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THIS ISN’T ADVICE that Lakers fans and probably Kobe himself want to hear. Frustrated in their quest for four straight championships and hungering to start another run, the Lakers want Bryant on the court.
They spent some money and improved the product considerably this summer, signing Gary Payton to play the point and Karl Malone to provide additional beef up front. With Bryant working his magic, the Lakers figured to put maybe its best team ever on the floor — maybe one of the best in NBA history.
But Bryant stopped being the key to success when the Eagle County, Colo., prosecutor filed sexual assault charges against him. At that moment, Bryant went from asset to distraction.
We’re not talking minor distraction here, like a fly buzzing around your head while you’re talking to your mother-in-law on the phone. We’re talking about taking your SAT tests while somebody is using a chain saw in the back of the room.
That is what it’s going to be like for the Lakers from the day Bryant sets foot in training camp until the day his trial is over and the verdict is in and the last post-trial analyses have been printed and aired.
Whether it’s right, platoons and regiments and brigades of reporters and cameramen are going to follow Bryant like ants following a trail of spilled sugar. Wherever he stops, they’ll stop, a collective organism bent on only one thing: feeding an insatiable hunger for the juiciest sports-related story since the O.J. Simpson trial.
Bryant, of course, won’t talk much about anything and won’t discuss the trial at all. So the news-hungry mass will descend on his teammates, and the question that will be asked of every Laker countless times between now and the end of the saga will be, “Is this a distraction?” Well, duh! You may as well ram a hot poker into someone’s eye and ask him, “Do you feel any discomfort?”
Every time the Lakers come to a new city, it will be a new horde with the same questions. Every time a new drip of leaked evidence hits the media, it will be another horde. Every time there is a development, no matter how minor, in the glacial pace of justice toward the trial, it will be yet another horde.
That sort of thing can wear on anyone’s nerves. Bryant might be able to escape into his game on the court, but what about his teammates? How happy can they be to see him coming into the locker room in a new city knowing what that means for them in terms of questions, questions and more questions?
At some point, the trial will start, and if Bryant intends to play this season, he must think about what he will do then. It’s not the sort of thing you’d expect him to commute to. It’s not a speeding ticket. He’s on trial to save life as he knows it. If Bryant thinks he can just play basketball, let the lawyers handle his defense, and just show up for the trial, he’s a fool. You don’t let 12 strangers decide the course of the next 60 years of your life without being as involved in the decision as much as you possibly can.
Conversely, if Bryant truly understands what is at stake, then he can not possibly concentrate on basketball. And if he’s not completely dedicated to his team and its goals, he is not being fair to them.
The Lakers will miss Bryant, but they can function quite well without him. Payton never has been shy about shooting and won’t mind taking some of the shots Bryant would have taken. The same goes for Malone. As long as Shaq is up front and Payton and Malone play to their capabilities, the Lakers will be fine.
They may not be a first-place team, but they weren’t last season. The object is to win a championship, and that means getting in the playoffs. They can do that without Bryant. Considering the distractions he will bring, they probably can do it better.
Bryant’s best hope is to see that the case gets to trial and is resolved. If he’s convinced of his innocence — or his lawyers’ ability to instill reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury — then it’s in his interest to get it over with quickly.
If he is found innocent, he can come back to the team in triumph in time to provide a huge boost for the playoffs.
But maybe the biggest reason he should not play — from the Lakers’ point of view — is because of what would happen to the team if he plays as much as possible and then is judged guilty. At that moment, his basketball career will be over and the team will lose its best player. Better to be accustomed to not having him than to lose him with the season going into the home stretch.
And for Bryant, better to take care of the biggest crisis in his life than to try to pretend there is nothing to worry about
Mike Celizic writes regularly for NBCSports.com and is a freelance writer based in New York.
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Tenacious D, the other white meat
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