Kobe Bryant's harsh message about the Lakers isn't off target

Maybe breakfast with Rajon Rondo reminded Kobe Bryant of what he was missing.

Fellow stars with that special kind of edge — or, as they put it after their shared meal in Boston made headlines, that "(expletive)" quality they both take pride in. Or maybe this was always bound to happen, with the combustible and caustic Los Angeles Lakers star realizing that it was one thing to say he could remain patient and quite another to endure this disaster on a daily basis.

"You go through the good times; you've got to go through the bad times," he told last month while professing his loyalty to the Lakers.

Notice he never said he'd go through them quietly.

Yet for all the shock people shared when his profanity-laced practice rant went viral Thursday, his harsh message — as opposed to so much of what his team does these days — wasn't off target. The Lakers, as their last-place ranking in defensive rating would seem to support, are playing a tissue-soft style that opponents are exploiting almost every time out.

His teammates, the ones who were thrown together last summer when Mitch Kupchak, Jim Buss & Co. shot an airball during free agency for the second consecutive summer, hardly look capable of joining forces with him to turn this Titanic of a team around.

Say what you will about Bryant's personality and the never-ending debate about whether his abrasive style kills his own cause, but the reality remains that the Lakers have reached this unwelcome point because of reasons that are unrelated to that sinister subplot.

If Buss and Kupchak would have re-hired Phil Jackson instead of Mike D'Antoni in Nov. 2012, then Dwight Howard would likely still be in a Lakers uniform. If Carmelo Anthony wasn't so blinded by the five-year, $122 million deal that only the New York Knicks could offer — one that came with Jackson doing the recruiting for the rivals after he landed with the Knicks, no less — then perhaps he would have followed his good friend to Los Angeles rather than leaving him and Bryant stranded on their respective islands.

Those were the two breaking points that eventually broke their collective backs, leaving Bryant and so many others to wonder aloud where they all go from here.

Which brings us back to Rondo.

When Bryant and the Boston Celtics point guard were asked by the media about their meeting and how they'd chewed the proverbial fat, there were laughs all around when Rondo — who will be a free agent this summer — joked that it was "just two (expletives) having breakfast." But beyond the fact that the whole situation was quite funny, it was an overlooked reminder that Bryant is hardly alone when it comes to having the kind of devil-may-care edge for which he'll never apologize.

From Chris Paul to Russell Westbrook and even younger stars like DeMarcus Cousins, the league is full of fiery players whose talents eventually help you forget about their tirades. In Bryant's case, it's far too complicated to simply saddle him with the faulty premise that his personality is the problem here.

In this post-Dr. Jerry Buss era, all involved would admit that there has been a decent amount of dysfunction within the organization in recent years. The timing has been tough for Bryant, especially, with Father Time waiting for no man and his health failing so often here in this final chapter. He's mostly back now after the long road to recovery, but the support system is nowhere to be found. And rest assured, he's not the only one in Laker Land fuming about the ways of their world.

Yet just when it seemed the Lakers would be lost from now until that summer day in 2016 when he still swears he'll retire, the Rondo possibility presented an intriguing Plan D of sorts that is entirely real and potentially potent. The 28-year-old Rondo is known to be interested in joining Bryant, and the odds of that wretched Lakers roster improving even more from there would certainly spike if he did.

But there's no sense in the Lakers making that move before he becomes a free agent next summer even if they could. In that regard, it's time for all involved to learn from the mistake Anthony made long before his ill-fated re-signing with the Knicks.

By forcing the trade out of Denver in Feb. 2011 rather than signing with New York in free agency, Anthony played a major part in the Knicks' depletion of assets that has only grown worse ever since and played such a huge part in their demise. Not only should the Lakers' almost-bare cupboard be off limits for now, but a midseason trade that helps their efforts in the present could significantly harm their future.

As Lakers legend and former owner Magic Johnson pointed out this week on Twitter when he encouraged the Lakers to tank, the notion of winning too many games this season would only hurt their cause. If the Lakers' 2015 first round pick isn't in the top five, it will go to the Phoenix Suns.

But signing Rondo in the summer, then following with another quality free agent addition who could be convinced that Laker Land was worth watching again? That, combined with the eventual health of young Julius Randle and any number of subsequent roster moves that could help Buss and Kupchak save their jobs considering Jeanie Buss has made it clear that they're on a three-year clock, and the alliance that was born over an infamous breakfast would nearly be complete.

The Lakers, folks, always giving us plenty to chew on. Especially when everything on the purple-and-gold menu is leaving such a bad taste in the Black Mamba's mouth.