Kobe Bryant - Los Angeles Drama

The drama just not stop with the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant. The latest development is that Bryant may have cleaned out his locker at the Lakers practice facility, in preparation for a trade.

Bryant has been quiet ever since Lakers owner Jerry Buss announced that he is entertaining offers to trade the superstar.

Does it ever end? There is drama everyday in LaLa Land.
Buss made that statement regarding trading Bryant to show who is the man in the town. He had to. Bryant had basically called him an idiot over the summer, and this was a way for Buss to get back at the star. Not saying that this is the right approach, but anytime you are a business man you have to flex your muscle.

There is no way Bryant stays with the Lakers past the 2008 NBA draft, and that is being optimistic. The longer the Lakers wait to trade Bryant, the less trade value he has. He can opt out after the 2009 season and the closer they get to that point in time, the less the Lakers will get in return.

Bryant is in a unique situation in that he has the NBA's only no trade clause in his contract, meaning he can dictate where he is traded to. And even setting up the trade is going to be a tall task. You will never get equal value for Bryant.

Bryant is not the Lakers, and I am a fan of the Lakers, not just one player on the team but the name on the front of the jersey. Just for the record, I was always a Shaquille O'Neal guy and did not agree with Bryant's antics when Shaq was in town. If only Bryant realized that he could co-exist with another superstar earlier and asked that Shaq not be traded from the Lakers.

The finger pointing can be distributed all over the organization.

I guess I can collect on a bet I made with my buddy, stating that Kobe would never win another championship with the Lakers (a bet I made a week after Shaq was traded to Miami).