Kobe Bryant is not in a position to win an NBA championship with the team he's associated with in 2013-14.
Does that mean that the lifelong Los Angeles Laker will leave after next season to pursue that elusive sixth ring?
According to BleacherReport.com, Bryant talked to reporter Ric Bucher of The Hollywood Reporter and said that Jim and Jeanie Buss have been left to define the next Laker era, now that their father, Jerry Buss, has died.
"The shoes they're stepping into are so huge and epic," Bryant reportedly told Bucher. "It's on the next generation in line to figure out what their leadership style is going to be and to do it their own way."
So far that next generation already has swung and missed once when free agent Dwight Howard, who spent a tumultuous 2013 season with the Lakers, opted to sign with the Houston Rockets over the summer.
Even Miami Heat President and former Los Angeles Lakers coach Pat Riley seems skeptical about the Lakers' future.
"Things have changed," he told Bucher. "It's nowhere near the innocent, wonderful years of the '80s, when we all got on the train and Dr. Buss was the conductor."
Even Jeanie Buss has admitted that her father likely could've talked Howard into staying as a Laker. Now, the Buss children have to figure out how they're going to rebuild the Lakers to make another championship run.
They may be starting over after 2013-14, when most of their contracts expire - including Bryant's. He spoke glowingly of the late Dr. Buss but also took a veiled dig at Buss' children.
BleacherReport.com posted a story on Bryant waxing nostalgic about his association with Jerry Buss.
Bryant says he considered leaving the Lakers twice-as a free agent in 2004 and again via trade in 2007-and both times Dr. Buss talked him out of it. "You can tell by how someone runs their business if they're full of s*** or not," says Bryant. "He could tell you exactly what he had in mind and how he planned to get it done. And he had a track record."
Whether Bryant's compliments about Jerry Buss were taken as a veiled insult of his children remains to be seen. So will his future with the Lakers.
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