Tinseltown Rebellion

It's not getting a lot of airplay because nobody thinks anything will come of it but Kobe Bryant can opt out of his contract this summer. This opinion says it's more likely than some people think that he'll bolt, even if the Lakers win the championship. The reasoning is not hard to understand: Kobe Bryant despises Phil Jackson (Who doesn't, come to think of it?) and Jackson feels the same way about Bryant. Jackson is one of the greatest coaches of all time in any sport, there's no disputing that. However, Jackson is also a world class a--hole and a 200-proof hypocrite. Neither party admits anything, but there's no way Bryant has forgotten about when Jackson ran away and took an extended vacation to write that book where he bashed Bryant and then had the gall to return as if to dare Bryant to do something about it. It was a spiteful move by Jackson. He knew he had the leverage because of his record as a coaching legend who's won nine NBA titles (and coached the Lakers to three of them) and with Bryant's major personal problems going on at about the same time as well as the trade of Shaquille O'Neal and the flack Bryant was getting for it. It was an unbelievable act of arrogance only Jackson would have the kehonas to pull off. He knew Kobe was going to have to work overtime to repair his image and going to war with Jackson could have been disastrous to Bryant's career. Don't know what it is about Phil Jackson, but he seems to get off on these kind of mind games.

The fact that the Lakers are winning makes everything seem all hunky-dory between Jackson and Bryant, but that's Oscar material. These two nuclear-powered egotists are not friends, and Bryant is no fool. He remembers, but he's too much of a professional to sabotage his career by going Marbury on the Lakers and bringing everything crashing down. Instead, he'll do what he always does; play basketball at a level that's the closest thing to Michael Jordan that exists, whether the Lakers win or not. And the call here is that this summer, Bryant drops the daisy-cutter on the Zen Master and sets sail for New York.

The Knicks? Of course. There are several factors, too:

1) Yeah, we know. Los Angeles is one of the two big media capitals along with New York. It has Hollywood, the stars, the glitz, the warm weather and all that. Fine. But for all it is, as a sports town Los Angeles is the absolute worst. Fans arrive in the third inning, leave in the seventh and don't make a lot of noise even in the best of times. Their indifference was never more evident than when they had a chance to get an NFL expansion team. The Rams and Raiders simultaneously abandoned ship in 1995 and when the NFL decided to expand in 2002, L.A. seemed the obvious choice. Or so everyone thought. As it turned out, Los Angeles couldn't get enough support from fans, business executives or local officials to get anything close to a decent proposal together, and instead the franchise was awarded to Houston and became the Texans. That tells you everything you need to know about Los Angeles as a sports town.

2) New York, on the other hand, is passionate to a fault. It's a tough place to play, but the fans love the legends that play for the opposition and those players notice the attention. Kobe Bryant is not only a great player, he thrives on the pressure. He was quoted last year as saying that Madison Square Garden is his favorite place to play. All the great players, even Michael Jordan, say how special it is to play there. Bryant knows that this could be his only chance to make the Garden his home while still at the top of his game (A superstar coming to New York in his prime is a position the Knicks haven't been in since they acquired 3-time defending scoring champion Bob McAdoo in December of 1976). Madison Square Garden is the Yankee Stadium of the NBA (the old Yankee Stadium, that is). It has the history, it has the prestige and New York has always been the hotbed of playground legends. Wilt Chamberlain once said that he wished he'd had the chance to play in New York. Everyone knows that nothing compares to a big game at Madison Square Garden. Not Boston, not Philadelphia, not...Los Angeles....??... Well anyway, there hasn't been a big game at the Garden in quite a while. With Kobe Bryant in a Knicks uniform, every game would be big, and (like it or not, small markets) it would be great for the league. The aura of Madison Square Garden is a huge advantage that no other team can match, and you can be sure the Knicks will take full advantage of it.

3) Besides, think about this: You don't really believe that Kobe Bryant will leave LaLa-land to sign with a smaller market team, do you? Never. He loves the spotlight, he loves the heat, and it doesn't glow brighter and hotter than in New York. The Knicks (and the league, for sure) are determined to restore the franchise back to the level of the glory days and with Isiah Thomas out of the picture and Jimmy Dolan off playing his sax on whatever planet he's orbiting, the future looks a lot better now for the Knicks than it did just a year ago at this time.

4) Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni's freelancing style is getting very popular among players around the league. His players love it, the Suns loved it and there are always remarks by opposing players on how much fun it looks. It makes long-suffering Knick fans drool thinking about the numbers Kobe Bryant or LeBron James can put up. If Bryant opts out and shows interest in coming to New York, the Knicks would be crazy to say no, even if James doesn't commit long-term to Cleveland after this season.

5) This is the chance Kobe Bryant's been waiting for to stick it to Phil Jackson and really make it hurt. It would be just the slap in the face that Jackson has deserved for years. And if Bryant really wants to rub salt in the wounds, since he wouldn't be able to wear #24 (Bill Bradley's retired number), he should don #18, Jackson's number when he played for the championship Knicks. That would be priceless.

Nothing is set in stone, of course. Bryant may very well stay put. But you can't deny that the facts laid out here make the thought of Bryant's leaving the Left Coast to play in New York sound a lot more sensible than any other scenario.