Kobe Bryant says he won’t take a pay cut next summer

Kobe Bryant is entering the last year of his contract with his only NBA team, the Lakers. But Kobe has made it known that when the time comes next off season to negotiate a new contract, don’t look for him to take a pay cut.

 “I’m not taking any at all — that’s the negotiation that you have to have,” Bryant told the website. “For me to sit here and say, ‘Oh yeah, I’m just going to take a huge pay cut.’ Nah, I’m going to try to get as much as I possibly can.”

As for Dwight Howard leaving the Lakers for the Rockets, Vino had this to say:

“I’m happy for him,” Bryant said, without a hint of his usual sarcasm. “I’ve said that before. I’m happy for him. It’s important for free agents to make decisions that they feel is best for them. That’s really what it’s about, being a free agent. You have to make decisions that you feel is best for you, best for your family and best for your brand, whatever it may be. So, it is what it is.” “I think everybody is cut differently,” Bryant said. “[Howard] has his way of leading that he feels like would be most effective and would work for him, and obviously the way we’ve gone about it with this organization and the leaders that we’ve had — myself, Magic [Johnson] and Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] — we’ve done it a different way.”

No mention of Shaq huh. I am of the belief that Bryant would take a small pay cut to help the team get better IF it was for a top caliber player that he felt could help the team. For the upcoming 2013-3014 season, Mitch Kupchak seems to be working with what’s available and signing a few decent pieces to one-year deals thereby opening up the cap space for the summer of 2014 that will see Kobe and possibly LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony available in free agency.