How much would it mean to Jerry Buss and the Lakers to win a championship without Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal?
In the wake of Phil Jackson's decision to sign a contract extension to coach the Lakers until at least 2010, that is suddenly a viable scenario. Instead of Kobe and Shaq, how about Jerry and Phil — with Jeanie Buss snuggled gleefully in between — hugging the Larry O'Brien Trophy together?
That's not to say the Lakers can't reconcile with Bryant now that Jackson, his best friend in the organization, is staying. But Bryant also has not withdrawn his trade request, and said last week his future is not tied to Jackson's future.
The Lakers are aware that a trade of Bryant might have to happen at some point — he can opt out of his contract in 2009, albeit at a considerable price — but Buss has enough faith in Jackson to believe the Lakers can stay on track for a title even if a Bryant trade has to go down.
Both Bryant and O'Neal have publicly lambasted the Lakers and Buss after they won three titles together in 2000-02. To his credit, Buss is a businessman who doesn't get nearly as emotional as his players about situations, but he is to some extent hurt that he hasn't been able to duplicate his relationship with another star player, Magic Johnson.
Buss and Jackson, meanwhile, have only gotten chummier despite the awkward situation of Buss' daughter Jeanie, the Lakers' executive vice president of business operations, dating Jackson since 1999. The owner and coach can have entire dinners together and never discuss basketball.
How much would it mean to Jackson to win a championship without Bryant and O'Neal? No doubt it would prove something to the masses about Jackson's coaching gifts if he won without big-name superstars. But Jackson, as cocky as he sounds sometimes in public, is in no way consumed with that notion.
Jackson would rather win with Bryant to bring their personal struggles full circle. Remember, Jackson totally lost touch with Bryant — writing about the "uncoachable" Bryant in great detail in Jackson's best-selling book about the 2003-04 season — but came back in 2006 in large part to prove he could coach Bryant and coach him well.
Jackson genuinely wishes Bryant well and wants to help him get that sans-Shaq championship.
With the promise shown by 20-year-olds Andrew Bynum and Jordan Farmar this season and considering how Bryant has been able to blend in again with his teammates after a tumultuous summer, it's still possible that these Lakers have what it takes to win.
It took only a few games into the season for Jackson to be sold that Bryant wouldn't be playing with a for-sale sign in one hand.
"We've overcome that in a very interesting way, a very unusual way that I've never seen before," Jackson said earlier this month. "The team has come back, and Kobe has gotten his game back and his voice back on this team. And he seems to be going straight ahead."
On Thursday night, Jackson said of Bryant and the Lakers' potential: "He sees it too, and I think he sees the challenge ahead."
Jackson also reiterated that the Lakers' "predominant" statement is that they don't want to trade Bryant and haven't tried to trade him at all in the last month.
Bryant used to have a pretty good relationship with Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak, too. In the past, Kupchak would be the one to huddle Bryant and Jackson with O'Neal when the two Lakers superstars went to separate corners in the wake of their spats.
So here the Lakers stand, actually doing quite well in their unofficial grand plan to recover from Bryant's loud summer. They needed Jackson to talk Bryant off the ledge, for the team to start off strong and show Bryant he could still win with the Lakers, and they needed to lock up Jackson to have a reasonable shot at holding on to Bryant.
Whichever way it goes with Bryant down the road, though, keeping Jackson means the Lakers at least stay on the map.
by Kevin Ding
Foxsports.Com
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