<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Caron Butler sat at the corner dressing stall in the visitors' locker room at Madison Square Garden, finding room to suit up before Monday's Lakers-Knicks game. About two dozen reporters had squeezed in, filling nearly every square inch of the room. Kobe Bryant wouldn't hold court until about an hour after the game, Shaquille O'Neal and Phil Jackson are no longer around, and L.A. came into the night with nearly as many losses as victories. But still the Lakers, as usual, were commanding unparalleled attention for what was, what could be and the Hollywood drama that follows them around the country. Doesn't playing for this team get a little crazy? "Yeah, it does," Butler said. "It's a different environment." The Kobe-Shaq duo led the Lakers to three titles in a row. The Kobe-Shaq feud led to the crumbling of a potential dynasty. O'Neal is in Miami leading the Heat atop the Eastern Conference, and the Lakers have become what many assumed they might: too much Kobe, too little else. With a record hovering around .500 and L.A. in a rebuilding process of sorts, Bryant's tribulations, the departure of Rudy Tomjanovich and rumors of Phil Jackson's return have at least lent intrigue to this mediocre season. Bryant can't carry the burden he and Shaq shared. The Lakers are his team now, for better or worse. He's the league's second-leading scorer at 27.9 points a game. Averaging 6.6 assists and 6.0 rebounds, he would seem to be having one of his better all-around seasons. Yet the Lakers (29-28) are barely clinging to the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot. They had lost four in a row before Friday's victory over Dallas. Bryant had 40 points in that one. If that's what it's going to take, the Lakers are doomed.</div> Source
