FREE KOBE

first of all, you can stop holding your breath for more team previews. they're not happening. the spurs are going to win it all, the celtics will capture our imagination with the prospect of what a bunch of really well compensated people can do when combined with slightly less well compensated people and a borderline incompetent coach.

"she don't believe in shooting stars but she believe in shoes and cars."
that line applies to kobe pretty perfectly. in this metaphor, he is the nonspecific "she" and "shoes and cars" are wins and championships. but you knew that already. honestly, the lakers are kind of fucked beyond all repair as far as i can see. they aren't terrifically good at defense and they seriously fell apart down the stretch once they stopped playing 80% of their games at home and people started getting injured. accepted: the injuries could have something to do with all the bed-shitting that went on later in the season. not accepted: that they were any better than a 45-win team.

so kobe is trapped in this kind of untenable situation with an absolutely fucked decision making hierarchy (apparently mitch kupchak was ready to pull the trigger to get j-kidd but JIM buss, the son of JERRY buss who is apparently soft in the head regarding andrew bynum [jim, not jerry] blocked the deal from going through because of the aforementioned mancrush. not to say that bynum won't become a fantastic nba center, but if getting the second best pg in basketball is your option and it doubles as a way to keep the best player in the lig happy, then you have to kind of do that.) he's being a little petulant with his trade demands, &c. but i think it's a safe bet that he won't actively tank like certain players/teams to get traded but he might. the point is that the last banner has been hung in LA for probably a long time and he's woken up to that fact, especially since the last few drafts have been potential-focused. crittenton and farmar and bynum will all be good pros and turiaf already is one, but those are players that require patience to pan out.

kobe wants to win NOW, preferably in chicago where he can show people that FUCK JORDAN and he's the best ever. i hope he does. i hope he gets traded to a really great situation and wins championships for the rest of his career. it would be a travesty to throw away the rest of his career on a perpetually average team that's built by nincompoops. the lakes are all set to be a very average team for the next decade unless bynum becomes a monster--WHICH COULD HAPPEN given a few more years. but since kobe wants to win now, he should go ahead. or the lakers should trade for andre iguodala and let him become exactly scottie pippen.

actually, fuck kobe. he should stick around through the tough times too. the lakers stood by him when he "raped" a girl, he should stick around for a few seasons until bynum sees his potential realized. shit, maybe they can get lucky with crittenton, or radmanovic could turn into a good player in phil's offense, or they can magically get andrei kirilenko (who's a better fit for this team than odom anyways) for lamar odom, and then they would be real live contenders. just because lebron had a videogames season against some subpar competition he wants to jump ship? shit kobe, ever heard of a challenge? honestly, you can PUNCH STEVE KERR LIKE MJ DID and that shit will be ok. you're that good, and maybe you need to knock down sasha vujacic so he can start hitting jumpers or just bounce back to europe.

i love kobe, i love watching him play, and i hope he can work out his shit and stick around to watch the lakes become good again. but if he can't, then bite a dick and get out of my life. i'll still watch all his games though.