Kobe

The biggest home in Los Angeles County is ready for a new nickname: The 56,500-square-foot Manor, dubbed Candyland after owner Candy Spelling, has been sold to another wealthy socialite, British heiress Petra Ecclestone, in an all-cash deal for $85 million. As steep as that price is, it's not a record or even close to what Spelling was asking. The priciest Southland home transaction was the 2000 sale of an 8-acre estate in Bel-Air to financial executive Gary Winnick in a deal that included the trade of other land, for a total value of about $94 million.

LeBron James of the Miami Heat was the leading vote-getter for the All-NBA team, and the Lakers' Kobe Bryant earned his 10th first-team selection, tied for second on the all-time list. Bryant, a first-team pick for the seventh straight season, joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar , Elgin Baylor , Bob Cousy , Michael Jordan , Bob Pettit and Jerry West with 10 selections to the first team. Karl Malone is the leader with 11. James, who won his third most-valuable-player award, received 118 of a possible 120 first-team votes Thursday from a panel of writers and broadcasters.

The Dodgers should stop waltzing around and make their marriage to Manny Ramirez a proper one. I'm talking here about a real contract, not the truncated one they extracted during the off-season, which covers two years but allows baseball's sweetest swinger to leave after the last out of 2009.

- - The Times' Mike Bresnahan reports Kobe Bryant plans to have his exit meeting with Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak and Coach Mike Brown later this week over lunch at an undisclosed location. Bresnahan reports Bryant wanted a little more time to decompress from the Lakers' loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals.

Kobe and Grozny: "What nature doesn't do to us will be done by our fellow man." CHARLOTTE LYLE Granada Hills

"I'll be open," Radmanovic said. "All he has to do is pass it." It sounds so simple, doesn't it? RICHARD RAFFALOW Valley Glen

"Watch this," I say, standing in middle of the family room, pointing at the television. "Watch what?" says my 14-year-old daughter, unmoved on the couch in her basketball sweats, Wednesday's junior varsity practice complete, nothing more to learn tonight. "They are going to throw the ball to Kobe, he is going to make a basket at the buzzer, and the Lakers are going to win," I say. "You really believe that, Dad?" she says. "You know, I finally do," I say. After 14 years of publicly questioning and challenging and wondering about the Lakers' bewildering star, it has finally sunk into my brain like that jumper sank into the hearts of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Now to see just whose age this is . . . As Little Kobe and Little LeBron, the muppets Nike calls its "MVP Puppets," announced in their latest commercial, in which they play "SportsCenter" anchors, the rivalry is back on! And just in time for Christmas! With ESPN and Nike as core NBA sponsors, what are the chances Little Kobe and Little LeBron become the first muppets to anchor a real "SportsCenter" between now and the Lakers' Christmas game against the Cavaliers? Nike debuted the muppets last spring, alongside its "Dream Season 23 & 24" documentary, in which narrator Justin Timberlake mused: "As these friends grow closer to a showdown, you have to wonder, what are they thinking?"

Because it is now evident to all that Andrew Bynum is quickly blossoming into a great player, the question on everyone's mind has to be: How long will it be until Kobe demands that the Lakers trade him? EDWARD A. RUTTENBERG Rancho Palos Verdes Have you noticed how well the Lakers have been passing the ball? I have. I'm sure Kobe has too, and I'm sure he'll put a stop to that. PAUL ANDERSEN Santa Ana

Kobe, Kobe, Kobe. It must seem like the Week of Judgment that followed your "White Hot" fashion statement should be disappearing, at long last, over the horizon. You've absorbed incredulity, mockery and multiple questions about the way you wrapped yourself all in white for a photo spread in Sunday's Los Angeles Times Magazine. The enormous blow back and the multiple online parodies must be getting a little old. But I'm here to tell you, No. 24, you could have turned the spotlight's glare into a warm glow instead of a punishing laser if you had lived only by the one rule you never seem to forget on the basketball court: Own the moment.

