Lakers Owner: I Will Trade Kobe… Obviously… Possibly… Probably

Jerry Buss: “At any time, I think you have to do that with anybody. It's just part of the game, to listen to somebody who has a dissatisfied player that you think is going to fit. You can't keep too many loyalties. You've got to look at it as a business. He looks at it the same way I look at it.”

“I tend not to think in basketball terms that many years down the road because things change so dramatically, but he could test the waters at that point. If he still is in that frame of mind, then hopefully we can do a sign-and-trade and get some comparable talent. I would like to think that we win between now and then so it doesn't come up.”

“He listened very carefully for 30, 45 minutes. I tried to explain to him how much the city of Los Angeles loved him, and that to leave 10 million sweethearts for unknown territory might not be the right thing to do. But when I was finished, he said he basically felt the same way. And I said, `OK. With that, I will proceed to see what's available.”

“You have to get comparable value when you make a trade. It's very hard to trade somebody like him because people who have enough material to make it worthwhile are usually contenders and they don't want to make the trade.”

“I told him that I would try my best to accommodate his wishes, but that I could not afford to let him go unless we got comparable talent -- if there was such a thing.”