Lakers fans might be in for the bait and switch

Just imagine the uproar -- now that reality-challenged Lakers fans have been teased into thinking Kevin Garnett will be coming to L.A. to appease the Kobester -- if Garnett never does arrive.

The Kobester already has the faithful believing management has no interest in getting better, passing on Carlos Boozer, Jason Kidd, Baron Davis and Ron Artest.

Right now some Lakers fans are so-far gone that if the team elected to trade Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, Kwame Brown, Brad Penny, Vladimir Guerrero and Jeanie & Phil’s first born to Minnesota they’d be giddy with delight.

Anything, just anything to make the Kobester happy and keep him from wanting to be traded.

The Lakers don’t have a point guard, maybe wouldn’t have a big man at center if they traded with Minnesota, and it wouldn’t matter, because folks here have always wanted Garnett and just imagine how good the team might be with the Kobester and KG playing together. Fool’s gold? Or better than Karl Malone, Gary Payton, Shaq & the Kobester? And you know how well that turned out.

Should the Lakers play desperate and go after KG at all costs? Do they go so far as to also offer Sasha what’s his name?

How many more wins would it mean to the Lakers to have the Kobester and KG playing together with the rest of a roster depleted? Brian Cook and Jordan Farmar better really improve.

If the Lakers get KG, you know the Kobester will take a bow for making it happen, because there’s no way management would have thought of going after him once Minnesota made it clear he was available.

According to ESPN’s Jim Gray, the Kobester and KG “have been in touch.” That’s more than the Kobester probably is doing with his teammates these days, although I wouldn’t be surprised to hear he has also called Bynum to say, “goodbye.”

But what happens if the Lakers don’t do a deal for Garnett? Does the Kobester start crying, “I really really, really want to be traded now?”

What if the Lakers end up with

Jermaine O’Neal -- will it be a letdown because it’s not KG? So many questions, and right now it seems the only one with all the answers is the Kobester.

WHEN IT came time for the eighth annual Oscar De La Hoya golf tournament awards ceremony Monday, De La Hoya announced George Lopez, Andy Garcia and what do you know -- De La Hoya had won. If only the fix had been in when he fought Floyd Mayweather Jr.

My group included a woman, winning the long-drive competition with a whiff because she was the only woman in the tournament, actor Kevin Nealon, who lacked only a short game and a personality, some guy named Art, who spent most of the round on his cellphone telling people we were making fun of him for talking on his cellphone, and actor Bruce McGill.

I looked McGill up on the Internet and learned “he has starred in many films, perhaps his most well-known role being ‘D-Day’ in the 1978 comedy classic ‘Animal House.’ ” What a coincidence; 1978 was also the last time he hit a great golf shot.

Otherwise, it was a real fun day.

KIDDY UP broke first from the gate in the $1-million Ed Burke at Los Alamitos on Saturday night, with trainer John Bassett thinking, “It’s money in the bag.”

Then about 275 yards into the 350-yard race, Kiddy Up decided he was done for the night, strolling across the finish line at his own leisure.

Ed Allred, who owns most of the horse, including all the slow parts, pledged to donate the first $50,000 Kiddy Up won to Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA, and as good luck would have it, the slowpoke finished sixth -- good for $54,000.

Later everyone learned the horse had been hurt, suffering something akin to shin splints in human athletes. “It’s nothing serious,” Bassett said. “We see it in young horses all the time. He’ll go to the pool for awhile and will be running again in October.”

The horse, of course, has already done his job, earning money for the hospital and making a gambler out of Dr. Noah Federman.

Federman, who put $2 down on a horse to show after getting his wife’s permission earlier in the night and winning $1.40, has one year of medical training remaining at Mattel’s, but he’s already shown he has a gift for working with sick children and their families.

At the same time, he’s also trying to pinpoint a way to deliver chemotherapy to kids with bone cancer without devastating their whole bodies, and soon will have to decide where he will continue his research.

The folks at Mattel’s want to keep him, and so money raised to date from Los Alamitos, the Clippers, Mike Scioscia and so many other sports figures and local folks, who just want to help, is now being directed toward Federman’s recruitment package, which includes hiring a nurse to split time between his soft tissue sarcoma/bone tumor program and a brain tumor program.

The Dodgers keep winning now with Grady Little spearheading a drive to give the hospital $600 for each win, and maybe one day they can make it a full-time nurse for each program.

DAILY RACING Form reporter Steve Anderson, writing about Carters Cartel’s record-breaking run in the Ed Burke, which left Kiddy Up behind, told Dawn List, one of Carters’ owners, about the children’s hospital.

Dawn, who runs the Double S Ranch along with her sister Rhonda and mother Sharon, immediately stepped forward to donate $10,000 to the kids’ cancer ward on behalf of the List Foundation. That’s just one more person making it that much tougher on Federman to ever consider leaving here.

TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Charles Goodin:

“Your article about Kobe is rediculous.”

I believe the proper word, sir, is readiculous.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.