At This Point, He’s Not an Attractive Teammate

This isn’t about Karl Malone, who would not be the missing piece that gets the Lakers to the NBA Finals.

It’s about 2007, and the Lakers’ ability to attract a free agent who can vault them back into championship consideration once they get under the salary cap.

And so far Kobe Bryant is proving much more adept at sending Hall of Famers away than attracting them to Los Angeles.

Malone added his name to the list that includes Shaquille O’Neal and Phil Jackson when he said Bryant’s public and private comments angered him to the point that he no longer wants to play for the Lakers if and when he ends his knee-surgery sabbatical.

There are other factors at work here, mostly financial. But the common thread is negative public comments about Bryant.

In varying order, players seek dollars, stats and favored status. And for the next seven years the bulk of all of those around here will belong to Bryant.

The two biggest free-agent names on the horizon for 2007 are Yao Ming and Amare Stoudemire.

The way things are going in Phoenix, do you think Stoudemire wants to leave Steve Nash? Playing with a point guard like that is like luxuriating in the palace with the helping hands feeding you grapes and fanning you with palm fronds.

If the Rockets keep losing, L.A.’s large Chinese population and Yao’s affinity for Coach Rudy Tomjanovich could make the Lakers appealing.

But there are growing doubts about whether Yao has the mental or physical makeup to be a franchise player. And if he can’t form a winning combination in Houston with Tracy McGrady, the knock-off version of Bryant, would he fare that much better with the real thing?

Look around the NBA and you won’t find many players who dream of playing alongside Bryant.

Oh, they respect his game. Have to. There are mandatory props for anyone who can light you for 40 on one end of the court, lock you down at the other end and dunk on you or anyone else who gets in his way.

They just don’t like him.

How many players around the league did you see piping up in his defense after Bryant was accused of sexual assault? (The charge was dropped this summer before the case went to trial.)

Now they see the developing pattern.

The coach who got along with everyone from Michael Jordan to Dennis Rodman couldn’t break through with Bryant. The center whom they all respect couldn’t get along with Bryant. Now Malone, the player who had Bryant’s back last season, accused Bryant of stabbing him in his own.

“The bottom line is, Kobe doesn’t want me to play for him, and it’s his team,” Malone said Tuesday.

Like the other Hall of Famers no longer in Lakerland, Malone doesn’t get away cleanly.

There’s already the wide suspicion that he’s using Bryant as an excuse to get out of his earlier Lakers-or-nowhere stance because he’d rather play for a championship contender such as San Antonio.

I don’t doubt it. But what’s wrong with wanting to play for a championship team?

Isn’t that what this is supposed to be about? You should be in the NBA because you love the game, feel fortunate to be paid to play it, and want to get a championship ring.

Malone put winning above money when he took an almost $17-million pay cut to come here. If he goes to the Spurs, he’ll put winning above playing time, because there aren’t many power forward minutes available in a rotation that already has Tim Duncan, Robert Horry and Malik Rose.

The Lakers’ reaction to Malone’s statements was their first sign in months that they care about championships too, that they aren’t all about sound business and satisfying one particular ego.

They said that Bryant did not speak for the team. Wednesday, Bryant met with reporters, apologized for offending Malone and said, “I would love to have him here.”

Tomjanovich added that “the red carpet is out for him if he wants to come back.”

Give the Lakers credit for recognizing the importance of perception and trying to do something about it.

The smarter, more successful organizations understand this is part of the game. So they fly in families for games on Mother’s Day. They put PlayStations and fluffy towels in the locker rooms.

Or, in the Lakers’ case, they pay for players’ flights to Colorado for pre-trial hearings.

The Lakers have catered to Bryant and now it’s time for him to pay them back by catering to others and, for once, putting someone else’s ego above his.

He might not have needed to do it for a 41-year-old forward with a scar on his knee. But if Bryant does indeed hold the future of this franchise in his hands, it would have been a good place to start.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.