LA Lakers News: Kobe Bryant Unfazed If They Strike Out On Carmelo Anthony! Endorses Byron Scott For Head Coach!

The LA Lakers may be uncomfortable being scorned twice. Dwight Howard left them last summer, and this season, it remains to be seen whether they can score one of the top names. But Kobe Bryant, the heart and soul of the franchise, remains unfazed.

He had a press conference at the start of his eighth annual youth basketball academy in the University of California, Santa Barbara  and ESPN had some of the best responses:

On Carmelo Anthony: "I would love to play with him. We've really clicked since 2008, and I would love to see him out here [in Los Angeles]."

On Byron Scott, his reported choice as next head coach: "He was my rookie mentor when I first came into the league. So I had to do things like get his doughnuts and run errands for him and things like that. We've had a tremendously close relationship throughout the years. So, obviously I know him extremely well. He knows me extremely well. I've always been a fan of his."

The big 'What if?': "The organization, if God forbid we end up with absolutely nothing, it's not for a lack of effort," Bryant said. "So, that's something that I would be extremely proud of. You put forth the effort, you give it your best shot, but you can't [close the deal], what can you do? You just go from there, and then it's on me to go out there and do my best to try to help us win."

Is there a back-up plan: "We have several options. Obviously depending on the timing of this process, it affects some of those. You have a plan that's flexible, but you have a Plan A and a Plan B. But some of the Plan B is affected by the timing of Plan A. So, you just kind of plan it out and wait and see what happens and respond from there."

Plan A is presumed to be Carmelo Anthony or LeBron James or both, as they aspired. What, or who is Plan B?

"Plan B is a solid plan. You just have to play the waiting game a little bit and see how things shake out."

Keeping a little room for an exciting guessing game, Bryant says all the right things. We'll find out in the coming weeks what the Lakers Plan B really is, and whether they have a 'Plan C' and so on.