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'I would like to be traded,' says Kobe Bryant
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 | 2:25 PM ET
CBC Sports
Kobe Bryant made a blunt declaration of his dissatisfaction with the Los Angeles Lakers Wednesday, confirming he would prefer to be traded from the team he has spent all 11 of his NBA seasons with.

"I would like to be traded, yeah," Bryant told ESPN Radio. "Tough as it is to come to that conclusion, there's no other alternative, you know?"

Kobe Bryant, seen in a January game, has voiced his displeasure with the Lakers often since the team was eliminated from the playoffs.
(Jeff Lewis/Associated Press) Bryant added there was nothing the organization could do to dissuade him. The guard, who turns 29 in August, has four years at over $88 million US left on his contract with the team.

It was the latest salvo in a growing dispute between the club and organization. Bryant expressed displeasure over the team's direction after they were eliminated in five games against Phoenix, and in recent days said he hoped longtime GM Jerry West could return to the front office.

West is stepping down on July 1 after five years with the Memphis Grizzlies. Mitch Kupchak is currently the Laker GM.

Bryant then became enraged when a report in the Los Angeles Times earlier this week suggested the Lakers' predicament was largely the player's doing after he insisted over three years ago that he couldn't co-exist on the team with centre Shaquille O'Neal.

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Bryant shot back, saying Tuesday that it was Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss who had decided O'Neal wasn't coming back after the 2003-04 season, something O'Neal said later in the day he also believed.

Bryant finished third in MVP voting this season, averaging 31.5 points per game and earning a seventh straight selection to the NBA's all-defensive team.

He joined Wilt Chamberlain as the only men to score at least 50 points in four consecutive games.

The Lakers acquired the 18-year-old Bryant in a trade with the Charlotte Hornets in 1996. He has led the league in scoring on two occasions and played on three championship teams, though none since O'Neal left.

In a January 2006 game, he burned the Toronto Raptors for 81 points, second only to Chamberlain on the all-time list.

He is on pace to become the youngest player ever to reach 20,000 points, but has faced criticism for not sharing the ball with his struggling Laker teammates the past three seasons.

Off the court, Bryant faced sexual assault charges in connection with an incident in 2003 involving a 19-year-old woman in Vail, Colo., but the charges were dismissed over a year later.

Bryant's trade request came a day after the 74-year-old Buss was arrested early in Carlsbad, Calif., and charged with driving under the influence.

As well, the team revealed Tuesday that Kwame Brown's recuperation from ankle surgery may take longer than was earlier anticipated.