May 30, 2007 @ 8:21 am

Kobe Talks Shaq, Smack on LA Radio

Bryant tells talk show host, "I've got some serious trust issues."

Threatening to terminate his contract in 2009, Kobe Bryant has been on a tear in the Los Angeles press - and on his own website - talking about Lakers owner Jerry Buss and what life is like without Shaq. First, the megastar told the LA Times exactly what he thought of their assessment that a Lakers without Shaq is a Lakers afloat. "... trying to put this Shaq stuff on me is [wrong]," he said. "Jerry Buss told me he didn't want to pay Shaq $30 million a year. I, not once - not once - went to them and said, 'Trade Shaq or else.'" Kobe later went on LA's 570 AM and said the Shaqtroversy gave him a serious case of insecurity regarding his team's front office. "Now I got some serious trust issues," he told radio hosts Petros Papadakis and Matt Smith. Later in the interview, he groused on the team's strategy. "If we're not making any strides here to improve this team right now, to be aggressive in that nature, then what's the point of having me here?" Yesterday (May 29), Bryant aired it all out on his website, kb24.com. With a measurable degree of angst, he wrote, "The fact of the matter is that many people don't know what really went down when I was approaching free agency because I have stayed quiet about it this whole time... The real facts are that Dr. Buss requested a meeting with me during the '04 season long before I opted out of my contract, and he told me he had already decided to not extend Shaq, as he was concerned about Shaq's age, fitness and contract demands. Dr. Buss made it clear that his decision was final, his mind was made up and no matter what I decided to do with free agency he was still going to move Shaq." Despite Bryant's contract-termination threats - which, by the way, would see him walking away from over $47 million if he left in '09- he clarified that he wasn't trying to opt-out early. "I have NOT asked to be traded, I don't want to be traded and I have given no ultimatums or demands of being traded," he wrote. "I've been a Laker fan my whole life. A REAL Laker fan! I'm talkin Silk Wilks days, and know the history of the Lakers going back to George Mikan era. I WANT to retire a Laker and contend for titles." To hear Kobe's full interview with AM 570, click here.

Article tags: Kobe, Talks, Shaq, Smack, Radio 

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