Why Kobe Bryant’s giant contract with the Los Angeles Lakers is worth every penny (and why it’s relevant to your organization). Also: Deal with rights issues in your marketing efforts before things get ugly.

Your franchise star has done everything possible to make your organization better. Make sure you send that person off the right way.

A lesson from the world of professional basketball in today’s Lunchtime Links:

Reward your legends: Kobe Bryant is 35 years old, and he’s spent about half his life as a Los Angeles Laker, going straight into the NBA after graduating from high school. He’s proven his worth to the team, leading them to an NBA title five times in the last 17 years and taking a spot as an NBA all-star for 15 of those years. On Monday, Kobe got a big reward for all this: The Lakers signed a contract extension with the veteran superstar worth a reported $48.5 million, despite the fact that, while perfectly capable of playing at a high level, he’s clearly on the tail end of his basketball career and currently out of commission due to an Achilles tendon injury. (Side note: Bad time for injuries in the NBA.) Why pay him so much now? Many observers were scratching their heads after the deal went through, but NBA blogger Sean Highkin makes a good point that might be relevant to other types of organizations with “franchise players”: “[M]ore than basketball went into the Lakers’ decision to give Kobe this deal,” he writes, “and from that standpoint, he’s worth any amount of money they’re paying him, and will continue to be.” Fellow NBA writer Ken Berger calls the move “a sort of lifetime achievement award.” Sometimes you have people so valuable to your organization’s brand that you can’t let them go, even if they’re past their prime. Show them you appreciate them.

The dangers of rolling without rights: The ad is cute and the product is clever, but it looks like GoldieBlox‘s parody of a Beastie Boys song (shown above) has led to a legal battle. GoldieBlox didn’t ask for the rights from the legendary rap group, which, on principle, doesn’t hand them out to anyone. Which is why the toy company filed a preemptive lawsuit on the presumption that the band’s surviving members would  sue to block the ad. GoldieBlox claims that, as parody, the video constitutes fair use of the song. The group’s stance? “As creative as it is,” the band said in a statement on Monday, “make no mistake, your video is an advertisement that is designed to sell a product, and long ago, we made a conscious decision not to permit our music and/or name to be used in product ads.” While the company has some supporters, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the situation is a pretty good reminder for associations that it’s important to secure licensing for material you use in your marketing creations.

Never too early to plan: You may be focused on stuffing your gullet with as much turkey as possible this week, but we’re only a little more than a month out from 2014, and it’s probably high time you started planning for it. Fortunately for you, Wild Apricot has released a planning checklist for this very purpose. (They’re clearly a step ahead of everyone else.) Why now? The company’s Lori Halley says it’s a way to encourage sanity during a tough time of year. “In my former nonprofit role when the pressure was on, I found it very helpful to write a checklist—sometimes one per day! Ticking things off the list can feel so satisfying and make us feel productive and in control,” she writes.

What’s currently on your checklist? Tell us in the comments.

Kobe Bryant, shown at the United Way HomeWalk in Los Angeles on Sunday. (photo by Xizi(Cecilia)Hua/Neon Tommy/via Flickr)