Commentary: Bryant still has growing up to do
Call it the Endless Summer of Kobe Bryant.
Or, as many have, call it something else, something much harsher.
Some would like to call a halt to all the soap opera stuff involving Kobe Bryant and concentrate on such mundane matters as basketball.
This is unlikely because of the way he is wired.
Oblivious as he is to his role in the state of the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant, the petulant one, issued votes of no confidence for owner Jerry Buss, General Manager Mitch Kupchak, youngster Andrew Bynum and, by inference, Lamar Odom, Luke Walton and the rest of the team.
His classic terrible 2s tantrum included a demand to be traded.
The "Endless Summer" was Bruce Brown's classic 1966 surfing film of the search by Mike Hynson and Robert August for the perfect wave.
Instead of operating on a surfboard, Kobe Bryant sees himself crossover dribbling in a quest for the perfect season. The star of his in-his-mind film, quite naturally, at least to him, is himself.
Kobe Bryant sees his quest as heroic. Others see him as a tragic figure wrapped in self- (fill in blank).
Andrew Carnegie, the 1880s-early 1900s owner of Carnegie Steel Co., etc., invented damage control when he went from robber baron, making his fortune on the sweat of hardworking, low-paid workers, to philanthropist.
"He changed his image by building libraries," a cynical college professor once said.
Kobe Bryant seeks to repair his image by smiling and saying he's sorry. Or by just smiling.
He held an orchestrated-for-TV press conference during his youth basketball camp this week at Loyola Marymount University.
With the youngsters as the perfect photo-op background, he revealed he apologized to Kupchak, patting himself on the back for making the treacherous trip on the freeway from his home in Orange County to the Los Angeles Lakers offices in El Segundo to apologize in person.
He did not think to mention apologizing to Buss, Andrew Bynum, Odom, Walton or the rest of the Los Angeles Lakers.
He did not retract his trade demand.
Nor did he say he will not exercise the out clause of his contract, which is his option after the 2008-09 season. If he is with the Los Angeles Lakers for the four seasons remaining in his contract, the team is obligated to pay him $88.6 million.
Even if he did not say it, perhaps he has purged his mind of all negative thoughts about Buss, Andrew Bynum, etc.
Perhaps he no longer has visions of burning his Los Angeles Lakers uniform.
And perhaps the old sailors who believed the world was flat were correct.
The fingerprints of Nike are all over Kobe Bryant's exercise in damage control.
Nike is his corporate partner. It is a possible revenue source beyond his playing days, as Michael Jordan can, or possibly has, explained. When the Nike people whisper into his ear, Kobe Bryant listens.
The whisper would have been about how, contrary to what the yes-men who surround him were telling him, the cash-paying public did not support him. This lack of support means the cash-paying public is not going to support his products.
Noise generated via e-mail and talk-show caller rants by those supporting Kobe Bryant is misleading. My small-sample survey of local residents comes up pushing 100 percent anti-Kobe Bryant, ranging from distressed to turned off completely by his temper tantrum.
The Los Angeles Lakers deserve praise for their calm, firm and fully-packed handling of the situation.
They have said nothing negative about Kobe Bryant. They have not been bullied into making a bad trade in a rush to try to please him. They have moved forward in a businesslike manner.
The Kobe Bryant camp suggested he might sit out next season.
Possible. Not probable.
However, if anyone is stubborn enough to walk away from $19.4 million next season, it is Kobe Bryant.
If he refused to play next season, what would happen if the team held fast and did not trade him?
The assumption is the year would vanish and he would owe the Los Angeles Lakers one year before he could opt out.
NBA officials, no doubt auditioning to work as designated sandbaggers for the U.S. passport agency, curtly refuse to discuss the matter.
The Los Angeles Lakers, holding fast to a hear no evil, see no evil and definitely say no evil policy about Kobe Bryant, politely decline to comment.
Too bad Kobe Bryant did not read that memo during his season exit interview.
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