Paris Hilton and Jerry Buss

Here is my plan.

Start a real estate business and make millions and millions and almost billions of dollars.

Buy the Lakers from Jerry Buss.

Hang out with Kobe, Phil, and Magic, when he is in town.

Go out to restaurants with Paris Hilton and other celebs.

One problem.

My wife said that was stupid.

My response? It is the NBA, baby. Basketball, slam dunks, championships, Garnett, Rasheed, LeBron, Duncan, Shaq, Paris Hilton. Anything can happen.

Her response? Did you get that trash out yet?

Ok, here is my new plan…

NBA Basketball Fan Question What is your NBA Basketball plan?

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Nobody loves me

The rift between Jerry Buss and Kobe Bryant grows ever wider until it appears like the Grand Canyon.

Kobe must go!

How do you do that when he has a no trade clause, a huge contract, is getting up there in NBA years, and worst of all is displaying a definite attitude problem.

Would other teams want to take on the Kobe act of defiance? Few would find it easy to turn down such an offer. Unfortunately, only the Bulls, Mavs, and Suns are on the table right now.

The owner has destroyed Los Angeles’ leverage on a possible trade, delivering an unmistakable message to the Bulls and Mavericks: Don’t bother throwing Luol Deng and Dirk Nowitzki in possible packages, because it’s become clearer that a peaceful co-existence of Bryant and the fledgling Lakers is less and less likely. source

To decode that message, Kobe’s trade value is dropping because he will become a free agent soon enough and the Lakers are not going to be a place where Kobe wants to stay. So why trade when you can just pay?

Jerry Buss seems to be at the end of his rope.

Maybe Buss was still livid enough with Bryant for calling him an “idiot” over the summer, but turning a peaceful training camp into a circus again because he wanted to tell everyone that he was willing to unload Bryant gave No. 24 a chance to re-cast himself as a victim, and check out of practice – if not his locker – for the week.

The most logical and most often named team to acquire Kobe’s services is the young, make that, oh so young Bulls. Being so young it is hard to evaluate if the core they have is enough to win a NBA Championship.

So far, they don’t know if this core can become a champion. Maybe Dallas knows it can’t win as currently constituted; after all, there’s a body of evidence building that says so. What if the Bulls do trade away Deng, along with a Tyrus Thomas and a Thabo Sefolosha and Bryant does start to have serious trouble with those aging knees? The Celtics had no choice but to trade its young players for Kevin Garnett. They had nothing to lose. But the Bulls? If the Bulls re-sign Deng and Ben Gordon to extensions, they have a contender for the next decade.

Mitch Kupchak somehow comes off all innocent in this debacle.

After GM Mitch Kupchak couldn’t pry Dwyane Wade in the Shaquille O’Neal trade, how could the Lakers now justify working deals with Dallas or Chicago that don’t include the best players on those teams, Nowitzki and Deng?

Even now, Kupchak doesn’t have the best returning player from the Shaq trade in his employ, Caron Butler, because he somehow moved him to Washington for Kwame Brown.

Let’s face it Kobe, you are history.

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Hmm, Kobe ponders where to play?

Summer of 2009.

Mark it on your calendar. Well, don’t mark the whole dang summer. It was just an expression.

Anyway, Summer of 2009 is when Kobe can walk out of LA as a Free (Agent) man.

Where oh Where will Kobe go? Sounds like a start to a good poem.

5 top reporters were polled on the possibility of the Lakers trading him first. Where would he go? (Must be they forgot about me, huh?)

The reporters are J.A. Adande, ESPN.com, Chris Broussard, ESPN The Mag, Ric Bucher, ESPN The Mag, Chris Sheridan, ESPN.com, and Marc Stein, ESPN.com.

Wait a minute; those are 5 ESPN reporters, which is why yours truly was not asked.

To get on with the story, Adande said Kobe would go to the Bulls.

The Bulls have a wealth of talented, smart young players. But the Lakers have to hold out for Luol Deng and/or Ben Gordon. They can’t make the same mistake they made the last time they dealt a superstar, when they sent Shaquille O’Neal to Miami and didn’t get a single all-star in return. source

The Bulls, of course, are dreaming it would be the second coming of MJ with the only problem in that scenario being that there is only one Michael Jordan.

Broussard has Kobe going to maybe Chicago, maybe Dallas, but not Phoenix. Geez, make up your mind.

I think Dallas will be in the hunt (if I were the Mavs, I’d trade Dirk for Kobe straight up). Forget the Knicks, and I don’t see how Phoenix can get it done without breaking up its duo of Nash and Stoudemire.

