Jim Buss: I Talk to Kobe ‘All the time now’
Earlier in the season after Kobe Bryant had publicly called out Los Angeles Lakers management for leaving teammate Pau Gasol dangling in the trade winds for too long, Magic Johnson weighed in on the situation from afar.
Johnson, an NBA analyst for ESPN/ABC, suggested that Bryant should sit down with Lakers executive vice president of player personnel Jim Buss to smooth the rift over because, Johnson said, “Jim Buss is running the team.”
Buss, the son of Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss, addressed his relationship with Bryant in a wide-ranging sit-down interview with ESPNLosAngeles.com this week.
“Yes, we had dinner,” Buss said when asked if he heeded Johnson’s advice to connect with Bryant. “We talk all the time now. What it is is, be it my fault, I should communicate more with the players in a certain way. I’ve always felt that when it comes to (player movement) decisions that it changes every 10 minutes when it’s actually going to happen. To inform a player or ask a player’s opinion about this guy or that guy, it would bore them to death and drive them crazy. So, I was under the impression that it was better to wait until the very last moment and then talk to him.”
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