USA - Lakers willing to trade Kobe Bryant
Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss revealed Wednesday that he would be willing to trade superstar Kobe Bryant — if the price is right. Buss, 77, told reporters covering training camp in Hawaii that he "would certainly listen" to offers for Bryant, who demanded to be dealt over the off-season before recanting.
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Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss revealed Wednesday that he would be willing to trade superstar Kobe Bryant — if the price is right.
Buss, 77, told reporters covering training camp in Hawaii that he "would certainly listen" to offers for Bryant, who demanded to be dealt over the off-season before recanting.
Kobe Bryant could be traded by the Lakers given the right circumstance.
(Jeff Lewis/Associated Press) "At any time, I think you have to do that with anybody," Buss said. "It is 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 have got to look at it as a business [and] he looks at it the same way I look at it."
Bryant, 29, stunned the basketball world on May 30 by bluntly declaring his dissatisfaction with the Lakers, and demanding to be traded.
Bryant claimed that there was nothing the Lakers could do to dissuade him, even though he had four years and $88.6 million US remaining on the seven-year, $136.4-million US contract inked July 15, 2004.
"I told him that I would try my best to accommodate his wishes," Buss said, "but that I could not afford to let him go unless we got comparable talent - if there was such a thing."
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