Don't even ask.

Don't try to repackage the question that has been repeated all week. The question we're going to hear all season, in various forms.

Can this really work?

Isn't this two superstars too many?

	No Shaq, no Phil. But Kevin's still got love for the Lakers.

How are four future Hall of Famers going to share one ball?

In response, I've got a question and an answer for everyone.

My question: Why bother asking?

Because …

My answer to the first three questions: It doesn't matter if it works or not.

It doesn't matter if the Four Cornerstones they've just lined up to play together in Los Angeles fall short of a championship, just as the Wilt Chamberlain-Jerry West-Elgin Baylor triumvirate fell short in 1969. Doesn't even matter if a spectacular power struggle overpowers all the star power.

If you can get Gary Payton and Karl Malone for a combined $6.4 million, you don't worry about the pitfalls.

"There is no team in the league that wouldn't take those two guys at that price," said one Western Conference executive. "No team."

That's right. Getting Payton and Malone, for a combined $6.4 million next season, is like getting Payton and Malone for free. At that price, you don't even hesitate. The Lakers naturally will have to pay luxury tax on both of the new contracts, which puts the actual cost of Glove and Mailman closer to $13 million next season, but that's still a steal.

By today's salary standards? Too big a bargain to question. Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, remember, will make a combined $40 million next season.

Don't confuse the Lakers' free-agent home run with what the Yankees do every year. This isn't the NBA's version of Boss Steinbrenner buying his way to supremacy. This is Mitch Kupchak -- the same Mitch Kupchak who has been unfairly pilloried by fans who think he actually had the freedom to spend lavishly the past two offseasons -- getting two still-productive and well-conditioned veterans on the same shoestring budget owner Jerry Buss outlines every offseason. With some very persuasive recruiting help from Shaq (Payton) and Magic Johnson (Malone), Kupchak has just had a summer that would easily crack Jerry West's top three. Maybe even the top two, coming in just behind that glorious summer of 1996, when The Logo somehow snared Bryant in the draft and then signed O'Neal a few weeks later.

Getting Payton, nearly 35, and Malone, almost 40, can't compare to the haul of '96 ... until you remember how much it's costing. Then it's not long before you're putting the haul of '03 in the same conversation.

Of course, there will inevitably be some issues. Bryant, after dealing with his legal issues first, will undoubtedly bristle at the unspoken implication that he needed this much help to restore the Lakers to glory. Of equal concern is how Malone, on a pay cut of nearly $18 million, accepts his new designation of Role Player. An outspoken and demanding teammate for nearly two decades in Utah, Malone is going to be asked to rebound and defend and do more grunt work than he ever has. Without making cracks about Shaq's weight.

That said, what team doesn't have issues? What team wouldn't want to add Payton and Malone, for a fourth of Shaq's salary next season, and figure it all out later? Right. We already answered that one.

Then there are the other answers, which suggest that these guys will mix well, making the whole concept even more of a no-brainer. Answers like: