FIRST BABY STEPS TAKEN TOWARDS KOBE HAVING HIS OWN TEAM: Kobe to file for free agency in 2004. Via SPORTSbyBROOKS. Maybe he really is going to follow Jerry West to Memphis. I mean, it's just a rumor, maybe he'll just wait for Shaq to retire and thus for the Lakers to become his team. But still, Shaq and Kobe together are not capturing the public's imagination the way one would think a dominant champion would--in WWE terms the current NBA resembles the Bret Hart interregnum of the late 90s. Maybe chief bookerman D. Stern is whispering in Kobe's ear....