NBA Insider with Ken Berger

Big Chief Triangle sent out a puff of smoke Monday from his bunker, where he is recovering from hip replacement surgery.

“He’s made a decision that he feels justified to hold — one that I’ve questioned — that he has reasons to leave the Lakers,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson wrote in an email to the Los Angeles Times. Obviously, he was referring to Kobe Bryant.

“However, it’s my unshakeable feeling that Kobe will be a Laker next October … when training camp opens.”

That is quite a prediction. I have another one: If Kobe is, in fact, traded, then the Zen Master will not return for the third and final season of his three-year, $30 million contract to coach what the Lakers get back for Bryant.

Even as things stand now, with Kobe on the team, Jackson is on record as having doubts about whether it makes sense for him to coach the team next year. In an April interview, Jackson said: “Personally, as an owner, does [Jerry Buss] really want to spend the kind of money he’s spending on me to have a .500 team?”

Anyway, the Kobe stuff should calm down for a day or two, at least until Kobe returns from Spain or the video showing him viciously berating the Lakers is released.

I know some people think my theory about the Knicks having a shot at Kobe is farfetched. I’m telling you, it’s not as farfetched as you think.
Consider this: The Lakers will have a choice of going three different directions if they become convinced there is no way out of this other than to trade Kobe.

1) Try to get a somewhat comparable superstar who can get people excited enough to pass through the turnstiles at Staples Center. The only name in that realm among the teams Kobe wants to play for is Shawn Marion, and the Lakers are not trading Kobe to a Western Conference team.

2) Get a large enough collection of young players and draft picks so the team would remain a borderline playoff team – as they’ve been the past two years with Bryant. The Lakers could play the, “See, we have the same record we had with Kobe” card, and sell the fans on players who like each other, pass to each other, and aren’t selfish.

3) Gut the thing and start over by bringing on as much expiring money as possible.

No. 1 isn’t happening, at least not with a team out West. As far as Eastern superstars, Paul Pierce isn’t going to cut it, either. Gilbert Arenas? Maybe, but the Wizards would need a third team to facilitate.

Of the teams with a realistic shot of getting Bryant to waive his no-trade, only the Knicks have the ability to satisfy either of the other two options. That’s the benefit of having a $130 million payroll.

If the Lakers want to pursue the second avenue, the Knicks have the bodies available with the salaries to match.

If the Lakers want to blow it up, take their lumps for two years, and reload through free agency in 2009, the Knicks could help them do that, too. The Lakers, in fact, would have their choice of obscene contracts that expire after the 2008-09 season. Want a $22 million deal expiring in 2009? Here’s Stephon Marbury. Rather go the $17 million route? Steve Francis, come on down!

Every other team the Knicks would be competing against could only satisfy one of the three options at the Lakers’ disposal. Just something else to think about.

Well, gotta go for now. I’m going to lunch with the fellas, after which I plan to let them videotape me cussing out my bosses with a cell phone camera. Bidding for the clip will start at $1.99.