Sure, a franchise should be loyal to a guy who brought them multiple championships and is the face of the organization. But at what cost? How much should one pay for a 35-year-old who is coming off the first major surgery of his career with an injury which very few players have successful come back from?

First let’s look at what Kobe has brought to Hollywood:

5-time NBA Champion
15-time NBA All-Star
4-time NBA All-Star MVP
1-time NBA MVP
2-time NBA Finals MVP
2-time NBA Scoring Leader
11-time NBA All-NBA First Team Member
9-time NBA All-Defensive First Team Member
2-time Olympic Champion
The 81-point Game (2nd-best in NBA history)

The biggest NBA news on Monday is that Derrick Rose is out for the season again the 17-year pro has signed a two-year extension with the Los Angeles Lakers for $48.5M.

Is it worth it? Basing on the accomplishments above, it probably is. But what does this mean for the Lakers moving forward? Was the contract given because of the past and not the immediate future?

Let’s dig deeper and look at the contracts of other Lakers joining Kobe for the duration of his newest deal.

In 2014-15, there are five players under contract. FIVE!

Kobe Bryant - $23.5M
Steve Nash - $9.7M
Nick Young - $1.3M (Player Option)
Robert Sacre - $915K
Elias Harris - $816K

This means other Lakers have expiring deals this season. Most notables are Pau Gasol ($19.3M), Steve Blake ($4M), Jordan Hill ($3.5M) and Chris Kaman ($3.2M). Surely, if the Lakers are considering of bringing one or two of them back in 2014, they’d demand equal or similar amount of money?

Can they afford Gasol, who remains one of the better big men in the league? Or Hill and Blake, both of whom are playing well this season?

This season the Lakers have one of the highest payrolls in the league (5th) with a combined salary of over $79M—mainly because they have the NBA’s highest paid star in Kobe at $30.4M and Gasol, who has the 9th most expensive contract. The current salary cap is set at $58.7M which means that L.A. is deep into the luxury tax territory.

What’s the game plan for one of the most decorated franchise in the NBA?

Is the Lakers front office hoping that Gasol and others take a major pay-cut so they can field a competitive team in 2014-15? If that was the plan, why couldn’t Bryant do the same and agreed with a lower contract than the one he recently signed?

As much as LeBron James has been criticized with “The Decision”, at least the main man in Miami chose to take a pay-cut to accommodate the Heat’s other stars? Here’s the salary structure of the Big Three:

Salary for 2013-14/2014-15
 Chris Bosh - $19M/$20.5
LeBron James - $19M/$20.5
Dwyane Wade - $18.5/$20M

Yes those numbers are very near to the figure which Kobe is owed but even a $5M difference is big when a franchise is trying to build a championship team. Which brings us to the question, are the Lakers building a contender or are they just trying to please Kobe?

If the answer is the first, how are they going to do it? Kobe and Nash alone takes around $33M. Say the salary cap is raised to around 60-ish million; they have around $20M+ to throw at a big name free agent (after cap holds of picks and other players).
Let’s say Carmelo Anthony (or other max-level FA) does sign with the Lakers for around a similar salary he has now ($21M). The Lakers depth chart is going to look like this:

PG – Steve Nash/ FA
SG – Kobe Bryant/Nick Young
SF – Carmelo Anthony/Elias Harris
PF – FA/ FA
C – Robert Sacre/ FA

*Free Agents on Minimum Contract

In Kobe’s career, he made us believe that he is chasing greatness and Michael Jordan’s six rings. With his failure to sacrifice for the Los Angeles Lakers, we are exposed to what the Black Mamba truly is: a self-centered player who thought of no one but himself.