Here’s a video of Shawn Marion talking to reporters at the Phoenix Suns media day.

This is an irrate Shawn Marion, that looks very unhappy to be a Phoenix Sun.

Click for Video

Did it seem odd to anybody else besides me that Kobe Bryant got back on the Lakers bandwagon rather quick this media day. This is the same guy that was criticizing the Laker’s on national radio 5 times in one day, and could not think of playing for the Laker’s again.

What might really have been going on behind all of the silence and waiting for Laker fans this off-season is a lot of discussion. We heard what Kobe wanted, we heard that Phil Jackson admitted to pushing management to make some personnel changes that the team needed to win. Kobe may know what will happen in the next weeks following the start if training camp in Hawaii, he was all good to go and start playing basketball with the Laker’s he told the media this Monday at Laker’s media day.

Trading Shawn Marion for Lamar Odom might require more logistics than one may think. The Laker’s may be setting up an extension offer to Marion to lure him to Los Angeles and keep him there past this 2007-2008 NBA season, due to this season being his last year before he can opt-out of his current contract with the Phoenix Suns.

The Laker’s would likely unload a healing Lamar Odom to Phoenix and get a quick energetic Shawn Marion that will extend his contract that has one year remaining.

Kobe making such a 360 in his opinions shows that something is going to happen, why else would he come back after all he said back in the summer?

There’s still no official word on the Shawn Marion-for-Lamar Odom swap detailed on SportingNews.com Tuesday. Marion told me he wants the deal to go down, and he sounded genuinely excited about the possibility of changing scenery. Marion also said he spoke with Kobe Bryant over the weekend and was left with the impression that Bryant supported the trade.

The Lakers, of course, need to appease Bryant. Bryant’s angry tirade in May about the Lakers’ inability to surround him with more talent became a major story of the offseason. The Lakers haven’t done much to improve their roster this summer, and while it could be argued that swapping Marion for Odom wouldn’t lead to significant improvement, it would at least be a change. And the Lakers need a change. If the Lakers are convinced Bryant wants this trade to happen, they’d be foolish not to pursue it.

So what’s the holdup? The deal was presented last week, giving the Lakers and Suns plenty of time to evaluate it.

As I said, there has been no official word. But a source close to the Suns says the Lakers are grappling with the same misgiving Phoenix has expressed: They’re wary of giving Marion an extension, which could cost in the area of $65 million over three years. If L.A. traded for Marion without extending his contract, Marion could opt out next summer and hit the free-agent market. The Lakers still could re-sign him then, but the team might not want to run the risk of giving up Odom, its second most important asset, only to watch Marion leave after one season.

Because of that concern, the deal might never materialize. Another source said Tuesday that the deal was a 50-50 possibility. But, as one general manager says, “The Lakers would be making themselves a target by coming to camp without doing anything. That has been Kobe’s complaint all along — that the team doesn’t take chances, like with the [Jason] Kidd-for-[Andrew] Bynum thing. This is a chance to show Kobe they’ll take some chances and spend some money.”

There’s also this irony: Marion has taken so much flak this summer for causing chemistry problems, you’d think the Suns would be desperate to trade him. The reality is quite the opposite. “Shawn might complain from time to time, but he is not disruptive,” the source close to the Suns says. “[The Suns] don’t think he is a guy who would intentionally come in and be destructive to the team. He is too much of a professional to do that. They know that, so they know they don’t have to go out and give him away.”

Perhaps if Marion were more of a pain, Phoenix frantically would be trying to trade him. But that’s not the case. Chemistry issues between Marion and power forward Amare Stoudemire have been overblown. The reason the Suns are entertaining trade offers has nothing to do with Marion’s performance on the court or in the locker room. The reason is financial.

In fact, Marion acknowledged Tuesday that he would show up in Phoenix next Monday ready to play if he is not traded. He didn’t sound excited about that prospect, but he’s not one to destroy team chemistry. The last thing he said to me when we spoke was this: “I am a professional. I will be where I am supposed to be.”