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**Bartholomew Hunt** · 10-16-2007, 09:05 PM

http://realgm.com/src_goaltending/12..._to_be_traded/

Quote:

Call me crazy, but I think Kobe Bryant’s about to have the year of his life.

And if he does, he can thank Jerry Buss.

All Buss did was call his whiny, disrespectful superstar on his — crap.

After quietly absorbing a summer of tantrums and immature behavior from a franchise player he’d been unflinchingly loyal to, Buss finally had enough. Shocking long-time Lakers' watchers, and a room full of media at the Lakers’ training camp in Honolulu, Buss declared that Bryant was no longer untouchable, strongly intimating that if the right deal came along, he could be gone this season.

To an outsider, this hardly qualified as surprising news, since Bryant’s been begging for months now to be put out of his Lakers' misery.

To those on the inside, Buss’s words were stunning. Never had he so much as hinted at a willingness to move his most revered employee. Perhaps Buss could no longer endure another slight. Perhaps he was dismayed by Kevin Garnett’s recent comments about how he’d been scared off by the Lakers’ front office problems. Problems magnified by Bryant’s outbursts.

You’d think that Bryant might have greeted Buss’s comments with a huge sigh of relief, but all he offered was silence. Which leads me to wonder how serious he was about being traded in the first place. Was all this just the exaggerated diva demands of a frustrated athlete? He’d used sports radio as his personal pulpit, called Buss a liar, and famously said, “I’ll go play on Pluto” rather than return for another season alongside Bynum, Odom & co.

Then, as abruptly as it started, the histrionics ceased. The trade demands stopped. Bryant dutifully showed up for camp figuring bygones were bygones.

What he didn’t count on was Buss, an avid poker player, calling his bluff. Raising the pot.. Playing the ‘challenge Kobe’ hand.

For years Bryant has gotten away with murder. He’s held all the cards; been the pampered, favorite son allowed to rum amuck through the organization like a spoiled child berating his helpless parents. The Lakers have indulged his legal problems, his blow-ups at teammates, his rants about the incompetence of the front office, and his accusations of the team’s broken promises to build a championship contender around him (not all of which are unfair).

Still, Buss stood by him at every turn. In 2004, with the Kobe-Shaq feud heating up, Buss told ESPN that Bryant “will be a Laker for life” and traded Shaq five months later. When the whispers began that Kobe had forced Shaq out, it was Buss who came to his defense, saying that Shaq had become a commodity he couldn’t afford.

In the summer of 2004, Buss’s public message to Bryant, then considering a move to the Clippers, was, “Stay with the people who love you.”

A year later, with the Kobe love-fest in full bloom, Buss said, “I really think somebody would have to give me their franchise, their arena and the city in order to get him.”

Now, it appears that somebody only need give him the right combination of players.

Said Buss to the media, “You can’t keep too many loyalties… Bryant looks at it the same way I look at it.” In other words – nothing personal. Just business.

After what Kobe has put the organization through, you couldn’t blame Buss for reaching his breaking point and saying what many have privately wished he’d said earlier.

Yet his timing was odd, considering that on October 2 —the day before the Lakers flew to Honolulu for the start of camp – Kobe and the Lakers put on their best united front, with Bryant saying all the right things about putting the past behind him and looking forward to a fresh start. Or, as he told the Los Angeles Times, “The most important thing is that I want to bring a title back to L.A.”

He’d seemingly patched things up with Andrew Bynum, who he derided in a now-infamous off-the-cuff parking lot video and even complimented the front office for their valiant effort at acquiring Garnett.

It may not have been the most convincing show of unity – Bryant had already burned too many bridges over the summer and was only in uniform because, like an employee under contract to a large corporation, he had no choice – but it was a politically correct show.

Less than ten days later, Buss shattered whatever illusions anyone had that the Lakers’ summer of discontent was behind them.

Bryant has yet to address the notion he could be traded. Early reports out of training camp, however, suggest that he’s becoming the facilitator the Lakers have long wanted him to be. Coincidence? On a team with more plot twists than a Spanish telenovela, probably not.

Bryant, the most ferocious competitor in the NBA, also has a championship-caliber ego. Now that his boss has called him, in so many words, expendable, I can see the old fire returning to Bryant’s eyes, the kind of fire he exhibited with Team USA over the summer, ruthlessly shutting down Leandro Barbosa in the game against Brazil.

