Win-win men's hoops final for Kobe and Pau - New York Daily News

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It's hard to tell if Kobe Bryant is happier that Team USA is in the gold medal game or that his Lakers traded for All-Star center Dwight Howard in a four-team blockbuster deal.

LONDON â€" Either Kobe Bryant or Pau Gasol is taking a gold medal back to Los Angeles, and yet regardless of the result in Sunday’s final between the U.S. and Spain, the two friends and teammates will both feel like winners.

Back surgery forced Dwight Howard to remove his name from consideration for the Olympic roster and yet the All-Star center is still the topic of conversation on the eve of the U.S. team trying to defeat Spain for a gold medal for a second time in four years. The U.S. is a heavy favorite with a lineup that includes LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony and of course, Bryant.

Perhaps the one team that could give the Americans a game would be Bryant’s club team, which now includes Steve Nash, Gasol and Howard, the league’s top big man.

“Anytime you have Dwight, Kobe and Steve Nash on the same team along with Pau everyone is going to say they’re the team to beat,” Anthony, the Knicks’ forward, said on Saturday. “It definitely gives them that presence once again. It definitely makes them another powerhouse in the West or in the NBA as a whole. Right now, it’s just a matter of them putting it together to see what happens.”

Oklahoma City’s Durant, who declined to comment on the four-team, 12-player trade after the U.S. knocked off Argentina on Friday in the semifinals, said on Saturday that he wasn’t surprised the Lakers were able to orchestrate a deal for Howard because “that’s what the Lakers do. They have great management and ownership to make those moves come to life.”

The Lakers do have a stellar history of pulling off terrific trades. In 2008, they managed to acquire Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies in a deal that featured Kwame Brown and Marc Gasol, Pau’s brother and Spanish teammate.

The deal looked so one-sided at the time that San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich joked that a trade committee should be created to review the deal. The trade for Howard included the Lakers sending center Andrew Bynum to Philadelphia.

Victor R. Caivano/AP

Pau Gasol.

Howard’s move west alters the landscape in the Eastern Conference. The Magic, a playoff qualifier last season, will struggle to crack the top eight in 2012-13. Meanwhile, the addition of Bynum in the Atlantic Division means that Tyson Chandler will face him at least four times. It also gives Chandler a leg up on making his first All-Star team. On Sunday, he’ll have his hands full with the Gasol brothers, especially in an international competition where the officiating does allow for much contact.

The U.S. prefers to play a small lineup â€" Anthony usually is the first sub off the bench for Chandler â€" but trying to overpower the Americans in the paint may be Spain’s best and only hope. Or the Spaniards can look at it this way â€" at least they won’t have to deal with Howard like the rest of the NBA will next season.