Kobe Bryant, Luol Deng, and pessimism

November 1st, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

There’s been a cascade of Kobe news over the past 24 hours, none of it more interesting, at least to me, than Chris Sheridan’s story today that Kobe would veto any trade that includes Luol Deng:

Deng is very much in play in the conversations between Chicago and Los Angeles, ESPN.com has learned.

And it’s mainly because of Bryant’s wishes that Deng is still wearing a Chicago uniform.

A source with knowledge of the trade talks said Deng has been included in proposals swapped between the teams, but Bryant has continually threatened to veto almost any deal in which Deng would be included. Bryant wants to be sure that the team he joins has enough talent remaining to compete for the NBA title.

The source said talks between the teams had stagnated, though by no means were they dead. And while the difficulties involved in the deal — making the salaries match, and trying to trade players onto 15-man rosters now that the preseason roster flexibility has elapsed — continued to be formidable, the Bulls remained determined to pursue every avenue toward acquiring Bryant from the Lakers.

On first read, that looks like good news for Bulls fans, as it increases the odds that the Bulls would end up with both Kobe and Luol Deng. After the initial euphoria dies out, though, pessimism takes over.

The Lakers don’t need to trade Kobe. They have less costly options: Not only could they try to work out the old Jermaine O’Neal chestnut, they can do what they’ve done each time Kobe’s name has come up in trade talks: They can do nothing. Kobe might be unhappy, but he certainly won’t stop competing. He’s Kobe Bryant, hard-wired killer-instinct Model T3000. He might take a few more nights off than normal, but can you picture him totally shutting it down? On the management side, the Lakers can roll with a half-angry Bryant and still probably do better financially and publicly than they would with a full-on rebuild. Kobe Bryant might not want to go to a depleted team, but the Lakers don’t need to trade for anything less. Why would they?

So as much as this Bulls fan embraces each Kobe rumor that lands on my retinas, this newest revelation — even if it confirms that talks are active — nearly spells doom for a trade to Chicago. Optimism is the default emotion in things like these, but if Kobe’s no-Deng standard continues, pessimism makes more sense.