Ramon Sessions, Jordan Hill and Devin Ebanks are all potential free agents in July, with the Lakers showing varying degrees of interest in them. Tuesday was the first day of the rest of the Lakers' off-season. Already, there were very few answers. Six players went through annual exit meetings with Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak and Coach Mike Brown, most of them saying the same thing afterward to reporters: See you in training camp ... maybe? Ramon Sessions and Metta World Peace were the headliners Tuesday, with Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum scheduled to appear Wednesday at the Lakers' training facility for individual 30-minute sessions.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- As the red and blue streamers dropped from the sky around the fallen Lakers faces, it felt like more than the end of a series. With "Takin' Care of Business" thumping and thousands rhythmically clapping around the staggering Lakers bodies, it felt like more than the end of a season. What happened here on a strange and sad Monday night felt like the end of an era. PHOTOS: Lakers vs. Thunder, Game 5 Kobe Bryant's window to win a sixth championship in Los Angeles may have officially shut, and who knows whether he will want to stick around to spend his final years pressing his nose against the glass?

Kevin Durant might be listed at 6-feet-9, but an Oklahoma City teammate called the star forward 6-10. And Lakers Coach Mike Brown went so far as to call Durant a 7-footer. No matter, Durant's contribution Saturday was immeasurable in the pivotal Game 4 of the Western Conference best-of-seven semifinal series. Not only did he drain the go-ahead three-pointer with 13.7 seconds left in a 103-100 victory over the Lakers, but he applied stifling defense to Kobe Bryant down the stretch, using his long arms to alter every shot.

Guard Derek Fisher, grand old man of the Oklahoma City Thunder, is the emotional rock of an otherwise young team. "He's the best I've played with or seen in terms of being able to address a team, talk to a team, communicate with guys in a way that's really effective," forward Nick Collison said of Fisher, 37. "It's like having another coach, but he still has the respect of the players. It doesn't feel like he's preaching at you, he just makes a lot of sense. " In that way, the Lakers can only hope that passing the rock doesn't come back to haunt them.

After spending a season fighting age, battling immaturity, struggling with old habits and jabbing with a new coach, the Lakers have ended up where we pretty much thought they would. Out of breath and on the ropes. Their veteran star is exhausted and annoyed. Their kid center is angry and distant. Their power forward is uncertain and embattled. And their season is officially on the brink after they blew a 13-point lead in a 103-100 loss to Oklahoma City on Saturday in the fourth and perhaps deciding game of their first-round playoff series.

So, the Thunder want to force Kobe Bryant out of his game.Oklahoma City will double and triple team him to limit his dominance. The Thunder hopes the strategy will force him into a role as facilitator. The brash and aggressive combination of James Harden and Thabo Sefolosha try to goad the Lakers' star into needlessly throwing up shots.Oh, it works sometimes.

Paul Brownfield may get his wish, Laker-wise, but his assessment of the team is off the mark ("Just Win and Get It Over With," May 8). A team that already lacks the depth of its three main competitors in the West may not have enough to beat the Spurs without Rick Fox and Devean George. That aside, his description of the Lakers as dull is absurd. Yeah, they don't run like the '80s teams did under Magic, but any team with Kobe on its roster can never be considered dull. During this postseason alone, Kobe has made two of the most amazing plays I've ever seen.

It has taken Kobe 12 years to figure out what Magic knew as a rookie, something that Red Auerbach and Bill Russell knew all along, but at least Kobe is finally getting there. It is a team game, consisting of five on five. Harry Bluebond Valley Village How did this happen? There are a number of reasons we find the Lakers on the precipice of another NBA championship. But it all begins with Kobe. When Kobe went on his tirade last May he served notice to Jerry Buss, Mitch Kupchak and his teammates that he's here to win championships.

When Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher were teammates, Bryant used to joke about the lopsided results of their one-on-one games at the Lakers practice facility. On Friday evening, he proved that he wasn't just bragging. Fisher guarded Bryant on two possessions in the fourth quarter of Game 3 of the Lakers Western Conference Semifinal series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The mismatch resulted in consecutive baskets for Bryant. In the first sequence, Bryant shot a 14-foot turnaround fade away jumper over Fisher to tie the game at 76-76 with 8:17 remaining.