Lakers’ owner Jerry Buss considering trading NBA star Kobe Bryant

In an exclusive press conference Wednesday,  Los Angeles Lakers Jerry Buss discussed the possibility of trading the team’s and the league’s top scorer – Kobe Bryant. Bryant, who has been voicing his frustration with the team throughout the off-season, has been the topic of discussion surrounding the Lakers all summer and now, as the season starts up, Buss decided to speak publicly for the first time since his team’s off-season disarray, according to a story published Thursday, Oct. 11 on the Los Angeles Times’ Web site.

Buss admitted that offers have been streaming in from other teams all summer but made it clear none of them were good enough to follow through with. Bryant, who has four years left in his $88.6 million contract, has the option of pulling out two years early in 2009 because of a gaping hole in the agreement, according to Buss. That would leave $47.8 million of Bryant’s money on the table but would also leave the Lakers in a hard spot – Bryant is one of the most dynamic players to set foot on the Lakers’ home court in the team’s 60-year history. But Buss has admitted that he is keeping the possibility of a reasonable trade offer in mind.

At a June meeting in Barcelona between Buss and Bryant, the owner said he tried to talk the Lakers star out of his request to be traded to another team. “He was very, very respectful,” Buss said. “I told him when I walked in that I was going to try to talk him out of it. And he said, ‘I’ll listen carefully.’ And he did. He listened very carefully for 30, 45 minutes. I tried to explain to him how much the city of Los Angeles loved him, and that to leave 10 million sweethearts for unknown territory might not be the right thing to do. But when I was finished, he said he basically felt the same way. And I said, ‘OK. With that, I will proceed to see what’s available.’”

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