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When Kobe was drafted in June of 1996 Bill Clinton was President, the first season of The Daily Show started, the first Mission Impossible was finishing up its box office run, and D'Angelo Russell was 4 months and 3 days old.

Now something you'll hear a lot and have been hearing a lot is how Kobe has been the heart and soul of this team for 20 years, well that's not exactly true. When Kobe was drafted we also signed a guy named Shaquille O'Neal that bridged the gap between Magic Johnson and a skinny kid coming out of high school. It's hard to really piece it together, but Magic played his final game on May 2nd, exactly 55 days before we traded for Kobe's draft rights. At just 17 years old Kobe wasn't ready to lead us anywhere and certainly wasn't our heart and soul, but he was still Kobe even back then. Even at the draft, just watching this young man he exuded what everyone would come to realize was uniquely him, uniquely Kobe: he was interesting.

Everything Kobe has done from...

Sorry, but needed its own thread
but dude is seriously clueless
He should be unemployed
Dressed in rags and shoeless

TOP 5 ALL TIME?
THIS HAS TO BE A JOKE!
HIS TEAMS DON'T PLAY D
PLEASE STOP SNORTING COKE!

Bang his Instragram
Or bang his Twitter
Tell him he sucks
And old and bitter

At the end of the year
He must be gone
Hire anyone
Be it Harry, d***, or John

Nobody plays defense not because they don't want but because they can't.

And that cannot be fixed with this group of guys.

Randle will always be a subpar defender with short arms and no blocking ability, Russell will always have slow feet compared to other PGs, Clarkson doesn't have the best instincts nor the height.

As much as people want this core to "grow together" and use stats to show improvements. One thing is a constant with this team and has been for several years now. This team doesn't have defensive talent. Nance has potential but will not have enough offense. Without 2 way players you can only win if your offense is amazing which ours is not.

I'm really curious to see how we can solve this problem. No matter what the current team does, they aren't very good defensively. When you are bad...there is hope you can improve. But when you are dead last or 2nd to last in literally every defensive category...even if you improve by A LOT you might still be below average and...

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2016...called-in-to-lakers-clippers-game-in-january/