Like Kobe, critics take their shots

Well, that was awkward.

How are you supposed to work up false enthusiasm and -- to borrow a phrase popular in Los Angeles basketball circles these days -- go through the motions and pretend to be happy to say hello when everybody suspects it’s nearly time to say goodbye?

Tuesday night at Staples Center, the Lakers opened their 2007-08 season and moved a step closer to the end of the Kobe Bryant era. It could happen any day now. The Lakers sense it. The fans sense it. And TNT’s NBA coverage team reflected it, with Charles Barkley sounding sick and tired of the never-ending saga by the time the game crawled to halftime.

When studio host Ernie Johnson mentioned Bryant’s name, Barkley looked exasperated and said, “Oh my God. You’re going to bring him up again now?”

Of course, Barkley had a head start on the issue. At a Monday luncheon in New York, Barkley discussed Lakers Coach Phil Jackson’s recent assessment that Bryant had not given a full effort during preseason.

According to the Associated Press, Barkley said the Lakers are “at the point of no return now. There’s a point where you know you can make a marriage work, but what Phil Jackson said yesterday, that was the end of it.

“That’s the one thing I respect most about Kevin Garnett. Even though he played on terrible teams, there is not a player in the last 10 years who played harder than Kevin Garnett. And that’s the one thing that disappoints me. Phil said that Kobe’s just going through the motions. . . .

“And if your coach tells you you’re just going through the motions, that’s pretty much the end of the straw.”

Or the final straw at the end of the road.

Mixed metaphors. Jackson telling the media that Bryant had sent out mixed messages about his desire to remain with the Lakers. It was all in the mix Tuesday night.

Some Lakers fans booed Bryant before tipoff, and at halftime, Magic Johnson spoke on their behalf in the TNT studio.

“‘I think the Laker fans want him to stay,” Johnson said. “I mean . . . let’s be frank about it. Colorado happened. Who supported him? The Laker fans. The Laker management supported him as well, through all of that. The Kobe-Shaq situation. The Laker fans still supported him. Laker management supported him.

“It’s all of those things. We have to understand that nobody wants to see him go, but he’s demanding that he wants to go. So fans, they get upset when they have been there for years supporting you. They want you to stay.

“So when you say, ‘Hey, it’s time for me to get out of town,’ you’re not going to expect them to be happy about this situation.”

Near the end of the first quarter, game analyst Doug Collins said, “One way or another, this is going to have to be resolved. Kobe’s either going to have to say, ‘I don’t want to be traded or trade me.’ . . . There can’t be mixed messages.

“This is what it does: It weighs on what is still a very young team. You look at the Lakers. They still have a lot of young players. Kobe might be able to play through this and not have it affect him, but players and coaches on a day-to-day basis, they get tired of talking about the same thing.

“The game is tough enough with all the travel and all the competition to throw this major thing on top of it. One way or the other, this thing is going to have to be decided.”

By halftime, Barkley had decided he couldn’t stand to discuss it further.

“I wasn’t even thinking about the Lakers, man,” Barkley said. “The Lakers aren’t very good. They’re going to have a hard time getting themselves a No. 7, 8 spot again. I want to watch the Rockets play.”

Lakers fans only want to watch Bryant play in a gold and purple uniform. Once such a simple desire and pleasure, that experience cannot be taken for granted any longer.

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