Bryant Wasn't the Only Driver on This Ego Trip

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-heisler2nov02,1,7273401.column?coll=la-h
eadlines-sports

The Soap Opera Dynasty is no more. Shaquille O'Neal is in Miami, Karl Malone
in Orange County, Gary Payton in Boston, Derek Fisher in Oakland, Rick Fox
in Hollywood and Phil Jackson on his book tour.

Kobe Bryant, the only one who intended to leave all along, is the only one
who's left . holding the bag.

"It's been all personal," says Fisher, the little stand-up Laker for so
long, now a Warrior. "Because he's still here, he's got to take the brunt of
most of that stuff that everybody's talking about.

"The sad part to me is there hasn't been much talk about the team, how great
we were, how great we were not at times."

Their good times lasted five seasons, from the 2000 title to the 2004 Finals
when they - finally - blew into their constituent parts.

Bryant says he was an innocent. Actually, he was the linchpin.

Jackson and O'Neal say Bryant ran them out. Actually, Jerry Buss ran them
out because they demanded king's ransoms and his priority was Bryant - which
was the only choice, if you had to choose.

The tag team of Jackson and O'Neal says Bryant was the problem. Actually,
the problem was always the clash of egos and Bryant's, while formidable, was
only one of them.

If Jackson is older and wiser, he had one of the egos, which now leads him
to conduct guided tours through the "sanctuary" he once protected so
sanctimoniously.

Bryant was, indeed, the problem in the coach's first two seasons as Jackson
tried to jam him in line behind O'Neal, as everyone knew it had to be -
except Bryant.

However, O'Neal was the problem in the next two. To everyone's astonishment,
he got along fine with Bryant but came in heavy, took all season to play
himself into shape, was often hurt, and got upset when Jackson prodded him.

That was when Shaq decided Gary Vitti wasn't supporting him, either, and, as
Jackson notes, made Chip Schaefer his personal guy in the trainer's room.

Bryant's arrest, and remarks about O'Neal to police, changed everything
back. Hanging on by his fingernails, without his trademark poise, Bryant
vented to teammates about leaving because of O'Neal, alienated the Laker
press corps that had previously stayed unaligned, and took offense at
Jackson's suggestions.

Jackson knew Bryant would need room, but by January, Phil was all out.

Jackson had his own issues. With his contract running out, he was ambivalent
about returning, which may have been another reason he said it was Bryant or
him, a commitment he had to know Buss wouldn't give him.

Buss took Jackson's demand as a resignation, pulling his extension offer off
the table and even announcing it.

Showing how crazy things were, Jackson said he didn't know why Buss jerked
the rug out from under him. Jackson had been told often enough they would
never trade Bryant, including by girlfriend Jeanie Buss.

Jackson now airs his perspective on the talk-show circuit. O'Neal has a new
version daily for his new rapt audience, which stares up at him with eyes
wide as if he were the Story Lady.

O'Neal says he pretended to feud with Jackson to keep the pressure off
Bryant, who never passed to him and was the reason - not age or
conditioning - his production fell.

O'Neal says he pretended to feud with Jackson to motivate himself, since
Staples Center crowds were subdued.

Tune in for O'Neal's latest reason for pretending to feud with Jackson. It
may have been an FBI sting he was helping with.

It was a pile-on with Bryant bashed, seemingly from someone new each day, as
if the Shaq-Kobe Lakers had never won anything before Bryant demolished
them, single-handedly.

"Obviously, he didn't see the things with Phil coming," says Fisher. "I'm
sure he knew there would be some back-and-forth with Shaq. .

"I don't think anybody sees anything the same way Phil sees it. [Laughing] I
mean, that's what makes him Phil Jackson."

Looking for a Home

No one saw this coming, least of all Bryant, who lives in an inner circle so
small it's like a world of its own.

He's more driven than ever, aching to prove he can make this work. Showing
the strain he's under, he's angrier, talking more trash. Seattle's Ray Allen
blasted him as "selfish," after Bryant scored 35 to the other Lakers' 45 in
the exhibition opener and engaged Allen mano a mano.

Bryant thought it had all been in good fun and hugged Allen afterward.

Off the floor, Bryant is more gun-shy than ever. Even last season, he did
one-on-one interviews with journalists he trusted, but that number is down
to about three and he isn't sitting down with them, either. The most he'll
do is to allow his version to be reported, if he isn't quoted directly.

No one else is talking, either. So, from Bryant and sources on both local
teams, this is how contract negotiations went:

Bryant focused on the Clippers as far back as last fall when his agent, Rob
Pelinka, was heard telling a team official, "Save your cap room." Bryant
liked the challenge of turning around what was considered a hopeless case,
and it would have allowed him and wife Vanessa to stay in Orange County.

