There were times when the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, Jeanie Buss, posted a message about how much she missed Kobe Bryant, causing many people to raise their eyebrows. 11:11 p.m. PT on a Sunday night amid the high-stakes Lakers season isn’t one of them.
Buss posted one such message on Sunday night, lamenting Bryant’s loss and extolling his “team over self” ideology:
Why did Buss lack Bryant’s advice and altruism at the right time? Well, maybe it’s because that’s the season (and indeed the year) that the Lakers are having.
The Lakers are still in a bad position
The Lakers are currently experiencing a hugely important season after last season’s disaster left them 11th in the Western Conference while plagued by injury and fitness problems with point guard Russell Westbrook.
It was widely expected, or at least hoped by some, that the team would overhaul the supporting cast around LeBron James, namely by trading Westbrook and his $47 million salary that. That hasn’t happened yet.
Instead, the team mainly signed younger players with cheap to minimal contracts: Lonnie Walker IV, Damian Jones, Troy Brown Jr., Juan Toscano-Anderson. Three of those four players are clients of Klutch Sports Group, an agency allegedly involved (or lacking) in Lakers decision-making through top client LeBron James. has inspired some grumbling in the past.
Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes reported on Saturday The Lakers are currently trying to trade Westbrook for the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Kyrie Irving, an old friend of James, with the two teams now debating which 3-point specialist to pick. The fact that Westbrook is even able to move at this point is a mild surprise, and is largely due to toxicity reported in the Brooklyn Nets organization.
Lakers acquired Westbrook last season after James it is reported that he prefers Westbrook over Buddy Hieldonly for James’ agents supposedly wanted the Westbrook trading team to take John Wall, another of their clients, a few months later.
Oh, and James is a free agent after next season.
If all of that sounds like Buss is facing a lot right now, you’re probably not far off. Her tweet could be a cover-up of some of the people behind the scenes, or she could really miss Bryant’s help and want the world to know less than an hour before midnight in West Bank.