Lakers owner speaks to disgruntled Bryant over team's future
(Reuters)Updated: 2007-06-01 08:59
LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss spoke to Kobe Bryant on Thursday in a bid to ease the guard's increasing frustration over the team's future.
On Wednesday, a disgruntled Bryant told a local radio station he wanted to be traded from the Lakers before changing his mind a few hours later.
 Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, seen here in April 2007, who is increasingly upset over the direction the National Basketball Association team has taken, said Wednesday he wants the club to trade him.[AFP\File] |
"I talked with Kobe this morning and assured him that I share his frustration," Buss said in a statement.
"More importantly, I assured him that we will continue to pursue every avenue possible to improve our team with him as the cornerstone.
"I told him that we will keep him apprised of our progress and we agreed that we will talk again in the very near future."
Bryant, who helped the Lakers win three consecutive NBA championships from 2000-2002, has been deeply upset by the team's lack of success over the last three seasons.
The Los Angeles side failed to qualify for the playoffs in their first campaign without Shaquille O'Neal and have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the last two season.
An NBA veteran of 11 years, Bryant has also been disappointed by the team's rebuilding process since O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat in 2004 and allegations that he was instrumental in prompting O'Neal's departure.
"The more I thought about the future, the more I became convinced that the Lakers and me just have two different visions," Bryant said on his official Web site.
"The Lakers are pursuing a longer-term plan that is different from what Dr Buss shared with me at the time I re-signed as a free agent.
"I have seen that plan unfold for the last three years and watched great trade opportunities come and go, and have seen free agents passed on. That has led to the Lakers not winning a playoff series."
Bryant, one of the NBA's biggest drawcards and an All-Star player for the last nine seasons, has four years and $88.6 million left on his Lakers contract.
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