Bryant assumed O'Neal would remain a Laker, that they'd meet four times a
season, and was looking forward to it.

Bryant often mentioned taking one or another of his teammates with him.
Jackson mentioned Slava Medvedenko; more often it was Malone or Fisher.

There was a thaw last spring, with Bryant saying privately he might not even
opt out and Jeanie Buss saying she thought Jackson was about to get a
contract extension.

The loss to the Pistons ended that. Bryant says he came out of it intent on
leaving, to play the rest of his career stress-free. He didn't want to get
rid of O'Neal and Jackson; he wanted to be the one who went.

Determined to keep Bryant, but with no commitment from him, Buss decided to
trade O'Neal and let Jackson go.

Even if they wound up losing Bryant, it made no sense to Buss to keep
O'Neal, who wanted $140 million to $150 million through 2009, or Jackson,
who wanted $25 million for two seasons, since they weren't likely to win
more titles and would have no cap room for the duration.

As if to confirm the Lakers' worst fears, even as they shopped O'Neal, they
couldn't get Bryant to opt out soon enough to keep Jamal Sampson off the
expansion list.

Instead, Bryant opted out the very next day. The Lakers spent two miserable
weeks facing the possibility that they would trade O'Neal to keep Bryant
only to lose him too.

Before the draft, Pelinka advised the Clippers whom to take at No. 4, which
carried the suggestion that this was who Bryant wanted: Arizona's Andre
Iguodala (a Pelinka client.) The Clippers made their own choice: Shaun
Livingston.

Bryant became aware his options weren't great. Cap rules limited the Clipper
offer to $106 million compared with the Lakers' $136 million. And then there
was the Donald T. Sterling factor.

Staying wasn't attractive, either, with O'Neal on his way out and no hope of
getting a big man back.

Trying to develop better options, Bryant called Duke's Mike Krzyzewski on
the Lakers' behalf. Bryant said he wasn't recruiting him, but Krzyzewski
told several of his players that Bryant had just asked him to come coach
him.

Bryant even invited the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls to the Four
Seasons in Newport Beach to make presentations, although neither had cap
room and the Lakers wouldn't discuss sign-and-trades.

Ten days before announcing his decision, Bryant told the Clipper delegation
of Elgin Baylor, Mike Dunleavy and Andy Roeser that he wanted to come and
there was no way he was going back

In the final days, Bryant consulted old mentors, including Jerry West.

People close to Bryant started talking about the folly of "leaving $30
million on the table."

Pelinka didn't even know the night before Bryant was to announce his
decision what it would be.

Bryant didn't decide until late that night, after talking by phone with
Buss, who was then in Croatia, but had negotiated the last word.

Bryant stayed - but everything else changed.

Future Isn't Now Anymore

Happily for Laker fans still paying dynasty-era prices plus this season's
increase, the organization has more plans than it is talking about.

If there's hope this team can return to an entertaining, Showtime style,
management is focused on 2007 when Yao Ming and Amare Stoudemire could be on
the market, or 2008 when LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Darko Milicic or
Dwyane Wade could be.

This will come at a price: With $35.5 million on the books for 2007, the
Lakers can't make any commitments beyond that and still must unload a player
or two.

To keep Caron Butler or Chris Mihm, who can be free in 2007, they would have
to get rid of as much salary as they added.

This is often whispered about as a Yao strategy, but people close to him say
he isn't the type to leave.

This isn't about one player, but getting in position to add someone great.

That leaves the next two seasons as a transition period, which will pale in
excitement.

The Laker dynamic will change. Teammates will no longer be torn between
superstars and will get behind Bryant, the one they have.

The NBA dynamic will change. Instead of being part of the game's mightiest
tandem, Bryant will be rebuilding in the powerful West while O'Neal is
featured, beaming, on all the magazine covers and romps around the East.

Suitors, like the Clippers, told Bryant that if he stayed he'd have to
listen to people say he ran off O'Neal and Jackson, which began as soon as
Bryant re-signed. Nevertheless, it came as a surprise to Bryant, who asked
friends why anyone would think that. It wasn't exactly true, but there was
an element of truth in it and he made powerful enemies, who wanted to put it
on him. That'll do it every time.

Bryant's career won't become stress-free. No one will ever know what really
happened in Colorado, or see him the same way. He may get some endorsement
cachet back, as he hopes, or not. He may relax enough to leave his cocoon,
or not.

On the bright side, things can't get any harder than they've been, the remai
ning Lakers hope.