LA Lakers Rumors: Kobe Bryant Isn't Going Anywhere

Pump the brakes on the panic mobile, Lakers fans. Kobe Bryant isn't going anywhere.

I know it doesn't look good. ESPN NBA pundit and resident blabbermouth Stephen A. Smith hasn't been shy to suggest that the Black Mamba wants (or, rather, will want) out of Los Angeles. Smith made his feelings loud and clear on the Wednesday edition of SportsCenter while sitting next to Ric Bucher:

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I predicted that Kobe Bryant will demand a trade, and I am not budging from that. He’s livid. I’ve known Kobe too long. He is ticked off.

It’s not just because [the Clippers] got Chris Paul, which is a guy that he expected to have. It’s because Jim Buss seems to be doing the inexplicable. It makes no sense. It’s one thing for the team not to have improved [after losing to the Mavericks], it’s another thing entirely for them to regress. If you know anything about Kobe, that is the last thing that he wants to do.

It will not be pleasant at all.

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It certainly seems reasonable to predict that Kobe would force his exit from the apparent chaos. Lamar Odom's gone, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum are on the block, Phil Jackson is sipping on Mai Tais and meditating and Jim Buss' mullet is growing ever more insufferable.

But, as easy as it might be to simply accept Smith's prognostications at face value, let's remember that he's not at or around the Lakers' practice facility in El Segundo. He's known Kobe for a while, but that's hardly an indication of up-to-date inside knowledge of the situation.

That would come, instead, from someone like coach Dave Miller, a personality on ESPN Radio in Los Angeles. He came on Sportscenter immediately after Smith's segment was done and refuted the talking head's predictions, saying that Kobe, both in group interviews and one-on-one conversations, has done little, if anything, to suggest that he wants the Lakers to trade him.

Granted, both Smith and Miller are bona fide blowhards, but for my money, I'll go with the guy whose eyes and ears are at Lakers camp.

And, realistically, there's no way the Lakers would ever so much as consider trading Kobe. They didn't do it four years ago, when Kobe still had tremendous value on the open market, when he still had some semblance of cartilage in his knees.

Why would they do it now? He's 33, entering/in the midst of the twilight of his career. No other team would willingly give up enough for Kobe to make it worth LA's while to trade him. He's the face of the franchise, with no one in place to assume his throne.

Of course, that's what the attempt to land Chris Paul and the ongoing Dwight Howard saga have been about—finding a future cornerstone for the NBA's marquee franchise while keeping the team in the championship chase in the interim.

The only way Kobe would ever force his way out is if he thought he could win a title somewhere else and if that "somewhere else" wanted him back.

But who, exactly, is going to reach out to a hothead and noted Alpha male of Alpha males like Kobe? The Dallas Mavericks? Not likely, since they already have two aging stars (Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd) and are saving up to lure Dwight Howard and/or Deron Williams to the Metroplex next summer.

The New York Knicks? Kobe was a huge fan of Mike D'Antoni's while growing up in Italy, but the Knickerbockers still have a ways to go and don't exactly have much to offer the Lakers in return.

The New Jersey Nets? Because, clearly, everyone wants Brook Lopez...or not.

Kobe knows better than anyone that, for now at least, the Lakers give him the best chance to win championships and rip through the record books. He's spent his entire career in purple and gold and is arguably the greatest player in franchise history.

Things are certainly turbulent now, though no more uncertain or unsettling than they were before Mitch Kupchak stole Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies. Kobe's been through this before and he's more mature as a person and as a basketball player than he was when the notion of him being traded last crossed inquiring minds.

Stephen A. may think he knows what Kobe wants to do or is going to do now that Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and the Clippers have stolen his thunder, if only for the moment.

Once the season gets started, though, and the Mamba sees his squad compared to the one across the hallway, once the hullabaloo about Howard either settles down or comes to fruition, then Kobe will be antsy about winning basketball games rather than personnel decisions. Like any great athlete with championship expectations, Kobe's upset by what he sees as a degradation of his own shot at glory.

With the lack of a true "top dog" in the Western Conference, the door will still be wide open for the Lakers to make a run at a title, which should be enough to keep Kobe happy.

At least, until the next time Stephen A. ends up on TV.

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