LOS ANGELES (AFP) - The Los Angeles Lakers step into the 2007-08 National Basketball Association season with trade talk swirling around superstar Kobe Bryant.
Bryant, whose epic scoring exploits have proved inadequate to take the Lakers back to the NBA Finals, took Lakers management to task as far back as May for failing to bring in enough talent to support him in a playoff run, saying he wanted to be traded.
Things simmered down slightly during a summer in which Bryant helped the United States storm through the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament.
But talk of Bryant's possible - or in some reports imminent - departure was rampant as training camps wound up.
While the Lakers said Bryant was expected to play when the Lakers open the season at home to Houston on Tuesday, team owner Jerry Buss apparently raised his superstar's hackles in early October when he sid the team "would certainly listen" to trade offers.
Bryant is in his 12th season with the Lakers. He has four years remaining on an 88.6 million-dollar contract that will pay him some 19 million dollars this season.
Bryant will have the option to leave in two years, and even though Buss has said he would entertain offers for the player who currently defines the franchise, any team would have a hard time coming up with suitable trade material.
There was talk that the Dallas Mavericks, hugely disappointed in the first round of the playoffs last season after falling in the Finals the year before, might do well to make a play for him.
The Phoenix Suns, another Western Conference contender that has failed to get over the hump in the past two seasons, have been mentioned, along with a maturing Chicago Bulls team in the Eastern Conference.
ESPN.com cited unnamed sources in reporting Saturday that the Lakers and Bulls had been in "daily discussions" about a possible Bryant trade, and that the Lakers wanted "a package built around Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah."
The Chicago Tribune, however, reported that while the teams have talked, no such package has been specifically discussed.
Certainly the appeal of Chicago for Bryant would have to be dimmed if the Bulls' were drained of their emerging talent when he arrived, leaving him in essentially the same position he faces in Los Angeles.
Since Bryant has a no-trade clause that would let him veto a move, it remains to be seen how any team that wants him can satisfy the Lakers and still tempt Bryant.
As Bryant nursed a sprained right wrist in the final weekend before the season, Lakers coach Phil Jackson told the Los Angeles Times on Sunday that he wasn't convinced Bryant was committed to the Lakers campaign.
"It was my feeling, from a conversation with Kobe that he was going to work at this thing and put his full being into this," Jackson said. "Right now he's having a hard time doing that."
"You don't have to worry about that," Bryant retorted. "I'm ready to play."
Still, Jackson said, the uncertainty has affected the Lakers, leaving Bryant's teammates "confused."
"I think there's a certain sense of how does this all fit all together, which is natural because they haven't seen a situation like this before," Jackson said.
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