Could it be that Bryant realizes how good he has it being king of L.A. and is now determined to prove that no owner in his right mind would want to trade him?

Reached by email, ESPN’s Ric Bucher, a long-time Bryant confidant who over the summer predicted that Bryant would never wear a Lakers' uniform again, had a more measured response.

“I believe he's feeling his basketball mortality for the first time,” Bucher wrote. “He's not willing to risk his assets -- a restored image after the Colorado incident and $19.5 million in salary -- to force the Lakers to move him.”

And he may not want to go down in history as the man who forced Jerry Buss to trade him. Which is why, if the Lakers get off to a good start and Bryant has the year of his life, Buss will look like a poker-faced genius.

Stretchey article, but gives you a feeling of optimism for ten seconds or so.

**CubanLaker** · 10-16-2007, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bartholomew Hunt

http://realgm.com/src_goaltending/12..._to_be_traded/

Stretchey article, but gives you a feeling of optimism for ten seconds or so.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

**DANNY** · 10-17-2007, 12:21 AM

good article...

i really liked the part about buss standing up for kobe but feeling betrayed at the end.

kind of reminds me of arthur blank and michael vick.

you can go so far with loyalty, at some point, it's strictly business.

**CubanLaker** · 10-17-2007, 12:26 AM

Dude if Kobe does get traded, im just dreading the day Kobe comes back to Staples and drops 60 on us....

veve130 · 10-17-2007, 05:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CubanLaker

Dude if Kobe does get traded, im just dreading the day Kobe comes back to Staples and drops 60 on us....

lol and you know he will

**CDRacingZX6R** · 10-17-2007, 06:45 AM

Unless we get something decent in return for Kobe, I'm more afraid of him droping 81 on us.......

Revenge of the Sith style....

KennethTo · 10-17-2007, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dannyM

good article...

i really liked the part about buss standing up for kobe but feeling betrayed at the end.

kind of reminds me of arthur blank and michael vick.

you can go so far with loyalty, at some point, it's strictly business.

betrayed is a funny word, when buss's son spreads rumors to the media about Kobe behind his back for two to three seasons...

KennethTo · 10-17-2007, 09:36 AM

As for the article, I thought it was horribly written. Kobe got out of the facilitator role, because Jackson wanted Odom to take that role. When Jackson wanted Kobe to take the facilitator role early in his career, Kobe did just that. It's not like Buss did anything motivational. Look, he's the owner and can do or say whatever he wants. But to claim his comments motivated Kobe is absurd. Say what you want about the guy, but he plays 100% no matter what because basketball is his life, the guy wasn't going to go Vince Carter or us or anything.

**Schilly** · 10-17-2007, 09:53 AM

From a non-lakers fan perspective, looking at the last several months dating back to his initial trade request, the relationship between Kobe and management appears to be fractured beyond repair. Just watching Kobe shrug off questions and telling reporters to ask Mitch and Dr. Buss, tells me that he doesn't want to be there in the least. If he wanted to be there he would be appealing to the fans/media by saying he wants to retire as a Laker etc...etc... His response tells me that he feels that management has failed in honoring his trade request.

**HOWIE** · 10-17-2007, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schilly

From a non-lakers fan perspective, looking at the last several months dating back to his initial trade request, the relationship between Kobe and management appears to be fractured beyond repair. Just watching Kobe shrug off questions and telling reporters to ask Mitch and Dr. Buss, tells me that he doesn't want to be there in the least. If he wanted to be there he would be appealing to the fans/media by saying he wants to retire as a Laker etc...etc... His response tells me that he feels that management has failed in honoring his trade request.

I have to agree, it is going to be interesting to see how this all plays out. The deal that sent Shaq to Miami wasn't that great IMO, hopefully Los Angeles will get more for Kobe than Shaq.

Not sure how you make a deal with Kobe work, but it is going to have to be more than just one team involved and who is going to want any part of that deal that isn't getting Kobe?

jazzy1 · 10-17-2007, 02:04 PM

Kobe will be a laker this season.

veve130 · 10-17-2007, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazzy1

Kobe will be a laker this season.

yea i think so to all this trade talk at the end of the day will be just that, TALK

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