When it rains: Problems bombard Lakers' Buss
Bob Young
The Arizona Republic
May. 31, 2007 12:00 AM
We're trying to figure out who has had the worst week:
A. Lindsay Lohan: Photographed drunk and barfing, then charged with DUI after crashing her Benz.
B. Rosie O'Donnell: Gig at The View ends early, nobody cares; Donald Trump gleefully rips her some more.
C. Alex Rodriguez: New York Post publishes photo of Yankees star with an unidentified woman who is not his wife under gi-normous headline "Stray-Rod."
D. Lakers owner Jerry Buss: Kobe Bryant demands a trade, Jerry West says he ain't comin' back, and Buss is arrested and charged with DUI.
We're going with Buss.
The deal-clincher was the news in the DUI report that the 74-year-old Buss was in the company of a 23-year-old woman at the time of his arrest in Carlsbad, Calif.
Anybody who knows Buss' reputation knows that he has hit absolute rock bottom if he wasn't in the company of at least three women young enough to be his grandchildren.
His lawyers probably will get him out of the DUI mess, but this trade demand could be tricky, depending on where Kobe stands at any given minute.
Bryant told Stephen A. Smith on ESPN Radio in New York that he wants to be traded.
"Tough as it is to come to that conclusion, there's no other alternative, you know?" he said.
This came a day after he said he did not want to be traded. And it came several hours before he told Greg Anthony of ESPN's "All Kobe, All the Time" coverage that he would rescind the trade demand if the Lakers "insider" who told the Los Angeles Times that he forced Shaquille O'Neal out of town is fired.
So evidently he wants Phil Jackson out again. Or maybe Buss.
In a sure sign that the world is spinning helplessly out of control, O'Neal even backed Bryant - telling Smith that he believes Bryant is "100 percent" right when he says it was Buss, not Kobe, who wanted him out of Los Angeles.
You know, that's probably all the allegedly inebriated Buss wanted to vent to the 23-year-old babe about.
Anyway, there already are a whole lot of experts and pundits saying that the Lakers aren't about to trade Bryant, even before he said he'd like things to be worked out so he can retire as a Lakers player.
We say: Not so fast.
There is a rich history in sports of superstars demanding trades and making their employers so uncomfortable that it eventually happens. Just recently we have seen:
• Running back Thomas Jones traded to the New York Jets by the Bears after he demanded a trade.
• Allen Iverson traded to Denver only a couple of weeks after demanding that the Philadelphia 76ers move him.
• Randy Moss tell a radio station that, "I might want to look forward to moving somewhere else next year . . . " after which the Raiders traded him to New England.
It is a time-honored tradition.
In 2004, Vince Carter said, "It's time for me to look after me" and forced his way out of Toronto, which traded him to New Jersey.
Going back farther, Scottie Pippen said in September 1997 that the Chicago Bulls had treated him "very unfairly" and, "It's gotten to the point now, I don't see myself carrying on with it."
He was traded before the following lockout-shortened season to Houston. And he received some coaching on his demand from Charles Barkley, who might have the career record for forced trades.
Unhappy that the 76ers had failed to surround him with any talent, Barkley forced a deal to the Suns in 1992.
Then in 1996 he blasted the Suns in a notorious interview on NBC during the NBA Finals, saying the team was shopping him around. He was traded that August to the Houston Rockets.
"He choreographed it. He had a plan. He wanted out, and he got his wish," then-Suns Managing Partner Jerry Colangelo would say after the deal.
Of course, it doesn't always work out.
Brett Favre reportedly demanded a trade recently because the Packers didn't get Moss, and then he backed off.
Jones' former Chicago teammate, linebacker Lance Briggs, has demanded a trade and he still is with the Bears.
And in 2005 Boston Red Sox star Manny Ramirez demanded a trade and threatened not to report to spring training.
He reported, everybody wrote it off as "Manny being Manny," and he's with the Red Sox to this day.
Somehow, we don't think Bryant's demand will be so easy to dismiss.
