I'll admit, I have been hungry for signs that the Lakers and Kobe Bryant are patching things up. Some event where Laker people and Bryant are together, perhaps. Some media conversation about reforming the front office, whether or not Jerry West will be invited to be a part of it, or how the team plans to win now. Or, maybe just some update to Kobe Bryant's website after his announcement that it was time to move on.

Nada.

The silence may well just be silence as things go on behind the scenes. But it has been deafening.

There really has been nothing to report at all. Except for this (likely meaningless) little tidbit from Mike Bresnahan and Robyn Norwood in the Los Angeles Times:

Johnny Buss, the oldest son of Lakers owner Jerry Buss, sent a bulletin to friends on his MySpace.com page that contained a peculiar reference to the team's nine-time All-Star.

"If you've been following the Kobe drama, I want to let you know it's not really drama ... sometimes we all need to make a change in our lives and that's all it is," Buss wrote. "Popular or unpopular, when it's time, it's time. Good luck Kobe wherever you go!"

A freelance photographer, Johnny Buss is not part of the Lakers' front office and holds no decision-making authority in the day-to-day operations of the franchise.

I still think the most likely scenario is that Kobe Bryant will, somehow, remain in Los Angeles. (Superstars are like grand pianos -- people go to great lengths not to move them.) But if you're a Laker fan I imagine you have to be getting a little antsy at the lack of bridge-building going on here.

UPDATE: ESPN's Chris Sheridan (Insider):

One thing to keep in mind as this thing bubbles beneath the surface: Nobody except Buss and Bryant knows exactly what was said on their phone call, but a day earlier Buss had responded to Bryant's formal trade request -- which was made to general manager Mitch Kupchak by agent Rob Pelinka -- by issuing a public statement essentially saying he wanted to hear those words come out of Kobe's mouth.

So we don't really know with 100 percent certainty whether in his heart of hearts Bryant does or doesn't want out, although I'm hearing that the formal trade request remains on the table.

Now, if that trade request ever turns into a trade demand, there's a good case to be made that Kobe will end up with either the New York Knicks or Chicago Bulls.

Before you get all crazy, let me at least explain what the New York trade could, per Sheridan, entail: Jamal Crawford, David Lee, Channing Frye, a pair of unprotected No. 1 picks, and possibly Nate Robinson, Randolph Morris, or Renaldo Balkman.

I have a strange feeling that after such a trade both teams would remain mediocre for a long time.