 For Laker fans and the Los Angeles audience, you know what happened. Kobe wanted a big, fat thank you contract from the Lakers, and he got it at the end. The problem was giving Kobe all that money and all that power led to a quite bad roster. At this point, Pau Gasol's gone, and they were in the wilderness. A total train wreck, the worst, I believe, five- or six-year run in the history of the franchise. It was brutal.