Kobe Bryant was upset when the Lakers hired Mike Brown without consulting him, and he tells the NY Post that he found about the move like everyone else: by reading about it on the web. And it doesn’t sound like the relationship between Bryant and the front-office is all that warm and fuzzy: “We almost have to be perfect this season,’ Kobe Bryant said. ‘There’s little margin for error.’ […] It sure looks like management is more interested in decreasing luxury tax debt — saving $17.8 million this season in Odom’s case — than winning it all this season, Kobe lamented. ‘Hopefully, management knows what it’s doing and will provide us with our missing pieces,’ Bryant said. ‘Hey, I’m just a player. I have no input concerning anything that happens here. In fact, I learned we’d hired our coach from reading it online. I can’t remember the last time I had a conversation with Jimmy [Buss, managing owner]. Occasionally, I’ll cross paths with Mitch [Kupchak, general manager] and we’ll speak for a couple minutes about nothing really. I’ve never known what’s going on. That’s why I went public [in May 2007] and demanded a trade. When it became obvious to me that management wasn’t trying to compete for a championship, I felt my only recourse was to embarrass [owner Jerry Buss] into doing it.’ Hence the hijacking of Gasol from Memphis. So, how do you think your team is going to do, I asked Kobe, who has insistently denied rumors he’ll demand to be traded. Expectations can’t be too high. ‘No, we’re going to be perfect,’ he said. ‘I have a good feeling about how things are going to turn out.'”