We saw Kobe react to Dwight Howard’s decision to go to the Rockets on Instagram and then he addressed unfollowing Dwight on Twitter (on Twitter), now for the first time Kobe Bryant spoke with reporters about it and he was very open & honest (as he always is). Kobe has already moved on and is not wasting his time on the situation. He also talked about people expecting him to take a pay cut next season with the Lakers. Yea, he’s not having it.
Reports after the jump…

GameTimeGirl

On Dwight Howard Via ESPN:

“I haven’t followed enough to hear what he’s kind of said about going to Houston and some of the reasons why he went to Houston,” Bryant said Wednesday at his annual youth basketball academy on the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara. “I don’t know. I don’t. You look at me, you really think once a guy decides to go someplace else, I’m going to waste my time trying to figure out why that happened?”

It was more of a shrug than a silver-tongued reaction from Bryant. If Howard wanted to be a Rocket, so be it.

“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.”

What has become abundantly clear is Howard is not, and never was, fit to be the next face of the Lakers’ franchise once Bryant, who turns 35 next month, chooses to retire.

“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.”

(STORY CONTINUES…)

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On Pay Cut via BR:

Kobe Bryant cares an awful lot about winning, but based on a recent report that he’s not going to accept a significant salary reduction when his contract expires after the 2013-14 season, it appears he cares about money a little more.

According to Serena Winters of Lakers Nation, Bryant said of a potential pay cut:

“I’m not taking any at all—that’s the negotiation that you have to have. 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.”