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Looks more like he's constipated to me.

I love Barkley. He says whatever's on his mind and you have to respect him for that. But Iverson's a tough player. You have to respect his game. But I do agree with Barkley on one point: Iverson does not have a very good history of making those around him better. The only facet of his game he should work on.

McNabb's biggest problem is he's injury-prone. He can lead the team when he's on the field most nights. After all, he did lead them to the Super Bowl a few years ago (for those of you who don't remember it that way, keep in mind that T.O. was injured for the last stretch of the season and the playoffs that year).

I don't think they need to trade him, just to make sure that his backups are ready to play at any time and carry the team if need be (like last year). The Eagles can still be a dangerous team with McNabb on the field.

It would be great if the Lakers got a hold of Kidd. But the Lakers need a forward more than any other position and should be concentrating on that first and foremost.

The Mavs could use a point guard like Kidd, especially since Terry's been more erratic this year than he has previously.

But I think the Cavs need him most. The Cavs have to get someone to go with Lebron if they ever want to be taken seriously as a championship contender in the league. However, there's salary cap issues there.

All in all, of the three, Cleveland needs him most, but I see him going to Dallas more than LA or Cleveland. (Although LA MIGHT just be willing to add another guard to their roster, and it wouldn't be a bad choice at all.)

Let him take as much time as he needs. A situation like this is much more important than any game. My condolences to Marbury.

It would be interesting to see how Artest would fit in with the Lakers, but I doubt it'll happen.

Personally, this is something that I see fault in both sides.

Riley needs to calm down and focus more on making his players better. Some of his comments will only drive the players away from him and he may end up like Paul Westhead (his predecessor in LA before Magic said "either he goes or I do").

Shaq needs to work on his game. True, he's taller than most guys and built better. But his problems running up and down the court, staying in shape, and even his shot percentage (although, yes, I'll admit, it's better than it used to be; and I'm not talking ppg, I'm talking actual shots: dunks don't count) keep him from actually earning some of the credit he gets. No, he's not the greatest center of all-time, not even close. But he could be a lot better if he would work.

At least...RECENT history.

And I meant to say that the Lakers have to keep it close til the end of the game, not the rest of the way out. My bad.

For those of you that actually took the time to READ all that...props.

Little Laker history lesson in there for ya.

The Lakers do not need to trade Kobe. The Lakers need to do just what they've been unwilling to do since trading Shaq: build around him.

In the dismal season immediately after the Shaq trade (where Tomjanovic was coach), the Lakers had a starting 5 that amounted to Chucky Atkins, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Bryan Grant, and Vlade Divac. During that season, Tomjanovic left for health reasons and after that season, Jackson stepped back in as coach. Along with re-obtaining Jackson, the Lakers traded off Atkins and one of their bench players (ahem, Caron Butler) for Smush Parker and Kwame Brown. Brown never did fit into the rotation because the guy is an average player on his best night. However, it seems to me Caron has done fairly well for himself over in Washington. They made it to the playoffs, took a 3-1 lead on the Suns, then squandered it and lost in the first round. At the conclusion of all that, they did lose their absolute best bench player (name: Devean George) to the up-and-coming Mavs. Over the course of this past off-season, after a failed attempt to get Jason Kidd before the trade deadline, several opportunities came up. The most hyped was KG, but Rashard Lewis was also available and the Lakers needed a solid forward to go along with Odom (sorry, but Walton and Turiaf work better from the bench). Yet the Lakers did nothing then, didn't even give Lewis a glance. Now he's with the Magic, who are tearing it up; KG's with the Celtics, who are tearing it up; and the Lakers' only off-season help came from Derek Fisher, a guard, to replace Smush Parker. And while we're going off on the Lakers management failures, when it was apparent that forward help was desperately needed, who did they draft this year? Javaris Crittendon, who was a good player in college, but doesn't belong on a team that needs forwards seeing as he's a GUARD.

Kobe can't take a team on all by himself. The other Lakers have to show more consistency. So far this year, most of their wins have been by double digits, but a good majority of their losses are by double digits too. It's a consistency error from the rest of the team. Reason? The Lakers struggled to find a starting center (which Bynum is able to fill; I don't understand why the Lakers want so badly to keep him but not play him, especially when dominant centers around the league have said that they respect his play). Odom is having a lot of off nights. And there is NO other forward able to play to that caliber. A second forward needs to come in to take some pressure off Odom. If they would solve their forward issues, they would be a lot better off.

Bar none, Kobe can win the game by himself more often than he'll lose it if it's close at the end. The problem is, the Lakers have to keep it close the rest of the way out.