There are times when Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss posting about how much she misses Kobe Bryant won’t raise many eyebrows. 11:11 p.m. PT on a Sunday night in the midst of a low-season, high-stakes Lakers is not one of them.
Buss posted one such message late Sunday night, lamenting the loss of Bryant and praising his “team over himself” mentality:
Why would Buss miss Bryant’s advice and selflessness at that exact moment? Well, it could be because that’s the kind of season (and year, really) that the Lakers have.
The Lakers are still in a bad position
The Lakers are currently in a very important offseason after last season’s disaster, which saw them finish 11th in the Western Conference, while plagued by injuries and problems with point guard Russell Westbrook.
It was widely expected, or at least hoped by some, that the team would overhaul its supporting cast around LeBron James, namely by trading Westbrook and his $47 million salary. That hasn’t happened yet.
Instead, the team has mostly signed younger players to deals ranging from cheap to the bare minimum: Lonnie Walker IV, Damian Jones, Troy Brown Jr., Juan Toscano-Anderson. Three of those four players are clients of Klutch Sports Group, an agency whose alleged involvement (or lack thereof) in Lakers decision-making through top client LeBron James has caused some grumbling in the past†
Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reported Saturday the Lakers are currently trying to trade Westbrook for the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for James’s old friend Kyrie Irving, and the two teams are currently negotiating which 3-point specialist to involve. That Westbrook is even movable at this point is somewhat surprising, and mostly thanks to the reported toxicity in the Brooklyn Nets organization.
The Lakers bought Westbrook after James last season reportedly announced he wanted Westbrook over Buddy Hieldonly for James’ agents to reportedly want the team months later to trade Westbrook for John Wall, another of their clients†
Oh, and James is a free agent after next season.
If all that sounds like Buss has a lot going on right now, you’re probably not far off. Her tweet could be a veiled shot at some people behind the scenes, or she could just really miss Bryant’s help and want the world to know less than an hour to midnight on the West Coast.