Chris Sheridan is with me in realizing the only issue that matters in the whole Kobe Bryant saga...will Kobe be @ Lakers camp on day 1 this year or not? And he has a bit of a surprising answer.
QUOTE
It was a simple yes or no question, and Kobe Bryant could have ended much of the speculation over his future simply by answering it.

"Do you still want the Lakers to trade you?"

As we walked toward the team bus some 40 minutes after Team USA's practice ended Saturday, this was his response:

"I'm not going to answer that question. The Lakers know exactly where I stand, and they've known exactly where I stand since the beginning of the summer."
...
If Bryant were to stage a holdout (which would be his only leverage) and put his image at a colossal risk, the Lakers could try to wait him out, withhold his salary and hope he changed his mind after missing his paychecks. But would the Lakers honestly believe that would work? They know better than anyone that we're talking about perhaps the most stubborn player in the entire NBA, a guy whose competitive instincts take over any time he is challenged.

Is Bryant all of a sudden going to lose that quality simply because the Lakers tell him they're not going to trade him? I think not.

And I'd further argue that any money Bryant lost through a holdout would be recouped by the 15 percent trade kicker in his contract, assuming he could retain that after forcing a trade. When I spoke to Bryant, I told him a "yes" or "no" answer to the question of whether he still wanted to be traded would clear up a lot of confusion for a lot of people, and he explained again that he does not want to propel his status back into the spotlight and steal the focus from Team USA.

So what we're left with is a somewhat cryptic explanation of the "water under the bridge" quote … and little else to go on as we try to figure out what will happen six weeks from now as the Lakers open training camp.

And despite Kobe saying now that the Lakers know exactly how he feels, what is going to matter much more is how he feels then.

Will Kobe be there when the Lakers report to camp in Hawaii? After looking him in the eye and getting a bit of a fresh mid-August reading of his mood, I'm not so certain he will be.