Who thinks that Bryant will be back next year? I'm thinking his opt out was only to boost the money he signs for especially with Kupchak saying that he would be willing to trade O'neal but not Bryant. I have a feeling that Buss is going to mortgage the team to keep Bryant and its going to backfire because he is not going to have any real talent around him to keep them a real contender in the post season.
definately, it seems prety clear from the articles on espn.com that kobe is staying put and the lakers will be built around him irrelevant of what must be done to achieve that.
Kobe said he would want to be a free agent because he simply wanted to explore teams that would be his team. Fans think Shaq leaving is an inflict to the Lakers, but I think Kobe thinks it's a solution to the Lakers, as it would be his team. So common sense states that he's staying.
