NBA - Sports Rumors - Kobe Bryant

Trevor Ariza(notes), Lamar Odom(notes) and Shannon Brown(notes) want to return to the Los Angeles Lakers. According to the Los Angeles Daily News, the Lakers want them back, too. General manager Mitch Kupchak and coach Phil Jackson each said the journey to a second consecutive league title begins by re-signing the three unrestricted free agents.

Kupchak made two moves toward retaining the services of Ariza, Odom and Brown when he traded two of the Lakers' three draft picks for cash and future selections. He didn't want to add players or their salaries to the roster, according to the Daily News.

The Daily News reports money will be an issue. At midnight Eastern time, Kupchak can begin negotiations with agents for the players. It's also when general managers for 29 other teams can begin pursuing Ariza, Odom and Brown in hopes ofluring away three valuable members of the Lakers' 2008-09 championship team.

Kupchak made it clear he doesn't have blank checks to hand out, and issues such as the salary cap and luxury tax could mean he won't be able to afford to re-sign them. He also doesn't know how high other teams might go in order to sign them.

Odom and Brown. It means the talks might go quickly, with the players agreeing to new deals within a matter of minutes or hours. Negotiations between teams and restricted free agents tend to take longer.

Compounding matters is Kobe Bryant's(notes) right to terminate his contract by 9 p.m. today and join Ariza, Odom and Brown as a free agent. Bryant indicated he intends to stay put until his contract expires after the 2010-11 season, however

Source: Los Angeles Daily News

As if the fans of the Los Angeles Lakers didn't have enough to celebrate Wednesday, Kobe Bryant(notes) indicated he will return to the team, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"Where am I going to go?" he said into a microphone when asked if he would stay with the Lakers. "This is my home."

Bryant, 30, can become an unrestricted free agent next month by terminating his Lakers contract with two more years and $47.8 million on it. The 13-year veteran could then re-sign with the Lakers for five years and about $135 million, according to the Times.

"It's been a blast being here from '96 to now," he said to the crowd. "Here we are, back on top. This feels unbelievable. We have a young team, a team that has a lot of chemistry. We want to do this thing again and again. We'll be back next year, ready to go. We're going to keep on rolling."

Source: Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Lakers will celebrate their NBA Championship with a parade Wednesday, but there is already talk about next year, especially who will stay and who will go, according to the Los Angeles Times.

According to the Times, Kobe Bryant(notes) will return. Bryant will be 31 in August and has accumulated plenty of mileage in a 13-year career, but he just finished averaging 32.4 points, 7.4 assists and 5.6 rebounds in the Finals on the way to his first Finals MVP award. Suddenly, a five-year, $135-million contract, the maximum for a player his age, doesn't seem like such a bad idea. His legendary off-season workout habits should keep him in competitive shape for most of a five-year deal, and it would be a public-relations fiasco if the Lakers let him walk.

Bryant wants to come back. He said during the Finals that he couldn't envision playing for another team next season. Only something completely unforeseen would keep him from returning to the Lakers, the Times reported.

But what about Trevor Ariza(notes) and Lamar Odom(notes)?

According to the Times, it was believed only one of them would stay, until the Lakers high-stepped through the last two weeks of the playoffs with relative ease, winning the last two games of the Western Conference finals against a physical, feisty Denver team before disposing of Orlando.

The recent sentiment is that there might be room for both Ariza and Odom. Lakers Coach Phil Jackson even said as much last week, saying it wasn't "written in stone" that the team would have to make an either/or decision with the two players, according to the Times.

Basically, it comes down to owner Jerry Buss, who has stepped up financially numerous times over the years, most recently by signing Andrew Bynum(notes) to a four-year, $57.4-million contract extension last October and, before that, absorbing an extra $49 million in salary by acquiring Pau Gasol(notes) in February 2008.

Source: Los Angeles Times