The Battle For LA

Good for you, Vanessa.

You finally stood up for yourself and said, "Enough is enough!" I'm out of here.

There's only so many multi-million dollar diamonds in the world that can buy your loyalty, and I applaud you for that.

Granted, what Kobe did in Denver several years ago invoked the necessity for multi-million dollar diamonds, and priceless news conferences (get some Chap-stick Kobe), but this was different, wasn't it?

This was too close to home. This was simply "I'm too bored because of this damn lock-out and need something to grab my attention." How dare the man!

Vanessa bolted...and I can't blame her. The Lakers are in complete disarray.

What, you thought I was going all Doctor Phil on you?

Lamar Odom is gone, the Zen Master is gone, Chris Paul plays in the stadium (but he's wearing blue and red), and now Kobe is physically and intimately alone. That should work well for the biggest ego in basketball.

So much for high and mighty for the greatest franchise in NBA history, you don't have the TIME for high and mighty. You need help now!

Everybody outside of Kobe knows that Kobe is in the twilight of his career. You have two years, maximum, of the Icy Killer that is Kobe. That means no more of, "He's definitely making this shot" or "We're down by two in the waning seconds, but we have Kobe".

Side Note: How sad is that? I'm not even close to a Lakers' fan but the fact that I will live and see Kobe Bryant not play basketball is very upsetting to me. He was my Jordan.

So the divorce thing affected Michael in a big way. His happened after his playing career but then he went out and became owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. Michael Jordan forgets more about the National Basketball Association by the day than I will ever know, yet, I know not to buy the Bobcats. They suck.

He was divorce-blind though. That's why the greatest basketball player ever bought a professional team in North Carolina. It has nothing to do with roots.

So, with a divorce-blind Kobe, and a rag-tag team of starters, the Lakers are simply screwed. Do you remember when Shaq left and Kobe had that 80 point game but the Lakers were still terrible? Yeah, it's like that but no 80 point game is coming.

At this point, even if the Lakers manage to wrangle Dwight Howard away from the Magic, they would be even more screwed. The Lakers would almost certainly have to give away key pieces of their line-up, as well as potential future draft picks, to get the best big man in the game. That buys them some time, but like I said, two years MAXIMUM!

Then you have no Kobe, Dwight bolts again, and you start starting Clipper-rejects.

Side note: Pairing Blake Griffin with Chris Paul was a total Laker move, about six years ago. What the hell happened? Are my kids going to grow up hating the Clippers and rooting for the Lakers? Bizarro world?

The man at the helm now is Mike Brown, the guy from Cleveland that couldn't get LeBron a championship. Now he's in LA, replacing Phil Jackson, inheriting a rapidly aging Kobe, and a fan base that simply wants to win. That's the recipe for dynamite and I simply can't wait. Blow it up!