Kobe.

That one word is about the only thing left that can restore some pride, some excitement, and some genuine competitiveness to the basketball franchise formerly known as the New York Knicks.

While owner James Dolan and team president Isiah Thomas spent their off-season making a mockery of the franchise in their sexual harassment trial, with an assist from Stephon Marbury (quite possibly his last one of the season, I might add), Kobe Bryant was having an interesting summer himself. Frustrated with the recent direction of the Lakers, his off-season was spent alternately issuing and retracting trade demands and allowing observers to read the tea leaves.

It seems Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss finally cried uncle last week, when he hinted that the Lakers would have to consider trading their franchise player if the right deal came along. It was the kind of stuff you hear general managers and owners say a lot, actually … just not when they’re asked about franchise players. As such, it seemed to be Buss’s not-so-subtle hint to the world that if at some point in the next 12 months another team felt compelled to make an offer for Bryant, he would gladly listen to it.

Unfortunately, Dr. Buss is not the one holding the cards. Bryant owns a rare asset in the NBA world — his contract contains a no-trade clause. Most superstars lack this provision in their deals because they’re forbidden from putting them into their rookie contracts, and those deals are often extended ad infinitum until the player is nearing retirement age.

Kevin Garnett, for instance, is technically on the same contract he signed as a rookie, and will be until at least age 34.

However, Bryant was able to sneak away for a brief dip in the free agent pool three years ago, and the result was his current no-trade provision. What it means is that Bryant must approve any trade, and thus can maintain a short list of places he’d be willing to consider.

Dallas, Chicago, and Phoenix are definitely on the list, but it’s a mark of how far the Knicks have fallen into disgrace that we now have to ask whether New York would make the cut. While the general presumption has been a yes, earlier this week Newsday’s Ken Berger said it was a no. The truth may be somewhere in between — that it’s a definite maybe for the future, but there’s no way he’d join the current circus in the immediate posttrial aftermath.

However, time is on the Knicks’ side in this case. Were the Lakers to deal Bryant, it probably wouldn’t be until next summer, or this season’s trade deadline at the earliest. The reasoning is that he still has two years left on his deal and thus is pretty much stuck until Buss decides to move him; the optimal timing would seem to be a year from now, when his new team can negotiate an extension and be assured he won’t flee as a free agent.

Buss could pull the trigger before then, of course, if a particularly juicy deal comes along — that’s why he made his statement last week, one that amounts to a fishing expedition. But let’s play along and presume that the real action will come after the season.

If so, that gives the Knicks some time to get their act together. The changes have to come on multiple fronts. For one, just to make sure we give the dead horse another beating, Dolan has to consider replacing management. Thomas’s reign has been a disaster on multiple levels and doesn’t appear to be getting better; one has to think that by now Bryant has probably noticed.

Regardless of who is in charge, however, the Knicks need to be focused on getting the assets together to make a Kobe deal palatable for the Lakers. This is where the Zach Randolph acquisition can pay huge dividends for the Knicks, actually — his salary is big enough to offset much of Bryant’s, which is important for any potential deal’s cap considerations.

Malik Rose will be important, too, oddly enough. He’s due over $7 million next year, and a $7 million expiring deal would be a very attractive commodity for L.A. in any deal; hopefully the Knicks learned their mistake from buying out Maurice Taylor and Jalen Rose too early a year ago and will hang on to Rose for his importance in trade scenarios.

Beyond that, it’s time to think young. The Knicks might consider acquiring draft picks to use in a deal — perhaps by trading some of the excess contracts they have in camp at the moment — and should certainly think about making heavier use of talented young players like David Lee, Wilson Chandler, Nate Robinson and, when he returns, Renaldo Balkman.

The latter operation is a tricky one, obviously, since the Knicks’ first goal isn’t the distant prospect of trading for Kobe Bryant but the more immediate one of winning some basketball games. But they’re not the only team doing this dance, and using minutes on those players rather than wasting them on free-agent failures like Jerome James and Jared Jeffries makes good basketball sense, too — though it may bruise Isiah Thomas’s ego a bit. I would also argue that Lee makes a better frontcourt partner for Randolph than Curry, though again Thomas’s pride may get in the way after he gave up so much in the Curry trade.

However, the biggest change has to come off the court. Somehow, Dolan and Thomas (or whomever Dolan hires to replace Thomas) need to convey to the basketball world that Madison Square Garden is a respectable address again. If they could demonstrate that there was some level of organizational humility and the capacity to admit mistakes, or show that the coddling of Marbury has ceased, or prove that they had some players who were capable of playing around Bryant as opposed to the current gang of shoot-first point guards and ball-hungry post players, those would all be steps toward making the Knicks a viable destination again.

It’s crazy that it’s even reached this point. New York should be holding all the cards right now. This town is the best place for any marketing-conscious player to be, not to mention that MSG’s the league’s most atmospheric arena. Besides, the Knicks are one of the few teams that can take on Bryant’s contact and 15% trade kicker without even blinking (the running joke is that Dolan would ask “only 15%?”).

Hopefully, New York can get itself back into that prime position, because it seems likely that the Bryant-Laker marriage will end at some point in the next 12 months. Coincidentally, given all the ailments afflicting the Knicks at this point, only one thing could provide an immediate cure.

Kobe.

jhollinger@nysun.com