Barkley, Arenas give more advice

By Mike Bresnahan

Nov. 3, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

PHOENIX -- Not more than a few days after being booed at Staples Center, Kobe Bryant hit another rough patch in the court of public opinion.

He was criticized by Charles Barkley, again, and openly questioned by Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas.

Barkley, the outspoken TNT analyst who has fenced with Bryant in the past, suggested Bryant help his awkward situation by waiving his no-trade clause.

“He doesn’t want to be traded unless he can control his ramifications . . . he wants the [other] team to keep all the good players they’ve got and give the Lakers trash,” Barkley said. “That’s not going to happen. If he’s a man of his word, he should waive his no-trade clause.”

Arenas, who grew up in Los Angeles, compared Bryant unfavorably to Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson.

“I’ve never seen Jordan act like that,” Arenas told Sports Illustrated. “I didn’t even see A.I., when he was going through them bad days, you know? They were always talking about trading him, and he was like, ‘If they trade me, they trade me; if they don’t, they don’t . . . but this is my city.’ And I don’t understand how Kobe doesn’t feel that about L.A. -- it’s his city.”

Arenas thinks Bryant should stay in Los Angeles and wait for the team to get better around him.

“With the Lakers, he’s always going to have the opportunity to attract players,” Arenas said. “A free agent is willing to go to a Laker uniform. Everybody wants to go to L.A. . . . Jason Kidd is up next season, right? He’s a free agent [in 2009]. Why don’t you wait? Maybe he’ll just come over there. You never know.”

If the Lakers can’t find a willing trade partner for Bryant, they can go back to their original plan back in April, when their playoff losses to Phoenix were fresh and Bryant had not yet demanded to be traded. They could try again to build around their nine-time All-Star . . . if Bryant rescinds his trade request.

“I think that I can concur with Mitch [Kupchak] and Jim Buss, who’s also part of what we do personnel-wise, that we’ll be vigilant in trying to add to our team talent at any time,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “Any chance we have to increase our team talent, we’ll try it.”

Of course, that might not come for a while, with optimism always high early in the season.

“We usually say this time of year is when the general managers are really proud of what they’ve got,” Jackson said. “They want to see how their team is going to do for a couple weeks and then when things start dropping, everything’s changing a little bit.”

The Lakers were interested in Grant Hill when he was a free agent over the summer, but the feeling apparently wasn’t mutual.

“He didn’t return my phone call, so I guess not,” Jackson said. “I figured he didn’t entertain the idea very much if he didn’t return that call.”

Hill signed a two-year deal with Phoenix and has averaged 12.5 points in two games.

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