Kobe Wants to Go East?

Trying to figure out what exactly Kobe Bryant is thinking from hour to hour is a difficult assignment. Marc Stein of ESPN thinks he has it all figured out, though. According to Stein, Kobe wants to move East. After seeing the NBA Finals (or not seeing them, as it were), you can’t help but wonder if Kobe isn’t thinking the same thing a lot of people are: if LeBron James can take a bunch of role players to the NBA Finals in the Eastern Conference, why can’t Kobe do it with an equally mediocre supporting cast?

It appears that a good fit for Bryant might be Chicago—and not just because Kobe wants to be like Mike. The Bulls have a few rapidly improving role players around, such as Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, and Kirk Hinrich, which could easily be as good as the squad in Cleveland besides King James. The question is: how would Kobe get to Chicago. The Bulls would have to trade pretty much their entire roster to get Kobe, and then, you wouldn’t have a supporting cast worth a hill of beans.

But then again, we always have to qualify all of this idle thought. Kobe probably won’t leave the Lakers. The Lakers are hesitant to get rid of their star player. Kobe might just forget that he wanted to leave in the first place. The Lakers might bring in a player to satisfy him until his contract runs out. But it is interesting to think that we might be seeing Kobe playing in the Finals next year for the Bulls.

You can get Los Angeles Lakers tickets (to see Kobe or not) at StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in General on June 21, 2007 - Post a comment