So Kobe asked for a trade. No big surprise, nor will it be when the Lakers basically get nothing in return. If I may be so bold, I recommend that the front office gun for a deal with Chicago, trading Kobe for Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich and PJ Brown’s expiring contract. The money works, and Chicago is pretty much the only team in the league that wants to and can legitimately content for the title next year (which makes Bryant appealing to them) and has plenty of talented younger players (which the Lakers should go for if they’re going to rebuild.) Next year after they can dump Kwame Brown’s contract, LA will only have Lamar Odom and Vlad Radmanovic on the payroll as big-ticket, perennially broken players. Which, for the Lakers at least, would be braggable.

I personally think Chicago would be foolish to go for this, but who knows. They gave Ben Wallace a $60,000,000 deal, so it definitely seems like they’re swinging for the fences. Maybe Kobe could be the guy to get them over the hump? They could even break the bank and try to pull Jermaine O’Neal (who has a player option with the Pacers for next year) on to the team as well. I personally wouldn’t want to be in the Eastern conference should that happen.

At any rate: I’m just saying. Now back to your regularly scheduled nerdery.