Make Some Magic, Buss

For a day, everything in the sports world was alright. The Yankees were out of the playoffs, hockey season started without anybody noticing, and even the Chargers and Bears won a game. But on the morning of the NLCS, Lakers owner Jerry Buss reminded us of something: Kobe Bryant still doesn't want to be in L.A. Buss told Lakers beat writers that while he would certainly listen, he hasn't heard of any trades that would work. Kobe is 29, which means he would be coming around as a pitcher, but dead as a rock star; as a basketball player, he's a good investment. The only problem is that it's virtually impossible to trade for him. Teams would basically have to give up their whole roster, and as we have seen during the past few seasons, Kobe by himself struggles to just make the playoffs. What is Mr. Buss to do?,

The team seen as most likely to make a trade is Chicago. I don't see how. There's no reason for the Bulls to give up four of their starting five for Bryant, since the East is weak and they are good. Plus, the Bulls are young, and they will have success with their core guys for years to come. The only other way the numbers will work is to give up Ben Wallace and one or two non-core guys, which doesn't make any sense for the Lakers.

It would be funny to see the Celtics trade Paul Pierce, giving Boston a three-headed monster of KG, Ray Allen and Kobe. The only problem with that is again, it wouldn't be good for the Lakers. They need at least three very good players for Kobe. Any superstar swap will favor the other team since Kobe is going to be better than whoever the other superstar is.

The only team in the West the Lakers would trade with is probably Phoenix, since they have an unhappy Shawn Marion. But when you factor in how much these teams hate each other, you run into another problem. Buss won't sign a deal putting Nash and Kobe on the same team. Perhaps if the Suns traded Marion and Amare Stoudemire, the Lakers will listen. But would Phoenix do that? They have a good team with their own three-headed monster, though they never succeed in the playoffs. One wonders why the Suns brought Steve Kerr in. Was it to not make mistakes, or to ink a deal? If they feel hurried due to Nash's back problems, they might give up 2/3 of their superstar team for Kobe. The deal that I found to work was Marion, Stoudemire and Marcus Banks for Kobe and Odom. The problem is that Buss won't want to give up Odom in the deal, and Phoenix probably wouldn't be comfortable with Nash, Kobe and a bunch of scrubs.

I don't see any way that Kobe is traded. He makes too much money, and as Jerry Buss said himself, "It's very hard to trade somebody like him because people who have enough material to make it worthwhile are usually contenders and they don't want to make the trade". Bingo. I do have an idea, though. Check out these quotes from Colin Powell, which Bryant gave to all of his teammates this offseason:

"A dream doesn't become a reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work."

"Success is a result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence."

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

Yeah, I know that all three basically say the same thing. Remember, Kobe didn't go to college. But maybe he should reread them and take it to heart. Maybe with some sweat, determination and hard work, Kobe Bryant can lead this Lakers team, instead of getting shipped off to some other contender. Like Miami.