By Super Cool Staff Columnist from Basketball Land Magazina:

Seven Days, Six Nights —The Man Who Brings Down the Dynasty

It was a week that Mitch Kupchak would like to forget for the rest of his life.

Monday

On Monday morning, Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski called the Generarl Manager of the Los Angeles Lakers from his vacation home in a southern North Carolina beach, and told him “ Thanks, but no thanks”, officially turning down a guaranteed 5-year contract worth $40 million to be the next head coach of the Lakers. Disappointed but not surprised by Coach K’s decision to stay with Duke, Kupchak immediately got back to former Rocket coach Rudy Tomjanuvich, the only candidate who has officially interviewed with the Lakers for the position vacated by what owner Jerry Buss called “the greatest coach in NBA history” and who incidentally has a chance to be his future son-in-law, Phil Jackson. Through his agent, however, Rudy T demanded a contract that is at least as big as what the Lakers offered coach K, $8 million per year for 5 years that is, citing that Rudy T’s championship experience and ability to deal with superstars should be as valuable, if not more, as what coach K. accomplished in college basketball. This is $2 million more per year, or 10 million in total than what Rudy T has previously asked for. Unable to get an immediate approval from Laker owner Dr. Jerry Buss, Mitch Kupchak called Arn Tellem, Kobe Bryant’s agent, and asked for his client’s commitment to re-sign with the club if Rudy T is hired.

Tuesday

By Tuesday morning, Tellem called back and told Kupchak that Kobe Bryant would not give the same commitment as he did if Coach K was hired, but “he will consider”. However, Tellem confirmed that Kobe will not be interested in talking to the Lakers about a new contract before Shaquille O’Neal is traded. He also revealed that his client was scheduled to meet with Clippers owner Donald Sterling and General Manager Elgin Baylor on Wednesday. It seems that time is running out to re-sign Kobe. Without much needed commitment from Bryant, Kupchak rejected Rudy T’s demand after calling Dr. Buss, who apparently considered it too expensive and risky to pay what Rudy T asked for. Kupchak wasted no time in setting up interviews with North Carolina coach Roy Williams and USC coach Henry Bibby, both for next week. Finally he resumed talks with teams like Indiana, Dallas, Sacramento and Golden State, who should be held responsible for most of his cell phone cost the past month. The only difference is that this time they are on the receiving end of the calls.

Wednesday

After another sleepless night working on the phone, Kupchak essentially had two offers in front of him.From Sacramento Kings: Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, Doug Christi and this year’s first round pick Kevin Martin. Divac would have to agree on a sign-and-trade. From Golden State: Eric Dampier, Nick Van Exel, Troy Murphy, Mike Dunlevy and a future first round pick. Like Divac, Dampier would have to agree on a sign-and-trade. Indiana would not give away Jermaine Oneal, Dallas did not want to include Dirk Nowitzki. It was a tough decision between Sacramento and Golden State. With O’Neal, Peja Stojakovich and Mike Bibby, the Kings will be the favorite to win a championship in the next two years, and by no means do the Lakers want to help them; plus they have concerns over Chris Webber’s health condition. Golden State’s package was not bad, although they had to throw in Van Exel’s huge salary to make the trade work, while the Lakers really don’t need him with Gary Payton staying for another year. Also there wereindications that Van Exel, who was entering the last year of a guaranteed contract, did not welcome a return to the team that drafted him, or a chance to play alongside Kobe Bryant. Around noon time, words out of Staples Center are that the meeting between Kobe Bryant and Donald Sterling went very well. Mitch Kupchak finally made up his mind and scheduled a 3pm news conference at Staples Center, where he announced by far the biggest trade in his brief career as an NBA general manager, and arguably the biggest trade in NBA for the last 20 years. Shquille O’Neal, the most dominant basketball player on the planet, were sent to Golden State Warriors, with his three world championship rings worth of grudge toward the franchise which he called home for eight years , for Dampier, who agreed on a 5 year, 55 million contract with the Warriors to be traded to the Lakers, Van Exel, who requested release by the Lakers soon after learning that he’s heading back to Los Angeles, Dunlevy, the once hyped lottery pick who will reunite with his daddy Mike Dunlevy Sr., coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, Murphy and a future first round pick.

O’Neal did not give any indication whether he liked the trade or not, but the fact that he didn’t say anything was already a vote of confidence in new general manager Chris Mullin. As a matter of fact, Kupchak had no time to feel sorry about O’Neal or himself. He called Kobe as soon as his meeting with the Clippers ended. Kobe would not pick up the phone. Instead, Tellem talked to Kupchak , and thanked him for his effort to re-sign Kobe by trading away O’Neal. However, Tellem wouldn’t elaborate on details of the meeting, but promised to talk again on Thursday morning. By no means was it a good sign for the Lakers, but you are not dead until you are dead. And that is what Kupchak was thinking that whole night.

Thursday

As if Wednesday’s trade was not big enough in the Laker history. Less than 24 hours after Lakers lost their biggest star in 13 years, and more than 48 hours after Mitch Kupchak last closed his eyes for a nap, Arn Tellem called in. It was the last thing Mitch Kupchak wanted to hear. But this was exactly what he heard: The Lakers have two options; either sign Kobe Bryant a max deal worth $140 million for 7 years and trade him to the Clippers for Elton Brand and Cory Maggette, or Kobe will sign a free-agent deal with the Clippers worth $100 million for 6 years, the maximum any team other than the Lakers can offer Kobe under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, in which case the Lakers would get nothing in return. Kupchak felt the world was sinking. His hand holding the cell phone was trembling. He can hear Tellem say “ Are you OK, Mitch?” But he couldn’t respond. He was speechless. He remembered Tellem was saying “Please let us know your decision by noon tomorrow. Talk to you later, Mitch”, then there’s the dial tone. What happened in between, he did not know.