Hmm, Dirk on the Lakers? Why would they do that? Kobe shoots enough without having a 7 foot outside gunner. No knock on Dirk as he is a perfect fit for the shoot before you blink Dallas team.

Bucher thinks Dallas or Chicago and ponders the Celtics.

If the Lakers would accept a Paul Pierce package, he’d happily go play with KG and Ray Allen. Would the Lakers accept a Suns package that didn’t include Nash or Amare? He’d go there, too.

My guess is that Chicago remains the only logical choice for both Kobe and the Lakers, because it puts him in the East, far from L.A. — as well as San Antonio, Dallas and Phoenix, if you can smell what I’m steppin’ in. He does have a no-trade clause, so he won’t go just anywhere and he won’t go to a team stripped of contention by the deal.

Hey, this Chicago/Dallas thing is getting old. Kobe has a no trade clause and these are the only two teams on his short list with Phoenix on the long list.

Sheridan also has Kobe going to the Bulls and amuses us with the number of players needed in return to match salaries. Another interesting notion he gives us is the Knicks.

But no one has deeper pockets than Dolan, who would be more than willing to pay Kobe’s full trade kicker and give him an extension that would make even Allan Houston jealous.

Still, there’s always the question of whether the Lakers would accept anything offered by New York, which would try to overwhelm the Lakers with some voluminous combination of Jamal Crawford plus young talent on rookie contracts (David Lee, Renaldo Balkman, Nate Robinson, Randolph Morris), plus Malik Rose or Quentin Richardson for salary cap purposes.

What is that smell? Is it David Stern thinking of reviving the Chicago market or better yet jump starting the New York market?

Sheridan also toys with the idea of a New Jersey trade of Vince Carter. Unfortunately, Vince is no Kobe.

Stein brings up the point that Kobe Bryant has the only no trade clause in the NBA. The only one in the NBA (that beared repeating). How stupid is Jerry Buss?

The only teams on Kobe’s list are Chicago, Phoenix (not going to happen), and Dallas.

So what does your NBA Hit and Run Obsessed author think? How funny it would be to trade him to Miami! Actually, it is easy to say Chicago, but if Kobe allowed it, the Nets, Celtics, Cavs, and Pacers all have possibilities.

We will have to keep tabs on how this unfolds.

But the handwriting is on the wall. Kobe will not be a Laker for much longer.

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Kobe Bryant is dreaming of an NBA Title

Last spring Kobe asked to be traded. That did not work.

So, Kobe begged to be traded. That did not work.

Kobe mentioned that there was not enough talent around him and if the GM could add some good players, then Kobe would want to stay and bring a title to LA.

Like the proverbial lead balloon, Kobe’s teammates did not take too kindly to his analysis.

The owner, Jerry Buss, tried and tried to get Kevin Garnett, but to no avail as he ended up in Boston playing with the long time Celtic, Paul Pierce.

The pre-season started and Kobe wisely shut his trap. He knew he would have to play the hand that was dealt him. There would be no deals.

What is Kobe to do?

Now Jerry Buss is back at it again.

Jerry Buss has already shown that he’ll part with superstars. Yet upon hearing that the Los Angeles Lakers‘ owner would consider trading Kobe Bryant, even Shaquille O’Neal was shocked.

“I guess it’s business before loyalty. But, wow. He said that?” O’Neal said Thursday in Miami after learning Buss told reporters he would trade Bryant under the right circumstances.

Buss indeed did, telling three Los Angeles-area beat writers covering training camp in Honolulu on Wednesday that he “would certainly listen” to trade offers for the two-time NBA scoring champion. source

The Lakers made Kobe very rich right after they traded Shaq to the Miami Heat.

Bryant has four years worth $88.6 million left on the seven-year contract he signed a day after O’Neal was traded, but can terminate the deal in two years. That would leave $47.8 million on the table.

But Kobe wants to win a title. Bryant would love to win that title for the Lakers. It would be so sweet, but if that is not going to happen, then Kobe would like a trade to where he can win a NBA Championship.

The previous titles were on the back of Shaquille O’neal. Kobe wants to prove he can win one without the Shaq.

Keep in mind, Shaq won a title after he left for Miami and did it with a young Dwyane Wade and not much else. This is what Kobe wants. He wants to leave his mark and time is running out.

Even though Kobe is only 29, he is going into his 12th season and that is a lot of pounding on his knees and ankles. Some people believe Kobe is comparable to a 33 year old in the NBA, because of the pounding.

So for this year Kobe will be stuck on a not very talented Laker team and spend his time hoping and hoping for the chance at a title.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Will Kobe make the playoffs this year?

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