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Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak announced this afternoon that the Lakers and Kobe Bryant have agreed to a three-year contract extension which will keep him with the purple and gold until the 2013-2014 season when he will be 35. While the exact terms of the contract haven't been released, according to Adrian Wojnarowski and Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports the extension could be worth $90 million."We are extremely pleased that we were able to reach an agreement and come to terms on the extension at this time," said Kupchak in the press release. And good thing too because the mumblings of Kobe teaming up with LeBron James to go to the New York Knicks were just starting up.
The 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player and 2009 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player is the Lakers all time leading scorer and has won four NBA titles with the Lakers in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2009. Kobe also was on the gold medal winning Team USA in the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
With Pau Gasol also signing a contract extension earlier in the season and Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom in place for the next several years, this will for better or worse cement the Lakers team in the coming years. Now to get down to business of defending their title.
