If you’re a True Hoop reader, this is not news to you — it was pointed out a few weeks ago after Frank Hughes brought it up in the Tacoma News Tribune. But it’s news to me, so I’m going to share it with you in case you haven’t heard about it. Back in 2004, Ray Allen predicted that Kobe would grow unhappy with the Lakers and demand a trade. Imagine that. Here’s what the clairvoyant predicted:
“He’s going to be very selfish,” Allen said of Bryant. “And he feels like he needs to show this league and the people in this country that he is better without Shaq. He can win championships without Shaq. So offensively, he’s going to jump out and say, ‘I can average 30 points. I can still carry the load on this team.’
“I think the point production is not going to be so much what people are going to look at because (Tracy) McGrady did it in Orlando, Allen (Iverson) did it in Philly. Can you win a championship? I think that’s the question. Carrying guys on your back and making everybody better.”
Allen was right about that, as it turns out, but get a load of Allen’s crystal ball on this one.
“If Kobe doesn’t see he needs two and a half good players to be a legitimate playoff contender or win a championship, in about a year or two he’ll be calling out to Jerry Buss that ‘We need some help in here,’ or ‘Trade me,’ ” Allen said. “And we’ll all be saying, ‘I told you so,’ when he says that.”
How incredible is that? That’s almost dead, 100% on accurate. And there’s no “we” in the “we’ll all be saying,” Ray. I think you’re the man on this one. When the Lakers got rid of Shaq, I felt they were getting rid of the more dominant player out of the two. But I never could have predicted the bitching Kobe would eventually do the way Allen did, at least not three years ago. That’s amazing. Maybe I can hit Ray up for tonight’s lotto numbers.
