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LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, who is increasingly upset over the direction the National Basketball Association team has taken, said Wednesday he wants the club to trade him.

"I would like to be traded, yeah. Tough as it is to come to that conclusion there's no other alternative," the 28-year-old Bryant told ESPN radio.

Bryant said more than once to ESPN that he is fed up with empty promises from Lakers' management and now it is time to move on.

"They want to move in a different direction and the team is rebuilding," Bryant said. "I wish they would have told me that before re-signing me."

Bryant, who joined the Lakers in 1996, has four years left on his contract which also includes a no trade clause which he would have to waive.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss said Wednesday that he had not talked to Bryant lately and that they plan to keep Bryant a Laker.

"Kobe has not told us directly that he wants to be traded," Buss said.
"We have made it very clear that we are building our team around Kobe and that we intend for him to be a Laker his entire career.

"We will speak directly to Kobe."

Bryant backed off his trade request a little later in the day Wednesday after a round of newspaper, radio and television interviews.

"I'm so tired of talking," Bryant said. "It's tough. I always dreamed about retiring as a Laker. I just hope and hope that something can be resolved.

"Something can be figured out. Just something so I can stay here and be in this city and be with the team I love."

Bryant may have changed his tune after talking to Lakers coach Phil Jackson.

"When Phil and I spoke, he was optimistic and determined that we'll both be back," Bryant said.

"Phil is somebody I listen to. I lean on him a lot. He assured me things are going to be OK. Things are going to be all right.

"Don't go full bore just yet. Take a deep breath and let us work these things out and everything will be all right - which was very encouraging. I don't want to go anywhere else.

"I want to be here for the rest of my career. It was encouraging to hear that."

A perennial all-star, two-time scoring champion, Bryant is arguably the most talented player in the league.

The superstar guard signed a seven-year, 136 million dollar contract one day after O'Neal left.

But Bryant did not stop there.

"And I haven't said anything for years because I've always felt like folks were just looking to create controversy. Now I know. I realize what extent (the Lakers) will go to, to cover themselves."

To no one's surprise, Bryant did test the free agent market during the same summer which Shaquille O'Neal was traded, but he has not admitted it specifically until now.

According to the all-star guard, he was closer to be in a different uniform then than anyone thought.

"I told Dr. Buss - obviously, I was about to become a free agent - that I was interested in attacking the market," Bryant said. "Chicago and the Los Angeles Clippers had better rosters.

"I was gone until Dr. Buss called me from vacation in Italy promising me he was not going to wait five years to rebuild, that he was going to rebuild right now. I trusted him."

Bryant has become increasingly frustrated by the Lakers' poor performance in the regular season and playoffs. The Phoenix Suns eliminated the Lakers in five games in this year's post-season.

The Lakers have not won a playoff series in three years - ever since they traded their giant centre O'Neal.

O'Neal and Bryant were an explosive tandem on the court, winning three NBA championships together. But they feuded off it and some speculated their differences led to O'Neal's July 2004 trade to the Miami Heat.

Bryant is also upset with a Laker source who was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying Bryant was responsible for trading O'Neal.

"You (management) know the blame you cast upon me. Step up and do the right thing," Bryant told ESPN.

He dismissed his feud with O'Neal and pointed out that he has been shortchanged.

"Sure, Shaq and I had our issues," Bryant said to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"So what? We always did and we won three titles. That doesn't change what was told to me.

"It doesn't change the fact I never, ever, said to get rid of him. And it sure doesn't change the fact that all these years later, promises made to make this team better have not been kept. So where does that leave me?"

Asked by ESPN what team he would prefer to go to Bryant said, "At this point I would go play on Pluto. I just want to work hard and go play."

O'Neal weighed in on the situation and said he supported Bryant.

"I believe Kobe 100 percent," O'Neal said. "Absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind Kobe is telling the truth. I believe him a thousand percent."

This is the second blow to the Lakers in as many days after Buss was arrested early Tuesday for alleged drink driving.

San Diego police said the 74-year-old Buss failed a blood-alcohol test when he was stopped while driving his Mercedes.

A 23-year-old woman in the car with Buss was not arrested. Buss was released on bail only to have to deal with the Bryant trade fiasco.