Lakers owner considers trading Bryant
Updated: 2007-10-12 16:46
HONOLULU - Jerry Buss has already shown that he'll part with superstars. Yet upon hearing that the Los Angeles Lakers' owner would consider trading Kobe Bryant, even Shaquille O'Neal was shocked.
 Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss sits courtside before the start of the exhibition basketball game between the Lakers and the Golden State Warriors at the Stan Sheriff Center, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007, in Honolulu. [Agencies]
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"I guess it's business before loyalty. But, wow. He said that?" O'Neal said Thursday in Miami after learning Buss told reporters he would trade Bryant under the right circumstances.
Buss indeed did, telling three Los Angeles-area beat writers covering training camp in Honolulu on Wednesday that he "would certainly listen" to trade offers for the two-time NBA scoring champion.
"At any time, I think you have to do that with anybody," Buss said, discussing Bryant publicly for the first time since the often-frustrated Lakers' star asked to be traded at the end of last season. "It's just part of the game, to listen to somebody who has a dissatisfied player that you think is going to fit."
"You can't keep too many loyalties. You've got to look at it as a business. He looks at it the same way I look at it."
Buss made his comments to reporters from the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
Before Thursday night's exhibition game against Golden State in Honolulu, some members of the Lakers said they weren't aware of Buss' comments.
"I didn't hear them," Lamar Odom said. "For us, we're players so, you know, I didn't hear the comments myself so I wouldn't know why there would be a different mood or a different feeling at shootaround today."
Forward Ronny Turiaf agreed that the reports did little to affect the team.
"We just play basketball. I really have nothing to say, that's between Kobe and management," he said.
The Lakers won three championships and reached the NBA finals four times in five years before O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat in July 2004. They haven't won a playoff series since O'Neal left, and O'Neal has since helped the Heat win the 2006 NBA title.
"Anyone can be traded, but mine was different because I walked into the office and demanded a trade," O'Neal said. "I don't take loyalty lightly. If you tell me you're going to do something, I expect you to do it. And then when you change your mind without telling me, that means you're disloyal so we can't be down anymore."
Bryant has four years worth $88.6 million left on the seven-year contract he signed a day after O'Neal was traded, but can terminate the deal in two years. That would leave $47.8 million on the table.
"I tend not to think in basketball terms that many years down the road because things change so dramatically, but he could test the waters at that point," Buss said. "If he still is in that frame of mind, then hopefully we can do a sign-and-trade and get some comparable talent. I would like to think that we win between now and then so it doesn't come up."
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