Friday

So here comes Friday. It did not matter that Kupchak did not sleep last night. Again. He still was the general manager of the most celebrated sports franchise in basketball. So he had a job to do.In a 1pm news conference, a day after he sent the most dominant basketball player in modern basketball packing, He came back with another trade, the magnitude of which was only great than the first one. The Lakers agreed to sign a 7-year $140 million deal with Kobe Bryant and send him to the Clippers for Elton Brand and Cory Maggette. The conference room exploded after the announcement, more so than a day earlier. Yes, Kupchak said in the same room that Lakers would not do a sign-and-trade for Kobe Bryant, that he had to walk away without getting the $140 million deal that only Lakers can offer. Kupchak thought it would never come down to this. He thought Kobe would not throw away $40 million to join another team. Well, Kupchak obviously did not think enough. If Krzyzewski can leave $40 million on the table, why can’t Kobe Bryant? Plus, an opt-out clause after the third year of the new contract would allow Byrant to negotiate another mega-million deal that would more than make up the money he doesn’t collect for the first three years. And only God knows whether Donald Sterling, all of sudden switching from Donald Sterling mode to Marc Cuban mode, secretly promised a not-to-be-written-down-or-it-would-be-caught-by-David-Stern 5 percent of the franchise after Kobe retires. And staying in Hollywood almost guarantees Kobe to make plenty of dimes off the court. However, all these factors are not even the most important in Bryant’s decision. In Kobe’s mind, what he had sacrificed in his eight-year career with the Lakers was much more than $40 million. Yes, how can you buy ego back for a guy like Kobe? How can you compensate the disrespect he feels whenever Jackson or O’Neal point fingers to him? How can you not support Kobe whenever there’s fight within the Jackson-O’Neal-Bryant triangle? How can you not make Kobe the no. 1 choice in the offense and surround him with players that can support him best? It is time to start over. And it doesn’t have to be same place for start-over, does it? Hey, if it is payback time, so be it.

Kupchak once said, “Like many of our fans in Los Angeles, I expect several sleepless nights until he actually makes his decision." Guess what, many of the fans are going to be as happy as ever, because the same people who like to watch Bryant play every night don’t even need to print driving direction to a new stadium. And most likely they will pay less to watch him play. The only guy who seemed to have a few more sleepless nights is Mitch Kupchak himself. Actually Kupchak was remarkably calm at the end of the news conference, which he concluded by saying:” With a core of Elton, Cory, Eric, Mike and Troy, ( no Van Exel, whose contract was bought out for $8 million earlier of the day. He will most likely sign a free-agent deal with the San Antonio Spurs or the Houston Rockets) I still believe that this organization, owned by Dr. Buss and run by Dr. Buss, is still the best professional basketball organization in the world." Wow, what a perfect statement. What a perfect time for such a statement.

Saturday

The Laker franchise are not foreign to the Asian culture. Their former coach is known as the Zen master, who likes to use meditation exercise to motivate his players. What’s not well known is that their general manager Mitch Kupchak has a profound interest in ancient Chinese philosophy as well as modern Chinese history. In May, 1989, during the famous Tian An Men Square Democratic Movement, Zhao Ziyang, then general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (highest-ranked leader in the Communist China), revealed to the visiting Soviet Union President Gorbachev: “Comrade Deng Xiaoping (semi-retired paramount leader of China) is the principal architect to our economic reform. On all major issues, we report to him and consult his opinion.” Three days later, he was removed from his position. Two of his guilt were “leaking national secret (that the country is still run by Deng) and trying to fault Mr. Deng for the riot.”

You bet Mitch Kupchak knows about this part of the history when he said what he said at the Friday’s news conference. We all know that what takes three days to do in a communist country can take only one day in the capitalism world. That’s exactly what happened in this case. On Saturday, Laker spokesman John Black announced that general manager Mitch Kupchak was fired. When asked about what were the reasons he was fired, Black responded in disbelief: “Excuse me? Next question please.” The man who once ran one of the most prestigious sports franchises in the world now doesn’t even need a reason from his employee to be fired. For the sake of history, Mitch Kupchak will officially be remembered as the man who

-- mysteriously set up the private boat trip between the daughter of Jerry Buss, Jeanie, and then-new head coach Phil Jackson, who subsequently fell in love for each other, who consequently won the battle against and ousted Jerry West, the best ????ute in the NBA history, whom Kupchak replaced thereafter;

--after three championships in 5 years, were instrument in getting rid of Phil Jackson, who is arguably the best coach in NBA history;

--after three championship along with three NBA finals MVP trophies in eight years, publicly expressed his desire to get rid of Shaquille O’Neal, the most dominant play ever to play the game of the basketball, and succeeded in doing so;

--let his inability to recruit essentially get rid of Kobe Bryant, the only player in the world who thinks he is more Jordanesque than Michael Jordan.

Yet unofficially, he’ll be remembered as the man who

---leaked the top secret of the club that this is Dr. Buss’s team and that it’s run by Jerry Buss; --tried to fault the fall of the franchise to Dr. Buss.

--did everything in his power to sabotage the great Laker Dynasty, and succeeded in unprecedent manner.

Sunday

On Sunday, Laker owner Jerry Buss and Clippers Owner Donald Sterling issued a joint statement that Los Angeles Lakers will trade the name “Los Angeles Lakers” for the name “Los Angeles Clipper” and $1000 cash. It was believed that Jerry Buss initiated the trade talk, and his initial asking price was $10 million. On EBay, the price of a No. 8 purple-and-gold jersey autographed by Kobe Bryant, whose price went from $400 before Thursday to $50 after Friday, is now selling for $999 excluding shipping cost.