Celtics' fans have seen Wallace's act before

Valentine's Day might have been one week ago, but Memphis Grizzlies' general manager Chris Wallace can expect a dozen roses from Kobe Bryant any minute now.
Fans of the Boston Celtics remember Wallace as the idiot who presided over several years of instability, a fool who drafted potential All-Stars like Jerome Moiso, Joseph Forte and Kedrick Brown in the first round and traded for impact players like Vin Baker. The fact that the Eastern Conference was so bad was the only thing that allowed the Celtics to be anything resembling a success under Wallace. They had no chance to contend against the powers in the West handing 38 percent shooters like Antoine Walker max contracts and leaning on bench support from reliable reserves like Vitaly Potapenko and Shammond Williams.  
Apparently ruining one team wasn't enough, so Wallace decided to screw the rest of the NBA when he handed Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers a superstar like Pau Gasol for a collection of spare parts that included career underachiever Kwame Brown, retired guard Aaron McKie, a pair of future first-round draft picks and expiring contracts that Memphis will use to relieve the salary cap hell that seems to trail Wallace at his every stop. Los Angeles looks like the new favorite to win the championship this season thanks to its 130-124 victory at Phoenix on Wednesday night, a win that vaulted the Lakers into a tie with the Suns atop the Pacific Division and should have the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks shaking in their Texas-sized cowboy boots.
The Lakers are 7-1 since acquiring Gasol from the Grizzlies, with Gasol, Bryant and Lamar Odom combining for 92 points against the Suns. Bryant hit for a game-high 41 despite playing with a ligament injury in his right pinky finger that will require offseason surgery. He certainly didn't look hindered in any way. Just ask Raja Bell and the rest of Phoenix's overmatched defenders. Bryant is the type of lead dog that every NBA team needs to get over the hump when postseason games turn into slow, physical marches through quicksand.
Bryant is off the hook for his petulant demands to revamp the Los Angeles roster. His warts are easy to overlook thanks to his flashy game, beautiful wife and quotable nature that keeps the media notebooks full. How quickly we forget that Bryant tried to force his way out of town by demanding a trade during the preseason and begged the Lakers to ship center Andrew Bynum to the highest bidder, unhappy that the 20-year-old center couldn't do better than 13.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. I guess Bynum's 63.6 percent shooting from the field wasn't good enough for Bryant either, he of the 46.1 shooting percentage from the field. All of this is coming from a kid who would be a junior at the University of Connecticut if he had decided to go to college and who won't be able to have a legal drink at a bar until late October. Bynum is currently out with a knee injury -- his return sometime in the early spring will give Los Angeles another valuable piece to move within one title of the Celtics' NBA record 16.
The main target of Bryant's scorn was Los Angeles general manager Mitch Kupchak, a man that Bryant felt was incapable of assembling complimentary pieces good enough for Bryant to lead to a title. Bryant wanted Jerry West, the architect of Los Angeles' most recent dynasty to return. West had just retired as the Grizzlies' GM. His replacement, in a sick bit of irony? Chris Wallace. Maybe West gave Bryant the help he needed after all.