This was a Jordan town as much as it's a party town, a Picasso town, a blustery town, a steak-and-payoffs town. But be sure to differentiate: Never, ever has this been a ``basketball'' town. There's the annual baseball blood feud, which becomes a peace treaty and united front during Bears season, yet since Michael Jordan left to become an executive drifter and Jeff's dad, you've devoted only scant passion to the Bulls even when they finally made the playoffs.
Kobe Bryant would blow up the social structure. Chicago would be his.
And now that it's likely Bryant will be traded by the Lakers, maybe sooner than later, everyone should embrace the idea that this is his most realistic destination. People haven't been talking too much about the prospect, immersed as they are in seasonal predictability, but stop bemoaning the Bears and mourning the Cubs and realize the exciting, historic possibilities at hand: If the Bulls really want Bryant, they probably can have him.
But how badly do John Paxson, Jerry Reinsdorf and Scott Skiles covet Kobe? The answer had better be ``very badly,'' because if the chances of landing Jordan were once in a lifetime, you don't botch an opportunity to acquire the closest facsimile to MJ. I don't care if Bryant is owed $88.6 million the next four years and will want the biggest NBA extension ever. I don't care if it requires moving Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, Joakim Noah and other salaried parts to make the deal do-able, leaving the Bulls with a core of Bryant, Luol Deng and Ben Wallace.
I don't care because the Bulls, as constituted, can't win an NBA championship and can't ignite the city. With Bryant, they can win hardware again and become one of the great stories in sports. Who wouldn't be captivated by the challenge of Kobe driving past the Jordan statue before every game, trying to follow the man's legacy in his building? This city deserves another sports figure for the ages, and when a Los Angeles columnist appeared with me on ESPN and said Chicago isn't a large enough market for Kobe, that should be all the more incentive for Paxson to act. As for Reinsdorf, he can rectify his public-relations problem with basketball fans -- yes, he said he treasures one World Series ring over six hoops titles -- by trying to seize another NBA banner or two instead of serving up a nice, young, feisty club that can't survive the conference semifinals.
There was a time when I'd have said Bryant is the most selfish, problematic punk in sports. The more I watch him, I see a maniacal competitor who has the same cutthroat urgency to win titles -- while demanding the same hunger from the teammates and management around him -- that Jordan possessed at a similar age. Funny how America overlooked Michael's tantrums and scoring flurries and rooted for him to overcome adversity and win championships, contrary to Kobe, who is viewed as a superbrat. Part of the backlash stems from Bryant's sexual assault case in Colorado, which happened four years ago and ended with prosecutors dismissing charges against him when his accuser was unwilling to testify. He has moved on, and, generally, a country has moved on while marveling at his ability to take over a game like no one since Jordan.
It's good to hear that Paxson, behind the scenes, is letting it be known he's open to a blockbuster trade. For a while, I thought he was so enamored of his old-school, building-block experiment that he was fighting the idea of disrupting the plan with a megastar. We've seen enough of Skiles to know he shares more of Bryant's qualities than one might think -- fire, will, hard work -- and while I can't wait to see Kobe's face the first time he's benched after a bad shot, my guess is Skiles would accommodate him in the spirit of a championship.
So many variables make Chicago the right fit. The Bulls play in the Eastern Conference, a preferable shipping point for the Lakers so they don't have to regularly face him in the West. Bryant wants to be here and was serious when he made a free-agency trip to the north suburbs a few years back, looking at real estate with his wife before re-upping with the Lakers. Few teams have the pieces to make a Bryant trade work, and the Bulls have the most flexibility of all. He likes Paxson. He likes Reinsdorf. And better still, even if an ample package of talent is shipped to L.A., he'd still be surrounded by enough good players to win.
What's the holdup, then? Deng looms as the initial sticking point. The Lakers have to justify trading Bryant to their fans in the middle of a laughable debacle, which leaves owner Jerry Buss and general manager Mitch Kupchak looking like all-time buffoons. They once were blessed with Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, but couldn't create an atmosphere where the stars could co-exist and ended up trading O'Neal. Now they're going to trade Bryant, which means the Lakers will need a sufficient package to soothe angry fans. They'll want Deng. The Bulls will say no.
I'd make the deal even with Deng in it. Paxson might not have to, though, depending on Mark Cuban. Yes, when he isn't trying to buy the Cubs or holding his own in ``Dancing With The Stars,'' Cuban continues to own the Dallas Mavericks. And the other night, looking marvelous in a black suit, he said the Mavs might have big interest in Bryant.
``Kobe is a phenomenal player, and the Mavs have always been opportunistic since the day that I bought them,'' he said. ``So if something were to present itself, we'd always have to explore it.''
If Cuban decided to package Jason Terry and Josh Howard, the Bulls could be in trouble. But again, the Lakers might demand Dirk Nowitzki or forget about the Mavs because of their standing as a West power. Other than Phoenix, another elite Western team in the same situation, there aren't many feasible landing spots for Bryant. Legitimately, people, the Bulls are in position to land the most dynamic scorer of the post-Jordan era and one of the best clutch players ever.
It will be difficult to forgive Paxson if he doesn't try very, very hard to pull the trigger. Make no mistake, Bryant doesn't want to be in L.A., as he said last summer in his revolving radio-show trade demands and reiterated in a southern California parking lot to Internet geeks with a picture phone. Word spread Tuesday that Bryant was so upset with Buss, who said last week he would consider trading Kobe and spoke to the media about a supposedly private chat, that he cleaned out his locker. Apparently, that was a talk-show lie, but the smoke is so heavy and the disclaimers are so furious that it's obvious something is up. Bryant was asked if he has played his final game as a Laker. He could have dismissed it and laughed, but he did anything but that.
``I don't know,'' he said. ``Talk to Mitch and Mr. Buss about that. I'm just getting ready. If I'm here, I'm ready to strap it up.''
If?
Fourteen years ago, I remember John Paxson catching a pass, lifting himself in the air and hitting a big jumper in Phoenix to win an NBA championship. Getting Kobe Bryant would be a bigger shot.
Suns Times
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