Kobe Bryant is a five-time NBA champion, but United States soccer coach Jurgen Klinsmann doesn't believe he's worth the two-year, $48.5 million contract he signed just because of past accomplishments.
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Klinsmann said that the United States caters too much to star players and singled out the NBA for ignoring his philosophy by signing players to inflated deals based on their past accomplishments instead of what their future worth to the team is.
Klinsmann, said in an interview from December that was released on Wednesday that Bryant, 35, was not worth the contract that Los Angeles inked him to.
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"This always happens in America," Klinsmann told New York Times Magazine. "Kobe Bryant, for example -- why does he get a two-year contract extension for $50 million? Because of what he is going to do in the next two years for the Lakers? Of course not. Of course not. He gets it because of what he has done before. It makes no sense. Why do you pay for what has already happened?"
Klinsmann utilized his philosophy five months later when he opted to leave Landon Donovan off of the U.S.'s World Cup roster, shocking many and spurning the 32-year-old who took a self-imposed sabbatical in 2013. Donovan returned to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy, but Klinsmann didn't invite him back to play in the World Cup qualifiers for the U.S.
"He came back, and he was playing in MLS, and people say, 'Oh, he's playing well,' but what does that really mean?" Klinsmann told the magazine. "This is where MLS hurts him. He was playing at 70 percent, 80 percent, and he was still dominant. That doesn't help anyone. I watched the games. What was I supposed to say? That he was good? He was not good. Not then. No way. So he had to wait."
As for the U.S.'s chances in the World Cup this summer? Klinsmann is as candid about that as he was about Donovan and Bryant.
"We cannot win this World Cup, because we are not at that level yet," Klinsmann told the magazine in December. "For us, we have to play the game of our lives seven times to win the tournament. Realistically, it is not possible."
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