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You know it's a slow sports week in town when columnists from the big newspapers start sounding like the drunk guy at the corner bar yelling at the TV during the game, certain he could assemble a better team than the one that management has put together. So who is their target?
In his column today Mike Downey follows Jay Mariotti in demanding that the Bulls need to trade for Kobe Bryant.
There has been much speculation that the Lakers' star is once again disgruntled, had sat out of practice by "mutual agreement" with coach Phil Jackson, and even rumors he had cleaned out his locker. So it sounds like his departure from La La Land is imminent, right?
And if we look back to the last round of rumors, we see lots of insinuation that he'd want to end up in Chicago whenever he left LA.
While it's nice to be wanted, do the Bulls have the components to trade for the superstar and his $19 million contract? He's possibly the best player in the NBA and Lakers owner Jerry Buss has said that while he'd listen to offers for Kobe, he expects to get equal talent in return. The NBA's salary cap makes things even harder.
With the Bulls over the cap, they would have to send salaries within 25% plus $100,000 of Kobe's—about $14 million. The only Bulls with contracts over $5 million are Kirk Hinrich, Andres Nocioni, Joe Smith and Ben Wallace. Nocioni and Smith can't be traded because they just signed new deals. Hinrich's $11 million deal only counts 50% because of the Base Year Compensation rule. That means that unless the Bulls include Wallace, they'd need to send five players to the Lakers in return for Kobe. Would they really be better off with Kobe on the team, but also 4 guys who should be in the CBA to round out the roster? We think not.
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Sports reporters jumped the gun a little this week. Kobe didn't clean out his locker -- he CLEANED his locker.
http://deadspin.com/sports/great-moments-in-media/the-journalists-is-smart-and-diligent-311814.php
If the Bulls decide to make a big trade, good for them, but trading most of your team for one excellent player is a terrible idea. I hope this rumor just dies a quiet death. Mike Downey is an idiot for trying to feed the fire, while Jay Marriotti was an idiot long before this latest column.
I agree that Downey's column was totally moronic. Leave crazy speculative trade talk to Cubs or Bears coverage, the Bulls are the only ones who appear to be in good shape at this point (I know, the season hasn't even started).
Bottom line -- last year they gave away Chandler for P.J. Brown, which not only left us thin when Wallace was injured... Brown didn't even bother showing up except for one half of one of those last playoff games. Now we'll get to watch Chandler hit double-doubles for the rest of his career.
Kobe doesn't deserve ANY of the Jordan comparisons, much less the privilege of wearing the same uniform.
I definitely don't want to spend the next ten years regretting giving away the likes of Gordon, Hinrich, Thomas and whoever else. Skiles ain't gonna pretend to coach Bryant, and I doubt that Pax would even think about it for a second.
Kobe's selfishly trying to do his best to get out of the mess that he made. The mess that the Lakers are in is the result of Jerry Buss sucking up to Kobe, and now that it looks like they won't return to championship glory in his physical prime, he wants out. While the Bulls definitely have the trade bait and contracts to match Kobe's money, it would leave them thin on talent, Kobe no closer to returning to the finals, and the Bulls having to rebuild, again.
The sportswriters in this town seem to forget that it took the Jordan-led Bulls seven years to reach the NBA Finals. The second three-peat had one of the deepest benches ever assembled. This current squad has its flaws, but they have a very flexible bench, geared toward deep playoff runs. Let's hope Mariotti, Downey, Couch et al remember that if the Bulls get start the season strong.