My New T-Shirt Reads: "Still Time Before the Trade Deadline"

Twenty-twenty hindsight is a bitch, especially in sports. (Think: Blazers picking Bowie over Jordan in '84; every one of the Bears quarterbacks since Favre first started for the Packers in '92 (there have been 19 different starters, versus just one up north); and Tomlin's recent decisions to go for two when he should've clearly gone for one twice.)

But the most frustrating hindsight for me this winter-sports-season is the reconsideration of the the Bulls/Lakers trade for Kobe, which daunted us fans for months before the first of November. Admittedly, I was against it. Give up Deng, Thomas, Gordan and Noah for Bryant? Ridiculous, especially considering our core (if you can call it that) took us to the playoffs last year, along with Big Ben in the middle.

But two and a half months into the season, I'm itching for a Kobe trade. Chicago sits at the bottom of the central in the East at 13-20, while L.A. remains only one game behind the Suns in the pacific in the West at 23-11. And who is supporting Kobe? Odom, Radmanovic, Walton? C'mon. A Chicago roster and salary cap can support players of equal (if not better) caliber, especially with Wallace at center.

This borders on blasphemous, but I'm going to say it anyway: Kobe is starting to look like Jordan in terms of making the shitty players around him look good. (I give you juking Jud Buchler.) Of course, Kobe isn't Jordan (even if he does drop 81), but he's the closest thing to Jordan since Jordan, with no apologies to Lebron. It's unmissable. It's a symphony of physicality. It's the best basketball in the world right now.



But (which is the buzzword of this post) it might be too late to bring Kobe to one of the few markets that could sustain him, to one of the few teams to which the Lakers would trade him, and to one of the few teams to which he would OK a trade. Winning, for Kobe, is all that matters, and the Lakers are winning, and winning big. He's got Phil and Hollywood and a supporting cast that is starting to give a shit. Chicago has twenty losses and a new coach who doesn't appear much better than the last coach.

In a season and a half, when Kobe is a free agent, all of this might be moot and I'll be sending flowers to Paxson's office promising to name my firstborn son after him as I watch Kobe hold up a Bulls jersey with a bold, red 24 on the front. But I doubt it. Dammit.