silly source of inspiration, but Bryant's fadeaway jumper is practically unguardable, and it's become something of a signature move over the course of his career.

In a YouTube mix of Bryant's patented jumper, still-shots show Bryant's form is consistent and his leg is helping his balance:

Given the Lakers' lack of talent surrounding Bryant this season, we'll likely get to see Bryant shoot his fadeaway jumper plenty of times.

SEE ALSO: One Play That Shows Perfectly Just How Bad The Lakers Will Be This Season

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