His PR skills stink, but appreciate his desire to win

Kobe Bryant hasn't gotten out of the first round of the playoffs since Shaquille O'Neal was traded in 2004. John W. McDonough/SI

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Why is Kobe Bryant the bad guy? Because he wants to win.

The league's most talented player is being drawn, quartered and sacrificed to the pagan gods like Hillary Clinton at Rush Limbaugh's dinner table, all because he wants to play on a winning team.

The Rockets are opening the season in Los Angeles on Tuesday night against a Lakers team that's auditioning for the supporting roles in the Kevin Garnett Story 2005-2007. Other than Kobe, this is a roster of one NBA starter (Lamar Odom) and 13 reserves. At one end of the bench should sit Andrew Bynum, too young at 20, and at the other end should be Derek Fisher, too old at 33, with all of the other Lakers uniforms sitting in between. That's how it would be if the Lakers were a contender, which they aren't.

Therefore, Kobe wants to leave and play for a winner, but for the time being he can't.

So coach Phil Jackson, from all who could be criticized in the long-winded aftermath of Shaquille O'Neal's departure, this week singles out Bryant: "Obviously he hasn't thrown his heart and soul into performing on the floor. That hurts me a little bit.''

All Bryant has been doing this preseason and last offseason is trying to exert force to leverage himself away from the Lakers and into a winning organization. Has he been clumsy in his methods? Absolutely. Has he hurt himself along the way? Indisputably.

What does this say about him? To me it says he will do whatever he can -- even damaging what is left of his good name -- to move from a first-round loser to a Finals winner.

"That's the one thing that disappoints me: Phil said that Kobe's just going through the motions,'' Charles Barkley told reporters on the eve of the regular season. "And if your coach tells you you're just going through the motions, that's pretty much the end of the straw.''

To my misfortune, I am old enough to remember how ugly it grew in Philadelphia before the 76ers finally unloaded Barkley in 1992 to Phoenix, where he immediately rediscovered his old form to win the league MVP. Barkley wanted to win then, just like Kobe wants to win now, and I applaud them both.

The ambition to win is far and away the most important quality in the NBA, where players are guaranteed the highest average salary of any professional league on earth. Those salaries are awarded entirely upon hope. Teams sign players to eight-figure contracts in hope they'll work harder than ever to win, rather than relax into a state of semi-retirement.

It's not like players making big money are going to earn appreciably bigger money by winning. The NBA, to its detriment, doesn't operate that way.

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