Bob Young
The Arizona Republic
May. 31, 2007 12:00 AM
We're trying to figure out who has had the worst week:
A. Lindsay Lohan: Photographed drunk and barfing, then charged with DUI after crashing her Benz.
B. Rosie O'Donnell: Gig at The View ends early, nobody cares; Donald Trump gleefully rips her some more.
C. Alex Rodriguez: New York Post publishes photo of Yankees star with an unidentified woman who is not his wife under gi-normous headline "Stray-Rod."
D. Lakers owner Jerry Buss: Kobe Bryant demands a trade, Jerry West says he ain't comin' back, and Buss is arrested and charged with DUI.
We're going with Buss.
The deal-clincher was the news in the DUI report that the 74-year-old Buss was in the company of a 23-year-old woman at the time of his arrest in Carlsbad, Calif.
Anybody who knows Buss' reputation knows that he has hit absolute rock bottom if he wasn't in the company of at least three women young enough to be his grandchildren.
His lawyers probably will get him out of the DUI mess, but this trade demand could be tricky, depending on where Kobe stands at any given minute.
Bryant told Stephen A. Smith on ESPN Radio in New York that he wants to be traded.
"Tough as it is to come to that conclusion, there's no other alternative, you know?" he said.
This came a day after he said he did not want to be traded. And it came several hours before he told Greg Anthony of ESPN's "All Kobe, All the Time" coverage that he would rescind the trade demand if the Lakers "insider" who told the Los Angeles Times that he forced Shaquille O'Neal out of town is fired.
So evidently he wants Phil Jackson out again. Or maybe Buss.
In a sure sign that the world is spinning helplessly out of control, O'Neal even backed Bryant - telling Smith that he believes Bryant is "100 percent" right when he says it was Buss, not Kobe, who wanted him out of Los Angeles.
You know, that's probably all the allegedly inebriated Buss wanted to vent to the 23-year-old babe about.
Anyway, there already are a whole lot of experts and pundits saying that the Lakers aren't about to trade Bryant, even before he said he'd like things to be worked out so he can retire as a Lakers player.
We say: Not so fast.
There is a rich history in sports of superstars demanding trades and making their employers so uncomfortable that it eventually happens. Just recently we have seen:
• Running back Thomas Jones traded to the New York Jets by the Bears after he demanded a trade.
• Allen Iverson traded to Denver only a couple of weeks after demanding that the Philadelphia 76ers move him.
• Randy Moss tell a radio station that, "I might want to look forward to moving somewhere else next year . . . " after which the Raiders traded him to New England.
It is a time-honored tradition.
In 2004, Vince Carter said, "It's time for me to look after me" and forced his way out of Toronto, which traded him to New Jersey.
Going back farther, Scottie Pippen said in September 1997 that the Chicago Bulls had treated him "very unfairly" and, "It's gotten to the point now, I don't see myself carrying on with it."
He was traded before the following lockout-shortened season to Houston. And he received some coaching on his demand from Charles Barkley, who might have the career record for forced trades.
Unhappy that the 76ers had failed to surround him with any talent, Barkley forced a deal to the Suns in 1992.
Then in 1996 he blasted the Suns in a notorious interview on NBC during the NBA Finals, saying the team was shopping him around. He was traded that August to the Houston Rockets.
"He choreographed it. He had a plan. He wanted out, and he got his wish," then-Suns Managing Partner Jerry Colangelo would say after the deal.
Of course, it doesn't always work out.
Brett Favre reportedly demanded a trade recently because the Packers didn't get Moss, and then he backed off.
Jones' former Chicago teammate, linebacker Lance Briggs, has demanded a trade and he still is with the Bears.
And in 2005 Boston Red Sox star Manny Ramirez demanded a trade and threatened not to report to spring training.
He reported, everybody wrote it off as "Manny being Manny," and he's with the Red Sox to this day.
Somehow, we don't think Bryant's demand will be so easy to dismiss.
