Real life soap opera in Los Angeles

At the end of the NBA season, Lakers fans didn't know what to expect from the soap opera that is the Los Angeles Lakers.

Within days, head coach Phil Jackson decided he had enough and would rather relax in Montana than return to the madness at Staples Center.

But, what about the team?

Would Gary Payton come back? Would Karl Malone hang it up or come back another year? And, what about Kobe and Shaq?

The future sure didn't look bright in sunny Southern California.

It's off season and Angelinos should be talking about the Los Angeles Dodgers or how great Vladimir Guerrero is doing for the Anaheim Angels.

Of course, this is Lakers' country and who would have thought the soap opera would continue? But, this is Hollywood after all, and here life is one big movie production.

After failing to get Coach K (Mike Krzyzewski) to leave the craziness that is Duke, the Lakers got their first choice, former Houston Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich.

Next, Payton announced he would be back, and as for the "Mailman," he's not hanging up the sneakers, but he might not be playing for the Lakers either.

Then, just when things couldn't get any worse, Kobe Bryant also a free agent and is "looking."

Will he come back as a Laker or sign with someone else, like, no joke, the Clippers, or will he be trading in that basketball uniform for another kind of uniform?

Finally, to make this soap opera even more of a horror story, Lakers fans awoke to the real possibility that Shaquille O'Neal isn't going to be a Laker anymore.

Instead, he's going to join the other beautiful people on South Beach in Miami, Florida as a member of the Miami Heat.

If the deal goes through, and how ironic is this, he will join general manager and president of the Heat, Pat Riley, who was the former Lakers' coach.

As of today, July 14th, Lakers fans are hoping this is a very bad dream and someone will snap them out of it real fast.

This deal which will send Brian Grant, Lamar Odom and Caron Butler to Los Angeles from Miami for Shaq, hasn't been finalized yet.

The only "smart" one in this is Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who left the country before all heck broke lose, leaving general manager, Mitch Kupchak, to take (pardon the pun) -- the heat.

So what's next in this continuing story that never seems to end?

While no one really knows, there is one thing that is certain. Everyone here in Los Angeles is holding their breath as they wait to see what else just might happen.