Write On Sports LLC - "Buss won't let Kobe go" by Jake Lloyd

Buss won't let Kobe go

2007-06-25 14:21:10 | By: Jake Lloyd

Kobe Bryant can diss his teammates all he wants.

He can go on 1,297 radio shows and say the five words: "I want to be traded."

He can even threaten to be mean to the Lakers Girls.

It won't matter. Bryant's not going anywhere. Come November, he'll be suiting up for the Los Angeles Lakers. He may not like it, but he'll play nonetheless because we all know how much of a competitor Bryant is. He's not a player to sit on the sidelines when he could be playing.

Bryant won't remain a Laker simply because he is arguably the best player in the NBA and it would be near impossible for the Lakers to work out a fair trade involving him. No, owner Jerry Buss understands how important Bryant is to the franchise because of his appeal as a star player.

As much as Buss likes winning -- he's been the owner for eight Lakers' titles -- he also loves an entertaining product. Since he bought the Lakers in the late 1970s, he's strived to make the Lakers into Hollywood's team. Under his guidance, Showtime came into fruition, helping to bring about the most popular decade of the NBA.

And the last 11 seasons, he's had Bryant, one of the league's most explosive, fun- to-watch players. With Bryant in a Lakers uniform, Staples Center will continue to fill on a nightly basis regardless of the scrubs playing alongside the star. Bryant, simply, can do anything on any night. Just witness the 81-point game and the several games in which he brought the Lakers back from double-digit deficits.

He may be a ball hog at times, and apparently he now rips on teammates in deli shops, but Bryant is still the face of the Lakers. His No. 24 was the league’s best- selling jersey this past season. Lakers fans come to the games for one thing -- to see Bryant. If he's gone, you'll start to see empty seats on game nights.

It doesn't matter who the Lakers get in return. Nobody in the league could attract the fans and celebrities like Bryant. Nobody. Not Kevin Garnett. Not Amare Stoudemire. OK, maybe LeBron (but there's a better chance of Bryant playing in WNBA than of the Cavs shipping James).

Even though the Lakers might have talked about rebuilding around Andrew Bynum -- which is one of the reasons Bryant has become so peeved -- they are not going to trade Bryant anytime soon. They know he's the player who sells the tickets, who garners the several national TV appearances. Bynum will never be that guy.

Bryant has a right to be ticked off with the organization. He obviously wants to win very badly, and the men upstairs haven't done anything to help him do this. I'm sure he understands that he'll be in his prime for just a few more years and he doesn't want to waste those years.

But this public bashing of the organization and his teammates isn't going to help Bryant. He needs to look at Buss' past moves to make the Lakers an entertaining product and realize that as fun to watch as he is, he's not going anywhere. Then he should sit down with Buss and have a heart-to-heart about what can be done to help him win his first Shaqless championship.

That's really Bryant's only option. All these trade demands are nothing more than wasted words.

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