King gets a flood of queries on Kobe

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Billy King's BlackBerry was working overtime and all the messages had a familiar theme: Does Kobe Bryant have a chance to come to Philadelphia?

All of this came before the former Lower Merion High standout apparently switched gears on radio programs about his desire to be traded from the Los Angeles Lakers.

King, the 76ers' president and general manager, gave the same stock answer to anyone who wanted to know about the possibly of bringing Bryant back to his hometown.

"Per team policy, we don't comment on trade rumors," King said during a break in the action last night at the NBA predraft camp at Disney's Wide World of Sports.

When asked if he feels the Lakers will trade Bryant, King responded, "I'm not sure."

That's about as much as anybody will get from King, or any other NBA general manager, for that matter.

First off, no GM would say he was not interested in Bryant. But there are some complications, namely his $17.1 million contract. For the Sixers to make a trade with the Lakers, the salaries of the players exchanged would have to be within 25 percent of each other under the NBA's salary-cap rules. Also, Bryant has an expensive no-trade clause.

And then there is the other matter that Bryant said he did not want to be traded. This came only hours after he said that he did.

King's response?

"Still no comment."

Bryant originally talked about his desire to leave the Lakers in an article in yesterday's Inquirer. When Stephen A. Smith asked whether Chicago, New York or Philadelphia would be desirable destinations, Bryant replied, "Keep talking. Anything sounds good right now, with the way I'm feeling."

Speaking to Smith yesterday as a guest on New York's 1050 ESPN radio, Bryant, said, "I would like to be traded, yeah. Tough as it is to come to that conclusion, there's no other alternative, you know?"

Hours later, after talking to Lakers coach Phil Jackson, Bryant told radio station KLAC in Los Angeles that he wanted to be a Laker for life.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Still, it's a pretty good bet that Bryant won't be wearing a Sixers uniform anytime soon.