LA Lakers: Will Front-Office Turmoil Drive Kobe Bryant Away?

Have the Los Angeles Lakers really fallen this far?

Few fans of the Lakers' franchise really felt good when Jim Buss inherited the title of team president from his father Dr. Jerry Buss, but if Ken Berger's recent column at CBSsports.com is true, then they are about to feel a lot worse.

Berger's blistering critique of the state of affairs in the Lakers' front office is revealing, informative, and for anyone who cares at all about the franchise, it has to be troubling as well.

Unless, of course, you don't mind that one of the team's scouting positions is currently occupied by a former bartender named Chaz, whose knowledge of basketball may not be any greater than your own.

But, Berger said Chaz is a nice guy.

Chaz, or Charles Osborne as he is listed in the team's media guide, may not be enough to stoke the fire of many Lakers fans, since his hiring was obviously linked to his long friendship with the younger Buss.

But the manner in which almost an entire championship staff was treated in the transition from Phil Jackson to Mike Brown should.

I will not recount the entire sequence of events for those of you who have not read Berger's column, but to summarize, none of the people who really mattered in the Lakers' three consecutive NBA Finals trips are currently with the team—outside of trainer Gary Vitti.

This probably wouldn't matter much if Buss had replaced the people who left with competent basketball heads, but it would be an understatement to say that he didn't.

Since NBA commissioner David Stern has become the league's morality police, how in the hell can he explain not stepping in to save the game's most popular and profitable franchise from pure, unadulterated stupidity?

Apparently, Buss' intentions from the start were to put as much distance between the Lakers (his team) and Jackson as possible, and he definitely did that.

A team with the reputation of having one of the best front offices in all of basketball was reduced to an organization of misfits with no true direction.

Under this pretense, I feel bad for general manager Mitch Kupchak, since he is the only prominent member of the Lakers' front office left who knows anything about building a championship team.

And unfortunately, if the elder Buss doesn't step in and right the flailing ship, I feel that Kupchak may be the next person to man the lifeboats and flee while he still can.

And he may not be alone.

Most people assume that Kobe will end his career with the same team he started it with, but if his profanity-laced tirade against Lakers management is any indication, the next stage of his career might resemble Michael Jordan's.

Bryant has been criticized for modeling his game after Jordan's, but the similarity between the growing rift with Lakers management and Jordan's departure from the Bulls is downright scary.

It was no secret that Jordan had little to no respect for the Bulls' front office by the time he left after the 1998 season, and if the Lakers continue on their current course, Kobe's fate could mirror Jordan's.

It may seem preposterous to think that the one player who has embodied the Lakers' franchise for 15 years could turn his back on the team at this stage of his career, but at this point, what is Kobe really playing for?

Any real hopes of a Lakers championship for this season may have been dashed with Berger's report, and the fact that the team is still holding onto an $8.9 million trade exception from the horrible Lamar Odom deal should tell you all you need to know.

The Lakers have been in dire need of a point guard who can score, defend and create offensive opportunities for some time, but for some reason, the franchise has been reluctant to draw any benefits from the Odom deal.

And speaking of Odom, it's a lot easier to understand why the Lakers virtually gave away their most versatile player for nothing when you factor in that Kupchak may not have had any say in the decision at all.

Kupchak's reasoning behind his decision to trade Odom always seemed strange to me, since a player's emotions should never dictate a business decision.

Kupchak has been around Odom long enough to know he wears his heart on his sleeve, and with that knowledge in mind, it should have been easy for him to surmise that Odom's anger at being potentially traded would soon subside.

But the quick-trigger move to deal Odom should have been a sign that things in Lakerland were changing, and there is a possibility that things could change even more. 

The players only meeting after a win against Portland to discuss all the turmoil surrounding the team may be a last-ditch effort to save not only a season, but the franchise.

Kobe, Derek Fisher and Pau Gasol have drawn a clear line in the sand when it comes to how the Lakers' franchise is being handled and how they should proceed from here.

The thing that worries me is what happens when the dysfunctional group masquerading as the team's front office crosses that line.