"If you were to ask which Lakers player is most likely to park in a handicapped space and have it turned into a local news investigation, it's an easy answer.

There's just something about Andrew Bynum that fits the unfortunate description perfectly.

He isn't on his own planet like Ron Artest, he isn't as menacing as Matt Barnes and he isn't as self-absorbed as Kobe Bryant.

But parking in a handicapped space - as Bynum was shown to do in KNBC/4's report - is just the sort of small act of privilege, short-sightedness and inelegance that fits Bynum because he has a history of small acts of privilege, short-sightedness and inelegance.

None of that is enough to condemn him as a bad man or write him off as Lakers trade bait, especially given his relative youth. Yet it's unfortunate for the Lakers as they still stare at a roster that features Bynum and only Bynum as a top-flight talent whose best days are not behind him that he keeps taking baby steps backward (as in, acting like a baby) to go with forward progress as the team's biggest man.

After years of health misfortunes and letdowns, Bynum proved his mettle to all the veterans around him by powering through torn knee cartilage to give the Lakers just enough to beat Boston in the seven-game 2009 NBA Finals.

Then he stepped right back by waiting 41 days after the season ended to have surgery on his knee.

Surgery was more complicated than initially assumed - although Bynum's doctor warned him of that possibility in advance - and Bynum's recovery stretched until Game 15 of the next season while Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom grew weary much earlier than anticipated with no relief. Even worse, it was obvious Bynum could've played sooner than that but he never considered it, oblivious to the growing feelings of resentment inside the team's inner circle."