Two weeks ago, Buss released a statement in which he said the team would build around Bryant.

"We will continue to pursue every avenue possible to improve our team with him as the cornerstone," the statement said.

A perennial All-Star, two-time scoring champion and generally regarded as the most talented player in the league, Bryant is frustrated with his team's back-to-back first-round playoff losses to the Phoenix Suns.

The two defeats - and a season where the Lakers did not qualify for the playoffs - all have come in the three campaigns since superstar center Shaquille O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat, who won their first championship with O'Neal in 2006.

Inevitably, the O'Neal-Bryant feud was revisited. Despite winning three consecutive championships as teammates, the superstar duo's relationship was strained and the pair did not talk to each other for an extended period until recently patching up their differences.

Bryant also was "beyond frustrated" after reading a report that stated a "team source" intimated in the Los Angeles Times that he was the reason O'Neal was traded following the 2003-04 season.

The superstar guard, who signed a seven-year, $136 million contract one day after O'Neal left, later told the Philadelphia Inquirer that it could not be further from the truth.

Bryant, who will turn 29 years old in August, has four years remaining on his contract that he could void after two years.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=stlakersbryant&prov=st&type=lgns

I wonder if he ganna stick to it that he wanna be traded or back out again?