In Cold-Hearted Way, Buss Makes Right Call

I don’t know why you people are so upset about the Lakers. How about me?

I write about 40 columns a year and I stand to lose 20 perfectly good ones, with the Lakers as we know them (It’s my team! No, mine!) on the eve of destruction.

They may have been exciting for you, but they’ve been a cottage industry for me since Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant showed up. That was eight seasons ago, eight seasons filled with all manner of farce and an amazing amount of triumph.

Let’s put it this way. After eight years of these guys, I’m too old to go back to working for a living.

Unfortunately for you, me and the Lakers, their old trinity is down to one and counting.

Phil Jackson was told he could take his wit and wisdom back to semi-civilized barbarian-land in Montana. Let’s just say, three rings and a romance with the owner’s daughter don’t mean what they used to.

Bryant opted out.

O’Neal announced he was upset, too, nominating himself to be traded, perhaps before he finds out the team has already nominated him.

O’Neal wasn’t flattered by General Manager Mitch Kupchak’s qualified commitment to his future as a Laker, right after Kupchak’s unqualified commitment to Bryant’s future as a Laker.

This, of course, confirmed the new reality the Lakers had been signaling, and O’Neal had been hearing about for months: This was no longer Shaq’s team.

O’Neal, the Superman devotee, considers Kupchak his arch-nemesis, like Lex Luthor. In real life, Kupchak only fronts for owner Jerry Buss, who makes these calls.

This call was a no-brainer. If it was brutal and unappreciative, it was business, requiring a cold calculation of self-interest, as when O’Neal bade Orlando farewell to come here.

With Buss’ jet-set, pub-crawling lifestyle, he’s not your average NBA owner, but he’s smart and, best of all, decisive. Once it was Buss who insisted that Jerry West keep pursuing O’Neal as a free agent, when it looked as if Shaq would stay in Orlando.

Now it was Buss who decided if he had to choose between O’Neal and Bryant, Shaq would be the one to go.

It was a no-win choice but it still had to be made. At midseason when it began to emerge, I thought it would be so hard, the Lakers wouldn’t make any choice at all. They would take refuge in denial -- Kobe won’t really leave us -- responding belatedly as events presented themselves.

Bryant would wind up a Clipper.

O’Neal would stay. They’d give him an extension, so with the $30 million they already owe him next season, they’d be on the hook for $100 million-plus through age 36. They would try to build a new team around him, although he would be declining and they would be over the salary cap.

Instead, Buss made a choice.

He wasn’t choosing between the Lakers of today and the Lakers of 2000-02. If Buss could have put them in a time machine and run them back four years, I bet he would have.

This was a choice of whom to rebuild around, the 32-year-old O’Neal or the 25-year-old Bryant.

It’s not that the right choice means a return to glory. If you haven’t noticed, the Lakers’ good old days ended two years ago and the result became official last week. People shelling out $7,200 for a season seat in the lower bowl should realize they’re no longer guaranteed greatness.

It’s just that this is the best way to go forward, however far the Lakers are going.

For the Lakers, it’s unfortunate either had to go but both were responsible. This is the age of the super-entitled youth icon who resides in orbit, even if he was grounded once.

Bryant was defiant, O’Neal resentful. Had O’Neal, who described himself as the older brother, gone to Bryant instead of zinging him in the media, they might have fared better. Kobe, who was actually more grown up, could have gone to Shaq.

They spent eight years trying to work it out, and they almost made it. They were at peace for two seasons before the events of last summer blew them up again.

Once the combination of the two made them special. Now, as the Detroit Pistons demonstrated, even with the game’s greatest tandem, the Lakers needed a major overhaul.

O’Neal once truly was MDE, as he claimed, the most dominant ever. Now he’s no longer the Shaq of 2000-02, who averaged 35.5 points en route to three Finals MVPs.

With two or more days’ rest in the 2004 Finals, he was a monster, averaging 31 points and 15.5 rebounds. On one day’s rest, he was a large human, averaging 21 and 8.3.

Bryant is more competitive, works harder and should extend his prime into his 30s. O’Neal’s is over with no assurance he’ll do the work and avoid the injuries to stay at this level.

It’s not easy to move someone who’s 32, makes $30 million -- a season -- is a year from free agency and wants a three-year, $75-million extension, even if he is as much fun as O’Neal.

On the other hand, as Shaq notes, he is still Shaq, so there are possible scenarios:

* Trade O’Neal to Orlando for Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill. McGrady wants out and Orlando is desperate to find a deal. If Hill can’t play, his $14-million salary comes off the books next summer, dropping the Lakers under the cap.

However, Magic owner Rich DeVos let O’Neal walk in 1996, at lower numbers than these. DeVos could go young, preferring a scenario like moving McGrady to the Clippers for the No. 2 pick, Corey Maggette, Chris Wilcox and Melvin Ely.

* Trade O’Neal to Memphis for Pao Gasol, Stromile Swift and James Posey. This reunites Shaq with West, who knows he isn’t going to win 50 games again without a superstar.

The Grizzlies have stockpiled players, hoping to trade two or three for one, and would still have Bonzi Wells, Mike Miller, Lorenzen Wright and Jason Williams alongside O’Neal.

* Trade O’Neal to Dallas for Michael Finley and Antawn Jamison or Antoine Walker, or Steve Nash.

This isn’t as attractive, but with the Mavericks stymied and Mad Mark Cuban in charge, the Lakers can have anyone on the roster except, possibly, Dirk Nowitzki.

* Trade O’Neal to New York for Allan Houston and Stephon Marbury.

I’m just throwing this in to cover the Knick angle, which will be screaming across the top of the Gotham tabloids, since Isiah Thomas would give all he has and ever will have for Shaq.

Unfortunately, Thomas has zip. Houston’s knees were so bad, he couldn’t even make it back for the playoffs and Marbury is a demonstrated pain.

This is how the dynasty ends, not with a parade but a fire sale. Everyone is eyeing the door. Jackson has already been shown it and Bryant and O’Neal are in it.

Remember the (sniffle) days when they feuded and still won?

I guess I’ll find something else to write about. Thank heavens for Donald Sterling.